Grassroots Warriors

Grassroots Warriors explores the connections among motherhood, work, politics, and community in low-income urban environments. Through in-depth interviews, the author presents the voices of over sixty women - African, American, Latina American, and white - who have been on the front lines of the fight for social justice and economic survival in low-income neighbourhoods in New York City and Philadelphia. Many of the women profiled have been/are single mothers, receiving welfare, and living in supposedly blighted urban areas. In contrast to the mythic 'welfare queen' stereotype, Naples argues that, as community workers and activist mothers, these women contribute vital unpaid and paid services to their communities, offer complex political perspectives, and help to empower others. The analysis reveals the significant legacies of the social movements of the 1960s as well as the War on Poverty.