By Grace

About the Editor
About the Contributors
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: African American Marriages at the Intersection: Challenges, Strengths, and Resilience
Tricia B. Bent-Goodley

Chapter 2: African American Marriage and Economics
Tricia B. Bent-Goodley and Berenecea Johnson-Eanes

Chapter 3: Social Policy and Black Marriage
Cassandra Chaney

Chapter 4: Race, Marital Status, and Mental Illness
King E. Davis and Hyejin Jung

Chapter 5: How Health Affects African American Marriages
Michele A. Rountree and Rebecca Larsen

Chapter 6: African American Marriage and Caregiving through the Life Span
Iris Carlton-LaNey and Blenda Crayton

Chapter 7: African American Women and Marriage
Colita Nichols Fairfax and Tricia B. Bent-Goodley

Chapter 8: Black Masculinity, Manhood, and Marriage
Waldo E. Johnson, Jr.

Chapter 9: Diversity of Marriage in the Black Community
Noelle M. St. Vil, Christopher St. Vil, and Waldo E. Johnson, Jr.

Chapter 10: African American Marriage Interventions: Strengthening the Social Work Response
Tricia B. Bent-Goodley

Tricia B. Bent-Goodley, PhD, MSW, is professor of social work and director of doctoral education for the Howard University School of Social Work. Her research and practice experience have centered on creating solutions to issues of violence against women, engaging men and boys, and HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention. She is a champion of issues affecting black families and communities locally, nationally, and internationally. Dr. Bent-Goodley received funding to establish and serves as director of the university’s office to address dating/domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. She is editor-in-chief of Social Work (2014 to 2018); chair of the National Committee on Women’s Issues for NASW; chair of the Howard University Women As Change Agents, an entity dedicated to the development of women at Howard University; board member of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community; cochair of the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) Academy for African Centered Social Work; and an elected board member representing Graduate Faculty for the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Her service extends to the community as she cochairs a middle school girl’s leadership program, serves on her county domestic violence fatality review team, and is a member of the International Program Committee for the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She is the recipient of CSWE’s Award for Distinguished Recent Contributions and NABSW’s Award for Excellence in Social Work Education. Dr. Bent-Goodley received her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD from Columbia University. She is proudest of being a wife and mother.

Iris Carlton-LaNey, PhD, MSW, is a professor in the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her bachelor’s degree in social work from North Carolina A&T State University, MA in social work from the University of Chicago, and PhD from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. Her research interests include aging women in rural communities and social welfare history. She has published in several social work journals and has four books to her credit, including Preserving and Strengthening Small Towns and Rural Communities (with R. Edwards & N. Reid) and African Americans Aging in the Rural South: Stories of Faith, Family and Community. Carlton-LaNey has received recognition for her scholarship and teaching, including the 2003 CSWE’s Distinguished Recent Contributions in Social Work Education Award, the CSWE 2011 Feminist Scholarship Honoree award, and the Sisters of the Academy Legacy Award. Carlton-LaNey is committed to the ethical mentoring of young women scholars in social work and to scholarship and teaching that reflect the critical responsibility we have to take action for equity and justice.

Cassandra Chaney, PhD, is an associate professor in Child and Family Studies at Louisiana State University. She is broadly interested in the dynamics of black family life, yet under this umbrella, her interests are focused on two main areas. Her primary research focuses on the narratives of African Americans in dating, cohabiting, and married relationships, with a particular interest in relationship formation, maintenance, and stability. Her secondary research explores the ways that religiosity and spirituality support African Americans. In addition to publishing several sole, first-authored, and collaborative manuscripts in various national and international journals, she has also presented her research during local, state, and national conferences. In addition to using quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the aforementioned areas, Dr. Chaney is also interested in the representation of black couples and families in popular forms of mass media (that is, television shows, music videos, songs). Given the unique challenges of black families, her research provides recommendations regarding how policy can better meet the needs of black families who experience heightened rates of incarceration, unemployment, weakened family structures, and racism. Most important, her scholarship is rooted in a strengths-based perspective and is devoted to emphasizing the various ways that black families remain resilient in in Leadership: Their Historical and Contemporary Contributions (with Dr. Dannielle Joy Davis), which explores the leadership experiences of black women within macro level (such as education, industry, and social services) and micro level (such as family and individual churches) contexts. The interdisciplinary work examines leadership practices, highlighting the historical and current triumphs and barriers of black women in these roles.

Blenda R. Crayton, PhD, MSW, is an assistant professor and chair of the Department of Social Work at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). She received her doctoral degree from Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work in New York; her MSW degree from Howard University in Washington, DC; and her BA degree from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Crayton worked primarily in administration in several social services settings. She was the director of social services for the Township of Teaneck, New Jersey, before joining the faculty in the Department of Social Work at NCCU. She also served as the outpatient director of a community mental health center in Englewood, New Jersey, and as the inpatient and emergency room psychiatric social worker at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey. In addition, Dr. Crayton was a quality assurance social work consultant for a large nursing home chain, where her work focused on program monitoring of the social services departments of numerous nursing facilities in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, DC. It was her work as a consultant that she has carried to academia, specifi cally in her teaching. At NCCU, Blenda teaches research, statistics, program evaluation, and human diversity in the undergraduate program.

