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The Black Breastfeeding Blog was created by Jennifer James as a way to reach black mothers who are currently breastfeeding or who want to breastfeed in the future. As a former breastfeeding mother of two daughters (who she breastfed for two years each), Jennifer believes in the powerful healing properties of breast milk and believes all black moms should at least start the nursing process to increase the health of their babies.


Send your breastfeeding photos to me at info (at) mommytoo (dot) com.

Sitting for a Formal Photograph and Breastfeeding
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

In the Library of Congress archives, there are many photographs of Indian women with their babies in papooses. In all of the seated, formal pictures of women and their children I have seen, I have never seen a photo where the mother is freely breastfeeding her child. This photograph is quite interesting because although the woman was white, her husband was an Indian and she lived in an Indian village after being captured in her youth.

Her name was Cynthia Ann Parker (ca. 1825-ca. 1871) and in this photo she was nursing her daughter, Prairie Flower (Toposannah). Parker was captured by Native American Comanches as a teenager, later married Chief Peta Nocona and bore children including Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief.1860-1870.

Parker's life is very interesting. If you'd like to learn more about her, click here.

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Giving Milk Formula to Nurses
Sunday, April 13, 2008

Things rarely change in this world in which we live. Case in point: An interview with Miss Mattie Ingram, a county health nurse in Beaufort, S.C. on January 31, 1939. This was published in the South Carolina Writer's Project.

After Mattie Ingram gave milk to a poor woman to feed her ill husband she said to the writer from the Project:

"Oh, the milk--do I buy it to give away?" She smiled. "If I started that, I'd be spending every cent I make and it wouldn't be a drop in the bucket. No, several manufacturers of canned milk send us samples to advertise their milk formulas for babies. It comes in very handy, I can tell you."

Sound familiar?

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posted by Jennifer James @ 6:48 PM, , links to this post


Breastfeeding in Public During Social Hour

Although this photo isn't dated, I wager a bet it was taken during the mid to late 1930s. It may potentially be the early 1940s. What is particularly telling about this photograph are the notes on the back of the photo (below) and the fact that once again breastfeeding in public was no big deal before the formula industry changed the perception of infant feeding (almost irreparably) in this country. The men could care less that a woman's exposed breast is in full view of everyone, although the little boy on the right does seem a little enthralled by the baby breastfeeding.


Written Notes on Item
a) Part of Social Hour audience at Shafter Camp (handwritten on reverse); b) Todd's favorite picture of an "Okie Family" in Shafter F.S.A. Camp. Nursing babies was the usual thing at camp "Socials." (typed and attached to reverse)

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posted by Jennifer James @ 5:41 PM, , links to this post


Coal Miner's Wife, Breastfeeding at Home in 1938
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Coal miner's wife and child. Pursglove, West Virginia. 1938 Sept

Here's the funny thing about these photos: During this time, it was the poor mothers who stayed fast to the natural art of breastfeeding, whereas metropolitan mothers and those who had better access to doctors who pushed formula opted to feed their babies artificially.

Now in 2008, poor, rural mothers statistically do not want to have anything to do with breastfeeding and mothers who are better off economically breastfeed in higher numbers -- what a flip-flop.

I have spent more than a year trying to put an historic perspective on the legacy that black mothers have with breastfeeding, but it is now dawning on me that poor white women and particularly those who still live in rural areas have a storied history of breastfeeding that has largely been lost as well.

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posted by Jennifer James @ 8:38 AM, , links to this post


Breastfeeding Under the Trees, June 1939
Sunday, April 6, 2008

I am always amazed by the pictures I find of mothers in the 1930s and 40s who breastfed; I'm obsessed with them, really. Although formula was readily available then, poor farming mothers most always breastfed their babies as opposed to feeding them in a way that was expensive and I hazard to say...unnatural.

Here's a mother breastfeeding her daughter under the trees in Wagoner County, Oklahoma. The picture was taken in June 1939. This is a wife and child of an itinerant cane furniture maker and agricultural day laborer.


One satisfied baby.

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posted by Jennifer James @ 8:10 PM, , links to this post


Breastfeeding at Work
Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Another historic photograph for those who love them. I decided to go a-huntin' in the Library of Congress this morning. As I've mentioned before, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find breastfeeding photos; I think I've tapped them all out sadly. I have to actually take a trip to the Library of Congress to find more. Actually, I'm sure there are still some breastfeeding photos online, it just takes a lot of digging to unearth them.

