Black Workers

‘It’s Always Been Me and the Boys’: How Guaranteed Income Is Helping Black Mothers Build Stronger Families and Futures

Now in its fourth year, Front & Center is a groundbreaking Ms. series amplifying the voices of Black women navigating poverty—highlighting their struggles, resilience and dreams as they care for their families, build careers and challenge systems not built for their success.

“Every Friday, my boys and I have a special ritual. We go get snow cones and head to the snow park. We walk around, talk about our week and do affirmations. We discuss what we can do better, with each other and for ourselves. If I messed up, they let me know, and we talk about it. If I feel like they need to improve, we discuss that, too. …

“I dream of going back to school and finishing my criminal justice degree. I fell short because of hard times. But I’m going back this year! I want to make my kids proud. If I can do it, they can do it, too. It’s not easy, but it’s not hard, either. You just have to push. As long as you have that mindset, you’re going to make it.”

Profiles in Courage: Gwynne Wilcox Was the First Black Woman on the NLRB—And the First to Be Fired by a President

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Throughout the month of May, the Profiles in Courage spotlighted women in the Department of Justice, federal agencies and the military whose careers have been defined by integrity, resilience and reform. Their quiet heroism—often at personal cost—reaffirms the enduring role of public servants who choose justice over self-interest. Through their stories, Ms. pays tribute to a tradition of service that safeguards democracy and inspires the next generation to lead with courage.

In 2023, labor lawyer Gwynne Wilcox—whose union-side advocacy career has spanned decades—shattered two barriers: becoming the first Black woman seated on the National Labor Relations Board and, soon after, its chair. The board’s institutional independence was hastily put to the test on Jan. 27, 2025, just one week after President Donald Trump’s return to office. Wilcox received a midnight email from the White House saying she was dismissed, effective immediately.

Refusing to accept her unlawful dismissal, Wilcox filed suit against the Trump administration. On May 22, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a brief order allowing Trump to dismiss Wilcox from the NLRB. Writing for the three dissenters, Justice Elena Kagan quoted Alexander Hamilton as saying: “To avoid an arbitrary discretion in the courts, it is indispensable that they should be bound down by strict rules and precedents.” The order, she said, “favors the president over our precedent.”

I’m a Single Mom Raising Three Kids. A Year of Guaranteed Income Gave Us Breathing Room.

Front & Center began as first-person accounts of Black mothers in Jackson, Miss., receiving a guaranteed income. Now in its fourth year, the series is expanding to explore broader systemic issues affecting Black women in poverty, including the safety net, healthcare, caregiving and overall well-being.

“My name is Jasmine, and I’m 33 years old. I’m a mother of three—there’s Nehemiah, my oldest, who is 13. Then there’s my daughter, Harmoni, who is 9, and my youngest, Joshun, is 8 years old. …

“Finding reliable childcare has always been a struggle. There were times when I couldn’t get a job because I couldn’t find childcare or the process of securing a childcare voucher took too long. … My mom isn’t able to help due to being ill, and I don’t hear from my dad much. So, I don’t have a lot of people I can rely on.”

What Threats to Government Employment Mean for Black Women

The sweeping federal job cuts taking place under the Trump administration are not just an attack on government effectiveness—they represent a direct threat to the economic stability of Black women, who have long utilized public sector employment as a pathway to financial security and upward mobility.

Now, as layoffs accelerate, Black women face a dual crisis: the loss of stable employment and the dismantling of one of the few sectors that has consistently countered private-sector inequities. These cuts risk unraveling decades of progress in building economic resilience for Black families and communities.

‘It Takes a Village’—But What If You Don’t Have One?

Front & Center began as first-person accounts of Black mothers in Jackson, Miss., receiving a guaranteed income. Now in its fourth year, the series is expanding to explore broader systemic issues affecting Black women in poverty, including the safety net, healthcare, caregiving and overall well-being.

