Drawing on more than 200 interviews, this book by Yanick St. Jean and veteran researcher Joe R. Feagin examines the complex family, social, and workplace lives of African American women in several regions of the United States. Revealed here are not only stories of encounters with obstacles, racist attitudes, and prejudicial actions and opinions, but also methods that many have adopted for overcoming barriers, through the development of an array of survival and countering strategies, which the authors refer to collectively as an oppositional culture, rooted in the family structure and sustained and transmitted via collective memory through the centuries. Some will find the book depressing, others will find it uplifting, but all will welcome the candor and passion with which these women (and some men) describe their lives.