Black Feminist Sociology offers new writings by established and emerging scholars working in a Black feminist tradition. The book centers Black feminist sociology (BFS) within the sociology canon and widens is to feature Black feminist sociologists both outside the US and the academy. Inspired by a BFS lens, the essays are critical, personal, political and oriented toward social justice. Key themes include the origins of BFS, expositions of BFS orientations to research that extend disciplinary norms, and contradictions of the pleasures and costs of such an approach both academically and personally. Authors explore their own sociological legacy of intellectual development to raise critical questions of intellectual thought and self-reflexivity. The book highlights the dynamism of BFS so future generations of scholars can expand upon and beyond the book’s key themes.

Black women were always part of America's westward expansion. Some escaped slavery to live with the Native Americans, while others traveled west after the Civil War to settle the new lands. They came as servants and as independent pioneers struggling to make a life in the wilderness. Brief text and extraordinary photos record many of the black women who went West to find a new life for themselves and their families.