Here is a woman who worked at home and nursed her baby at the same time (click to view larger image). The caption reads: 4:30 P.M. Mrs. Annie De Maritius, 46 Laight St., front. Nursing a dirty baby while she picks nuts. Was suffering with a sore throat. Rosie, 3 yrs. old hanging around. Conevieve, 6 yrs. old. Tessie, 6 yrs. old picks too. Make $1.50 to $2.00 a week. Husband on railroad works sometimes. Location: [New York, New York (State)]

I don't know the date for this photo. I presume it's very early 1990s. I found it was in a batch with other photographs of child laborers.

Observation: Even though the photographer was a man and a stranger this mother didn't feel the need to hide her breasts at all. Good for her.

LOT 7481, no. 2703[P&P]

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Silencing the Whistleblowers
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Thanks everyone who de-lurked yesterday. Nice to meet you! So many of you have arrived at my blog because of the buzz surrounding the Library of Congress photos I found and posted. At the beginning it was extremely easy to find photos. Now, not so much. I have to hunt and hunt and hunt until I find one infant feeding photo, but it's worth it every time I finally stumble upon an historic gem.

I have come to the point now where an actual visit to the Library of Congress is in order. Although a lot of photographs are on the LOC Web site, there are still a lot that aren't. I will certainly be making a visit during the process of writing my book.

There are, though, still plenty of great photographs online; I just have to go through them picture by picture. Here's one that I found last night.


I thought the caption was quite interesting. It says:

Defense housing, Erie, Pennsylvania. A member of the Visiting Nurse Association pays a call to one of many young tenants of the defense trailer camp. High standards of sanitation are maintained, and every precaution is taken to guard against epidemic and disease.

Two things here: This is yet another photograph that shows bottle-feeding was high on the medical establishment's priority list. Notice the bottle on the right and the nurse holding the baby. Also, even though high sanitation standards were put in place to guard against disease there were no precautions put in place for the overall health of babies.

Some could argue that the medical industry didn't know then what we know now, but that's not the case. There were always whistleblowers who said breastfeeding was best, but they were virtually silenced by the medical and dairy industry.

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posted by Jennifer James @ 9:27 PM, , links to this post


Why Breastfeeding Mothers Are Forced to Sue and Sit In
Wednesday, January 9, 2008


This is historic proof why nursing mothers face so much discrimination today. Once breasts were used to sell everything from five cent soda to used cars, it was all downhill for breastfeeding.

Thankfully, breastfeeding has and is making a resounding resurgence. But there is still a long way to go. Just ask the women in Lubock, Texas and the mom suing Ruby Tuesday, and the mother who is suing her former employer for forcing her to pump breast milk in a filthy bathroom stall.

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posted by Jennifer James @ 7:19 AM, , links to this post


Class and Bottlefeeding
Saturday, December 22, 2007

Since I've been talking a lot about bottlefeeding this week I thought I'd feature a few photos of bottlefeeding in 1930s.

This is a meeting of the Mothers' Club in Arvin camp for migrant workers, a Farm Security Administration (FSA) camp. The discussion this evening centers on the possibility of buying kerosene oil in large quantities and distributing it cooperatively in camp, to cut costs. Kerosene is used both for cooking and for lighting purposes.

Just judging by how poor the mother with the baby is, she probably had no other choice but to bottlefeed since more than likely she worked.

Then again, this mother looks at least middle class and she's a bottlefeeder, too. Go figure.

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posted by Jennifer James @ 9:00 AM, , links to this post


How Times Have Changed: Modern-Day Milk Depots
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

I was reading an article yesterday about the growing need for local milk depots in Orange County, California where nursing mothers can drop off their extra breast milk for babies in need.

In the early twentieth century mothers also frequented milk depots, or milk stations, where they could take their infants for well baby check-ups and receive "pure" cow's milk to feed their infants. My, how times have changed since then. Now some mothers are giving their breast milk away instead of receiving artificial milk in return. I know WIC offices are also seen as modern-day milk depots, but at least these days there are various forms of milk transfer.

Above nurses were weighing a baby at the Cincinnati pure milk station in 1908.

