ACTIVISM, MOTHERING, AND GRIEF IMPACTED BY THE CRIMINAL justice SYSTEM KNOWN AS EDUCATION

How do my lived realities as a Black, heterosexual, motherless woman equate to scholarship? Why would the world of academia be interested in my wellness? What I have experienced in pursuit of this doctoral degree is that, oftentimes, racism masks itself in the form of classism, and people in academic spaces expect Black women to fit into a mold. Oh, how do we reestablish the terms of safety in womanhood, motherhood, and sisterhood? How do we recreate those boundaries that allow us to coexist? This creation, this manuscript, is a blueprint to do just that:
embracing lived realities, hearing the voices of folks who never had the space to tell their stories, and honoring their truth. Using the principles of research as ceremony and endarkened storywork, this study centers on three Black mothers who struggled to navigate the criminal justice system known as education as they advocated for their Black children. Often silenced, these mothers, their children, and their families were criminalized for challenging a system that was designed to fail their children. It is a convergence of activism, mothering, and grief with
intertwined themes of trauma, hope, fear and mistrust, isolation, spirituality, protection, and love.