Blenda has engaged her students in meaningful community service projects. Over the past four years, she has worked with the Durham Housing Authority’s Residential Communities the resource specialist of Durham County’s Project Homeless Connect; the Salvation Army; and a new area mental health provider, Accomplishes More, Inc. Blenda believes that the students tend to retain and understand the course content much better when they are involved in meaningful community projects that complement their learning.

King E. Davis, PhD, MSW, is director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis. He served as executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Services, Research, Policy and Education from 2003 to 2009. Since 2000, he has held the Robert Lee Sutherland Chair in Mental Health and Social Policy at the University of Texas at Austin, School of Social Work. He was a professor of Public Mental Health Policy and Planning at the Virginia Commonwealth University from 1984 to 2000. As the Galt Scholar, he held full professorships at each of Virginia’s three medical schools from 1985 to 1988. Professor Davis was awarded the PhD from the Florence G. Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in 1971. Dr. Davis is a former commissioner of the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, serving from 1990 to 1994. At the University of Texas, he teaches courses in mental health policy, planning, and theory. He is conducting a study of the policies that led to the development of the Central Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane, the first mental institution for Africans in the United States. He is coauthor of The Color of Social Policy, published in March 2004 by CSWE Press. His most recent articles were published in American Psychologist, Journal of Social Policy, and International Journal of Social Policy.

Colita Nichols Fairfax, PhD, MSW, is an associate professor and honors college liaison in the Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work, Norfolk State University. Her research interests include African-centered community theories; practice models; and policy analysis in areas of marriage, development and mobilization strategies, and HIV/AIDS strategies. She develops African American social histories and teaches the intersection of social history and policy. As one of the original codirectors of the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center, she was responsible for surveying American university marriage/family syllabi, surveying African American churches and community-based agencies that sponsor marriage initiatives, and locating military marriage initiatives. Fairfax is also cochair of the National Association of Black Social Workers, African-centered Certification Academy.

Waldo E. Johnson Jr., PhD, MSW, is associate professor at the School of Social Service Administration (SSA); faculty affiliate at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture; and research affiliate of the Urban Network at the University of Chicago. He is also research affiliate at the Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan. At SSA, Johnson teaches social welfare policy, human behavior in the social environment in the MA program, and research methods in the MA and PhD programs.

He is principal investigator for the Chicago Parenting Initiative Evaluation Study, a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design evaluation of enhanced maternal and child health intervention aimed at young fathers, led by Access Community Health Network. He is a consulting methodology researcher with Mathematica Policy Research’s Parents and Children Together, a five-year mixed-methods longitudinal implementation and impact studies of fatherhood programs funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Family Assistance. He chairs the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Research and Community Engagement Working Groups for both the University of Chicago Urban Health Initiative’s South Side Health and Vitality Studies and the Center for Study of Race, Politics and Culture. Johnson’s other research affiliations include membership in the Scholars Network on Masculinity and the Wellbeing of African American Males; the American Psychological Association’s Public Interest Directorate Working Group on Health Disparities in Men and Boys; the Administration of Children and Families’ Welfare and Family Self-Sufficiency Technical Working Group led by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation; and the Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare. He cochairs the Illinois Juvenile Justice Research and Information Consortium and is a member of the Illinois Juvenile Justice Leadership Council.

Johnson is a board member for the Center for Family Policy and Practice, the Illinois African American Family Commission, and the Advisory Board of the Center for Research in Social Work Practice, and is associate editor of the Journal for Society of Social Work and Research. He edited the volume Social Work with African American Males: Health, Mental Health and Social Policy.

Berenecea Johnson-Eanes, PhD, is vice president for student affairs at California State University Fullerton. She oversees a comprehensive student affairs program that is focused on student success. Prior to coming to Fullerton, she served as the vice president for student affairs at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. She has university teaching experience at several institutions, including Clark Atlanta University, Georgia State University, and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where she held an appointment as associate professor and department chair of the Counseling Department. Previously, Dr. Johnson-Eanes served as an associate dean of students for diversity and accessibility at Hamilton College and held leadership positions at Morehouse College and Columbia University. In addition to her service as a higher education administrator, Dr. Johnson-Eanes is a dedicated social work scholar with a research agenda dedicated to African American families and young adults. Dr. Johnson-Eanes holds a PhD in social work from Clark Atlanta University, an MSW from Boston University, and a BS in public health from Dillard University.

Hyejin (Jina) Jung is a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work and a graduate research assistant at the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis. Her clinical experience and research are in the area of mental health. She is particularly interested in mental health disparities in service use among racial or ethnic minority groups, social determinants of mental health service use, and mental health literacy.