George Grantham Bain Collection, LC-USZ62-43678

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Nursing Mother Supplement, 1918 and 1919
Sunday, December 9, 2007

I thought these two ads were interesting. Instead of being ads for formula, they are ads for a nursing mother supplement. Both of these ads ran in the New York Times. The first ad advertises a supplement for nursing moms, but the supplement can also be given to babies who were fed cow's milk. It ran on October 16, 1918. The second ad ran on January 3, 1919.

Interesting stuff.



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Changes, Changes
Thursday, November 29, 2007

Well, I changed my blog..again! This time it will be staying like this for some time. Last week I got this grandiose idea to take on the colossal task of bringing my entire web site out of the dark ages and make it all one blog format. Not an easy task to be sure, but I'm almost done and that makes me happy!

Last week I found this photograph and wanted to share it with everyone. I think it's another picture of a mother breastfeeding in public, but I cannot be one hundred percent sure. I tried to zoom in on it with my image software and it looks like the mother is cupping her hand over her baby's mouth. You can click on the picture to get a closer look.

Here's another angle.


Although I'm not positive that this mother is NIPing, it sure looks like it. What do you think?

Furniture auction, Hagerstown, Maryland. 1937 Oct.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [reproduction number, LC-USF33-T01-002661-M3 DLC]

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Breastfeeding at Home -- Then and Now
Monday, November 19, 2007

I contend that the formula industry not only changed the way we view breastfeeding in public, but also the way we view breastfeeding in our own homes. Let me hear your thoughts.

Here's another picture of this mother who is breastfeeding comfortably in the presence of two perfect strangers -- the rehabilitation supervisor and Arthur Rothstein, the photographer.


Rehabilitation Administration supervisor with client and wife. Gallatin County, Illinois. January 1939

Mobile post sent by Jennifer J using Utterz. Replies. mp3

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More Slaves Speak About Breastfeeding
Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Today I decided to join Ancestry.com to help my father-in-law find information about his grandfather. The good news is we found his grandfather in both the 1920 and 1930 census. The other good news is I found a slew of more slave narratives. Unfortunately, these interviews are not audio narratives, but the written interviews are just as good.

After going through a ton of them today I have determined that throughout the rest of the year I will share more personal stories about slave women and breastfeeding. It's rather fascinating, really. I've mentioned before that I had no idea slave women fed their own children. I thought there were maybe four or five lactating women who fed all of the nursing infants, but that's just not the case. I am so glad to know that, in large part, slave women nursed their own.
Interview with George Womble, Georgia
In the winter season the men split rails, built fences, and dug ditches, while the women did the weaving and the making of cloth. These slaves who were too old to work in the fields remained at home where they nursed the sick slaves (when there was sickness) and attended to the needs of those children who were too young for field work. Those children who were still being fed from their mother's breasts were also under the care of one of these old parsons. However, in this case the mothers were permitted to leave the field twice a day (once between breakfast and dinner and once between dinner and supper) so that these children could be fed.

Interview with Mary Reynolds, Texas
"Aunt Cheyney was jus' out of bed with a sucklin' baby one time, and she run away. Some say that was 'nother baby of massa's breedin'. She don't come to the house to nurse her baby, so they misses her and old Solomon gits the nigger hounds and takes her trail. They gits near her and she grabs a limb and tries to hist herself in a tree, but them dogs grab her and pull her down. The men hollers them onto her, and the dogs tore her naker and et the breasts plumb off her body. She got well and lived to be a old woman, but 'nother woman has to suck her baby and she ain't got no sign of breasts no more.

Interview with Betty Curtlett, Arkansas
"White women wouldn't nurse their own babies cause it would make their breast fall. They would bring a healthy woman and a clean woman up to the house. They had a house close by. She would nurse her baby and the white baby, too. They would feed her everything she wanted. She didn't have to work cause the milk would be hot to give the babies. Dannie and my brother Bradford, and Mary my sister and Miss Maggie nursed my name. Rich woman didn't nurse their babies, never did, cause it would cause their breast to be flat.

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A Slave Woman Talks About Breastfeeding
Monday, November 5, 2007



I was literally propelled out of my seat when I ran into an audio recording, one of only 26 known, where an ex-slave woman named Mrs. Laura Smalley described a typical day when slave women would nurse their babies.

Here is a link to the audio recording.


Or, if you prefer here's a transcript of what Mrs. Laura Smalley said about slave women and breastfeeding. By the way, the picture I include here isn't of Mrs. Smalley. Only seven pictures of the 26 slaves who were interviewed in person are still around. This ex-slave's name is Lucy Ann Warfield, an ex-slave who lived at 1874 South Limestone Street, Springfield, Clark County, Ohio.