“I’m part of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust this year, so that money will help me offset the lost income of going back to school part time. It was a revelation to be able to cover multiple things in one day that I would’ve had to space out for weeks before. I bought diapers, paid my car note and the light bill. That feeling of being able to take care of things has relieved a lot of stress. Before, it was so hard. I would cry in the shower so my kids wouldn’t hear me.

“I didn’t have paid leave for the first four weeks after DeMarcus was born. … That experience really opened my eyes to how important it is to have better family leave policies in this country. It is not enough to just offer a few weeks of leave. We need to support mothers’ mental health as well. Pregnancy care is focused on prenatal care, but there needs to be more mental health support. I went through postpartum depression myself, and it was so bad that I didn’t want anyone to see my baby. It takes a village to raise a child, but not everyone has that village.”

Coretta Scott King’s Influence on the Civil Rights Movement: An Excerpt From ‘King of the North’

An excerpt from King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South:

“Women have been the backbone of the whole civil rights movement,” Coretta Scott King stressed in a 1966 interview with New Lady magazine. The national media, like most politicians and pundits of the time, had trained the spotlight on the male leaders like her husband, missing the many women that had envisioned, led and organized the movements burgeoning around the country. They could not conceive of Coretta Scott King as Martin Luther King’s political partner. She later lamented how she was “made to sound like an attachment to a vacuum cleaner, the wife of Martin, then the widow of Martin, all of which I was proud to be. But I was never just a wife, nor a widow. I was always more than a label.”  

From Pregnancy Discrimination to Advocacy: My Journey to Capitol Hill

Denied accommodations during my pregnancy, I fought back. Now, thanks to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, fewer women will have to face the same struggle.

(This essay is a part of Ms. and A Better Balance’s Women & Democracy installment, all about the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act—a groundbreaking civil rights law ensuring pregnant and postpartum workers have the right to reasonable workplace accommodations. Bipartisan, pro-family and boldly feminist, the PWFA is both a lesson in democracy and a battleground for its defense against antidemocratic attacks.)

In the Fight to Defend Pregnant Workers, Focus on the South

The 2022 passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) did not happen in a vacuum. It was a culmination of a decade of direct advocacy in Congress paired with great momentum at the state level, especially in the South. Now as we look ahead to defending and enforcing the law, the South’s crucial role cannot be understated.

Progress in the South, whether legislative or in the courts, is a long road—one that takes an army of on-the-ground advocates, elbow grease and patience. But we know that the need for the PWFA and its robust enforcement is vital for women and their families in the South because, despite progress, many Southern states still do not have state-level protections and must rely only on federal protections. And too many corporations that put profits above people have made their home in the South in order to escape government regulations in a race to the bottom—a troublesome environment for workers seeking to vindicate their rights.

(This essay is a part of Ms. and A Better Balance’s Women & Democracy installment, all about the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act—a groundbreaking civil rights law ensuring pregnant and postpartum workers have the right to reasonable workplace accommodations. Bipartisan, pro-family and boldly feminist, the PWFA is both a lesson in democracy and a battleground for its defense against antidemocratic attacks.)

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Is Key to Improving Black Maternal Health and Families’ Economic Security

The enactment of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) marked a pivotal advance in safeguarding the health and economic security of Black mothers and their families. Black women are disproportionately represented in low-wage, physically demanding jobs where workplace accommodations are often necessary but frequently unavailable.

The PWFA is crucial in combating the maternal morbidity and mortality crisis in the U.S., where pregnancy-related mortality rates among Black women are over three times higher than those for white women.

(This essay is a part of Ms. and A Better Balance’s Women & Democracy installment, all about the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act—a groundbreaking civil rights law ensuring pregnant and postpartum workers have the right to reasonable workplace accommodations. Bipartisan, pro-family and boldly feminist, the PWFA is both a lesson in democracy and a battleground for its defense against antidemocratic attacks.)