Rebecca Larsen is a master of science in social work and a master of public affairs candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso. Her research experience is in the areas of HIV/AIDS, children’s mental health care, human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual assault, particularly related to racial and economic disparities. Her work experience includes crisis intervention and counseling for sexual assault and domestic violence survivors, consulting for nonprofit organizations, food security initiatives, and disaster relief.

Michele A. Rountree, PhD, MSW, is associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, School of Social Work. She has created an interconnected body of research, teaching, leadership, and service that focuses on health inequities. Specifically, her research agenda encompasses the following important public health concerns: intimate partner violence, HIV/AIDS, and co-occurring substance abuse and mental health prevention and interventions. Dr. Rountree has conducted research at the intersection of these issues and research focusing on these areas separately. Her professional, academic, and scholarly agenda reflects her commitment to examining co-occurring outcomes for communities of color. She also is interested in behavioral health prevention and structural and policy-level interventions. Her research is contextually and culturally centered.

Christopher St. Vil, PhD, MSW, currently serves as a research associate and adjunct professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Maryland at College Park and the project coordinator for the Men of Faith Preventing Violence against Women Project, which is housed at the Howard University School of Social Work. Dr. St. Vil received his PhD from the Howard University School of Social Work and his master’s degree in social work from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Dr. St. Vil previously served as an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia and Morgan State University, where he taught courses in both social work and criminology. He serves as a clinical counselor for a runaway and homeless youth shelter in Virginia, substitute teaches for DC Public Schools, and is a coinvestigator on a research study at the Prince George’s Hospital Center Trauma Unit examining violence and trauma among young black men. Dr. St. Vil’s research interests include masculinities, neighborhood effects, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, violence and trauma, and risk-taking attitudes.

Noelle M. St. Vil, PhD, MSW, is a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She holds a DSW and a graduate certificate in women’s studies from Howard University. She has worked on numerous programs pertaining to healthy relationships. Her research interests include teenage dating and intimate partner violence among African Americans, with a specific interest on violence perpetration.

Bravo to Dr. Bent-Goodley and her contributors for providing social work educators, practitioners, and researchers with an honest, culturally and historically centered examination of African American marriages in all of their complexities and diversity of relationship forms. The contributors expertly capture the current realities, evolving roles, strengths, and challenges across the developmental trajectories of both the marital relationship and the marital partners.

By Grace is a must-read not only for African Americans who are married or aspire to be married, but also for social workers interested in gaining meaningful insight into the dynamics of African American marriages and strengths-based approaches to intervention with African American individuals, couples, and families.

Tonya E. Perry, PhD
Professor, Graduate Social Work Program
Department of Social Work, Psychology & Counseling
Alabama A & M University

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Dr. Tricia B. Bent-Goodley and her contributors have made a major and significant contribution to the marriage movement and the social work profession by expanding our knowledge and the contemporary dialogue about marriage and the black community. I, among many, have sought to stimulate and integrate social research with models of promising practices and intervention strategies that would effectively address contemporary African American marriages in all of their complexities. This book is on the mark. There is much work to be done as the scholars in the book have effectively laid the foundation, raised important questions, and squarely presented the challenges to the social work community and to other disciplines. I hope this book will inspire social work educators, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to move past the old barriers that have missed the mark on the subject of healthy marriage and relationships and create the space for innovation and solution.

Diann Dawson, JD, MSW
Former director, Regional Operations, ACF, HHS, and Founder
Federal African-American Healthy Marriage Initiative

By Grace was reviewed by Danté D. Bryant for the journal Social Work.

Historically, marriage among African Americans (AA) in the United States has been intimately tied to the country’s social, economic, and political advancements. As a result, AA couples have been distinctly and precariously placed within the public sphere of U.S. politics. The unique positionality of AA couples within this racially and economically informed public discourse has contributed to a marital and relational experience largely informed by the intersecting forces of subjugation, marginalization, and oppression.

However, despite the assortment of sociopolitical entities that have and continue to impose themselves on the private affairs of AA couples, there has been little discussion regarding their ability to successfully negotiate them. In her most recent work, By Grace: The Challenges, Strengths, and Promise of African American Marriages, author and editor Dr. Tricia B. Bent-Goodley uses intersectionality theory in an attempt to address this gap in the literature. Although intersectionality theory has gained significant traction in fields such gender and cultural studies, it remains relatively underused in the disciplines of social work practice and research. According to Bent-Goodley, a Colombia graduate, professor and director of the Doctoral Program in the School of Social Work, and director of the Interpersonal Violence Prevention Program at Howard University, the resultant effect of this underutilization is, particularly as it relates to the study of AA couples, a “one-sided dialogue” that is not only “negative and stereotypical,” but has done little to aid practitioners and researchers in their efforts to better understand the challenges, strengths, and general complexities common to black relationships.

Read the full review. Available to subscribers of Social Work.