Transcript:

Mrs. Laura Smalley: And they had certain times to come to them childrens. I think about this like a cow out there will go to the calf, you know.

Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.

Mrs. Laura Smalley: And you know, they'd have a certain time, you know, cow come to his calf and at, at, at night. Well, they come at ten o'clock. Everyday at ten o'clock to all them babies. Give them what nurse, you know.

Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.

Mrs. Laura Smalley: Them what didn't nurse they didn't come to them at all, the old lady fed them. Them wasn't big, wasn't big enough to eat, you know. She'd ah, the old mother had time, you know, to come. When that horn blowed, they'd blow the horn for the mothers, you know. They'd just come just like cows, just a running, you know, coming to the children.

John Henry Faulk: Out of the fields.

Mrs. Laura Smalley: Out of the fields.

Unidentified Woman Interviewer: How long did they nurse a baby?

Mrs. Laura Smalley: Ma'am? [echo]

Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Couple years? How long would they nurse a baby, till it was big enough to walk, I guess?

Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes. Something or other like nine months, or something like that, you know.

Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.

Mrs. Laura Smalley: They'd nurse them till they be, get big enough, you know, to eat.

Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Ahha.

Mrs. Laura Smalley: Ta get eat. And they come to, come to every time, come there and ah, nurse that baby, ten o'clock. Ten o'clock in the day.

Unidentified Woman Interviewer: [During (?)] the day?

Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, ma'am. Ten o'clock in the day and three o'clock in the day. They come to that baby and nurse it.

Unidentified Woman Interviewer: Twice a day.

Mrs. Laura Smalley: Yes, ma'am, twice a day. Come there and nurse that baby. He couldn't eat, you know. But one could eat he would't come until dinner time. But little one what couldn't eat they'd come to it. That old woman had a time in there slopping them children. [laugh] Yes, sir. And I knowed that. And I remember, you see a scar right up in my forehead? Kind of a scar.

Mobile post sent by Jennifer J using Utterz. Replies. mp3

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Advertising and Social Responsibility
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

I have been deeply thinking about the importance of advertising and how it affects society. For years I have been pondering why there are more alcohol, cigarette, and birth control advertisements in magazines devoted to black readers as opposed to those targeted to whites. By accepting so many of these ads, is this the only way of making enough revenue to continue publishing their magazines, even though they know these products undoubtedly hurt their communities? Do companies and the products they tout have consumers and media outlets by the "balls"? Those are the types of questions I had to honestly ask myself last week during my big dilemma.

Even in the 30s and 40s, the formula industry was much like the cigarette industry then. It seems justifiable to say consumers didn't rationalize very much during this era, did they? If we analyze things in simplest terms, mothers en masse were feeding their babies a liquid substance that is solely intended to nourish a calf and smoking became a societal mainstay of the era. But common sense tells us that smoking is basically sucking on fire and babies should be nourished by mothers milk. How were both of these practices so adamantly justified? Where was the common sense? How far do consumers go before giving in to corporations that peddle unhealthy products? And how far do businesses go before they sell out to huge corporations?

As I mentioned last week, I won't (nor would I have) accept a formula ad. My responsibility to my readers will remain on the side of mother and infant health, even though admittedly accepting an ad such as this would do wonders from a business perspective.

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posted by Jennifer James @ 9:50 AM, , links to this post


Breast Art in New Mexico
Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Click on the player on my sidebar to hear my audio commentary.

Here's the statue featured on the Cimarron, New Mexico web site.
It's still standing today. I wonder if the statue of the woman is still standing.
Statue by local artist. Cimarron, New Mexico. August 1939, LC-USF34-034056-D DLC

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My Return to Bottle Ranting
Monday, October 22, 2007

Oh, how long has it been seen I posted a picture to rant about? A long time! I haven't, though, forgotten about how much it disturbs me that during the Depression era the vast majority of infants were fed with formula. So, I thought I'd revisit the travesty of mass formula feeding during the 30s and 40s.

Here is a picture of a friend of a mother who is taking care of the mom's baby while she dances at a farm worker's camp in February 1942.

And here is a mother and baby in Greenbelt, Maryland with the ubiquitous baby bottle, of course in September 1938.


