02/07/2022
Virginia Ford was a practicing midwife serving the Black community during the Jim Crow era when African Americans had little access to health care.
Midwifery dates back to the earliest years of American colonization when African women arrived on slave ships, already trained as midwives. The practice continued over the next two centuries with Black midwives attending African American mothers as well as white women as they gave birth. By the late 1700s, the medical science of obstetrics, which was largely practiced by white men, drew many white women to them, but Black midwives continued serving their communities until laws began to change 40 years ago.
“One of the things that the storyboards will indicate is what was the legal downfall of the midwives,” Harrison says. “After the 1980s, the historical midwife—the ones we are talking about—were no longer certified by the state. The state had already made it illegal to practice midwifery unless you were certified. Then, they weren’t encouraging younger people.”
