An Assault on Black Women in America (Part III)

America has a storied and convoluted history with Black women, from the beginning of our abduction to these foreign shores, and it continues to this day.

- Lorraine Lavender-Sams

Dream To Success

Black women have made some significant strides, but not nearly enough to void the generations of substantial loss and trauma.

Health-Care: In the past six months, Black mothers in every state across the country have faced the sheer terror of being in a situation where they're unable to put food on the table or provide basic health care coverage for their children should they get sick. In underserved communities in every corner of America, Black mothers are working all day, every day, and in many cases have to decide between feeding their children and making sure they have medical care. The health care and mortality rates for Black women are dismal and only show signs of increasing with the policies and cuts in programs and services at the federal level.

Nationally, nearly one in eight Black women (12.0%), ages 19-64, lacked health insurance coverage between 2017 and 2021. Based on the most recent data (which is sporadic), it's estimated that tens of thousands of Black women have lost health coverage in the first half of 2025. While no official reports track this figure in real-time over six months, a recent analysis by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) notes an increase in the uninsured rate for Black women from 2023-2024, likely reflecting the effects of Medicaid disenrollment.

Generations of the destruction of Black families, generations of scrambling to achieve the promise of what America was to be for its citizens, have left Black women with a bad taste in our mouths and embracing the knowledge that if we donot support ourselves and one another, Black women will be right back where we were in the beginning.

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