I still have a problem figuring out how so many mothers simply followed the status quo and fed their babies artificially without really questioning authorities, notably doctors and nurses. Then again, how many of us have given our little ones baby Tylenol without giving it a second thought?

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, Reproduction Numbers: LC-USF34-071688-D DLC, LC-USF33-030008-M219

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Remembering Mammies, Again
Monday, October 8, 2007

As I increasingly rummage through Depression era photos I find myself forgetting about the role mammies play in current breastfeeding rates among black women. Although I do not believe "mammyhood" is as prolific as one might think in explaining low black breastfeeding rates, there is no question that the institution of mammies plays a role in how black women perceive breastfeeding today, even if the effect is minuscule at best.

Today, I ran across this recording (very interesting!) which prompted me to delve further into researching mammies. In the recording, Mrs. Isabel Barnwell, age 85 in 1939, sings a song she learned from her "mammy" (a slave serving as nursemaid) when she was very young.

I also read a slave narrative from OhioHistory.org spoken by a former slave named Clark Heard who was 81 at the time. He said this about his mother:
My mother she raise sixteen children -- eight of her own and eight of the Marzer's chillun. Sometimes she nurse the Marzer chillun. Dey call her Black Mammy and they jes love her.
I wish I could adequately articulate how wet-nursing and mammies affect current breasfteeding rates among black women, but I can't right now because I don't know how far-reaching they are. I am more inclined to blame the bottle-feeding push of the 30s and 40s on low black breastfeeding rates. Even still I cannot wholly discount the histories and stories of mammies like the woman stoically seated above.

RELATED POSTS

Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0067703. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society.

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Sexy Breasts
Tuesday, October 2, 2007

You all know that I am on this crazy quest to better understand infant feeding in this country. What started as a chase to discover -- through photographs -- why black women breastfeed in such low numbers has turned into a general history adventure to learn more about breastfeeding for all mothers.

Now, I am seriously looking at breastfeeding in public and why states now have to come up with laws to protect mothers from being cited for indecency simply because they choose to breastfeed in public. The ridiculousness of such laws is beyond me. When did feeding one's child in full view of friends, family and even strangers become an indecent act?

Store displays like these in Macy's in 1942 quickly made breasts into objects of sexual arousal and not objects associated with infant feeding. The push toward bottle-feeding during this era also didn't help matters.

Even today, mothers are still fighting this sexual stigma when they nurse in public. This is certainly not to say there is anything wrong with women being sexy. But has womanly sexiness and its residual effects tainted motherhood, particularly breastfeeding?



Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, Reproduction Numbers: LC-USW3-013124-D DLC, LC-USW3-013129-E DLC

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A Note from Arthur Rothstein's Daughter
Saturday, September 29, 2007

On Wednesday in Part II of my Breastfeeding and Men series I featured photographs taken by Arthur Rothstein. And this morning, I found a comment from his daughter, Eve Roth Lindsay, in my inbox. You can go to the post to see it or read it here.
Thank you for posting this photo. My father was Arthur Rothstein and he would have loved to see his photographs posted here. He was an amazing man with an incredible talent at seeing real people. I have seen many variations of these photos but not this one.
There are very few times in my life when I am struck speechless. This is one of them.

Edited to add (10/1/07): Here's a comment from another of Rothstein's daughters. I feel so honored that they commented here on my blog. Wow.
Jennifer!
Here's another note from another daughter of Arthur Rothstein! I'm Eve's older sister. I have three kids and I breastfed them all. Now I'm a grandma and my daughter, Leila is nursing her baby. So is my daughter-in-law, Leontine! I'm so glad they, and their babies, are benefiting from the experience.
I perused the Black Breastfeeding Blog and website....I found it to be attractive, educational, warm and encouraging. ~Annie Rothstein-Segan

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Part III | Breastfeeding and Men
Friday, September 28, 2007

One of these days I want to write a book about all these photos that I have been featuring on my blog. I believe there was a brief window in history where poor, rural mothers were afforded a level of breastfeeding freedom that their city-dwelling cousins didn't have. Indeed, this was before the milk industry rushed in and changed infant feeding habits for mothers all across the country.

There are statistics about the growing number of women who bottle-fed their babies during this time, but what about the small percentage of women who continued to breastfeed? I want to tell their story. It would take a lot of work, to be sure, but I think it can be done

Here is a picture that I've posted before.

