Mammies and Matriarchs: Tracing Images of the Black Female in Popular Culture 1950s to Present

Abstract

The figure of the Mammy dominated American television in the 1940s and 1950s. As we transitioned into the twenty-first century, this imagery re-emerged as a result of the Black male in drag. Tracing the development of this figure from the 1950s to the specific case of Eddie Murphy in drag, this paper examines how Black Motherhood and the Mammy continues to be a part of the African American cinematic experience.