These are drought refugees from Oklahoma camping by the roadside. They hope to work in the cotton fields. The official at the border (California-Arizona) inspection service said that on this day, August 17, 1936, twenty-three car loads and truck loads of migrant families out of the drought counties of Oklahoma and Arkansas had passed through that station entering California up to 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

And here is the mother's husband (I'm assuming). Even if he wasn't her husband, this mother didn't have to remove herself from the premises or cover herself just to nurse her son.

And this woman (see her here also ) didn't feel compelled to nurse elsewhere even though she was being photographed nursing her daughter by a white male photographer, Ben Shahn.


Breastfeeding, in my opinion and based on these photos, had not yet been defiled and was still a pristine practice.

It wouldn't be long, though, before breastfeeding, as a natural practice, fell by the wayside especially as more mothers fed their babies cow's milk in a bottle like this mother.

This is the wife and sick child of tubercular itinerant, stranded in New Mexico.


Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, Reproduction Numbers: LC-USF34-009747-E DLC, LC-USF3301-006023-M5 DLC, LC-USF34-T01-009666-E DLC, LC-DIG-fsa-8b38480 DLC

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Part II | Breastfeeding and Men
Wednesday, September 26, 2007

You may remember this photo. I posted it back in June. Seems like ages ago, doesn't it? I remember when I ran across this picture. It struck me because the woman looks so stoic and proud to be a mother. She also looks rather circumspect about some stranger taking her picture. This woman was a cotton picker in the hot fields of Kaufman County, Texas in 1936.

Until yesterday I always assumed this was a Dorothea Lange photo because she took a lot of pictures of women breastfeeding. But it's not. This picture was taken by Arthur Rothstein which puts another spin on breastfeeding in public, men, and how much breastfeeding out in the open was a regular occurrence, one not to be spurned or degraded, at least this seems true for the rural class.

Here is another shot of the mother and her children. While the cotton gets weighed, the mother is standing by with her shirt still open with men, children and a photographer around. This is fascinating to me because I believe there was a moment in our history before sexualized images of women and the huge shift to cow's milk ruined breastfeeding in public for mothers. It is fascinating to me that there was a time and place in the US when nursing in public wasn't reviled.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, Reproduction Numbers: LC-USF34- 005172-E, LC-USF34-005215-D, LC-USF33-011408-M2 DLC

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Part 1 | Breastfeeding and Men: Highway of Love
Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Last week I had a very rigorous debate about my Capessa.com article on the Mothering message boards where my article's title, When Nursing in Public was Normal, was questioned about its historical accuracy. Although I don't claim to be omniscient about everything in history, I do stand by the photographs I discover because essentially photos don't lie. It's really that simple. After doing a little research on Saturday, I was able to further stand by my article's title.

I also claimed that the picture of the woman breastfeeding in public in 1943 in the Greyhound station showed that even among men (who were present) breastfeeding was not a problem, but rather simply a way of life.The following question (which was both very good and quite reasonable) was raised:

How do you know there wasn't disgust on their faces a moment before, or a moment after? The pictures only capture that ONE instant of time... maybe the men saw someone taking a picture and looked at the camera instead. Maybe she had just latched the baby on and they hadn't noticed yet. You just can't know that they were all ok with it from that picture.

The reason I know is because after going through a lot of breastfeeding pictures I can say with certainly that among the rural class, breastfeeding was a daily constant and didn't elicit feelings of disgust from men, even in public. It just "was".

Note: Every day this week I will post a photograph supporting my opinion about men and breastfeedng instead of creating an insanely looong photo gallery.

Here is a sharecropper family in July 1936 in Hazlehurst, Georgia. Notice the mother is openly breastfeeding and the father isn't giving it a second thought.


And here. This is a very interesting set of photos by Dorothea Lange. Lange's caption says:

Example of self-resettlement in California. Oklahoma farm family on highway between Blythe and Indio. Forced by the drought of 1936 to abandon their farm, they set out with their children to drive to California. Picking cotton in Arizona for a day or two at a time gave them enough for food and gas to continue. On this day, they were within a day's travel of their destination, Bakersfield, California. Their car had broken down en route and was abandoned.

From the numbers assigned to the photos this is the sequence of events.

The whole family is waiting and watching at the edge of the highway.


Then the mom decides to go take a seat while the older son stays near the highway with his dad.


Their baby was probably hungry, tired and hot, so mama decided to nurse him in public on the highway. This is yet another example of how nusing in public just "was" and was a non-issue to moms, dads and children.


Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, Reproduction Numbers: LC-USF34-009682-E DLC, LC-USF34-009685-E DLC, LC-USF34-009680-C DLC, LC-USF34-017695-C DLC, LC-USW3-037912-E DLC

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So! I Heard from MomsRising
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Good thing I haven't finished that piece for Literary Mama yet because MomsRising and I are officially cool.

I received a personal email from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner yesterday afternoon in which MomsRising acknowledged my concerns and mentioned they too had concerns about the logo. When their new site launches in a few months, Rosie will be GONE! In fact, they were already in the process of revamping their logo.

MomsRising also invited me to blog for them about breastfeeding and mothers issues, to which I said, "Yes, I'd be delighted". I have always agreed with MomsRising's programs and advocacy. I just couldn't support them with that logo looming so large over the organization. With Rosie gone, I will now be one of their most vocal supporters.

I want to THANK all of you who passed links and talked about this issue on message boards and on your blogs. I am always amazed by the power of the Internet in general and blogs specifically. This is a truly amazing medium; one that allows me to sit at my desk in the North Carolina mountains, speak my peace and be heard. Wow!

I'm on Capessa.com!

My very first entry about breastfeeding, When Nursing in Public Was Normal, has been posted on Capessa.com. I am grateful for this opportunity because I can share my insights about breastfeeding history with more people.

I started a conversation in my post and would love it if you came and joined in. Let's spread the word about breastfeeding in public and how only recently it has become a shunned practice. I hope to see you there.

Have a great Wednesday.

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posted by Jennifer James @ 11:42 PM, , links to this post


As it Turns Out, I'm Not Done Yet
Monday, September 17, 2007

It is a rare occasion when I go three whole days without posting. My apologies to those of you who checked to find updated posts only to find a rapidly aging entry.

Since late last week I have been plugging away on my essay about the MomsRising logo for Literary Mama. I project it will be complete by the end of the week. I don't know when it will go up, but I have to brace myself for the backlash that's sure to come. I'm a big girl, though. I can take it.

Although last week I said I would put the MomsRising logo issue to rest here, there were some comments that I think are important and would like to mention.

Fat Lady pointed me to spectacular information on the National Park Service web site about Rosie the Riveter. They mentioned that women have always worked in America, like the poor white woman pictured picking strawberries and the black woman who is waiting to go out into the cotton fields. But when the United States experienced labor shortages during World War II, the government wanted to lure middle-class, white women into the war industry, thus using Rosie the Riveter to do so.

This little tidbit of information succinctly verifies my concerns. What group of mothers does MomsRising want to talk to? White middle-class mothers only like the government did in the 1940s? I have said it before: Their logo divides, doesn't unify.

Many readers have mentioned that MomsRising was probably not aware of the reverberations their logo would cause. I agree. I don't think it was intentional. But at some point, does racism become so blurred even white people can't recognize it? That's not to say their logo is blatantly racist. I am saying, though, that their logo is one- dimensional and reeks of exlusive target marketing.

Although I do not know the backgrounds of the MomsRising's founders, I believe they are probably seasoned feminists. That said, the issue of a racial split in the feminist movement should not be new to them. So, why did they even go there when creating a organization for the nation's mothers?

An anonymous commenter asked this question:

What should a modern day Rosie, a Rosie that could/will be used as propaganda to entice ALL women to support and organize for children's and mother's rights look like?

I mentioned that I don't think Rosie can be modernized. I think she should be left in the 40s where she belongs.

What do you think?

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, Reproduction Numbers: LC-USW33-028626-C DLC, LC-USW3-034661-C DLC, LC-USF3301-006028-M1 DLC, LC-USE6-D-009550 DLC

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posted by Jennifer James @ 9:17 AM, , links to this post


Putting MomsRising's Logo to Rest --- At Least for Now
Thursday, September 13, 2007

This is my last post about the MomsRising logo for awhile in hopes of not sounding nauseatingly redundant. I was invited to write about this issue for Literary Mama and will let you know when my essay is published and will keep you up-to-date on the favorable feedback as well as the fiery criticism. Tomorrow I will resume my posts about infant feeding unless someone brings up a point that simply begs to be addressed.

Over the past week I have highlighted some of the historical reasons why I do not like the MomsRising logo. T