Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice
A Black woman… her impact transcends the rooms she has yet to step foot in. Her grace is something that’s admired but often unmatched. Her indomitable spirit is respected, but also hated by some due to the inability to duplicate it. Throughout history, Black women have left their fingerprints on every corner of American life: inventions that have shaped industries, voices that have demanded justice, art that speaks to the soul, sports achievements that defy limits, and community leadership that holds neighborhoods together. Maya Angelou, Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Freeman, Carrie Mae Weems—their stories are chapters in the living history of Black womanhood.
Maya Angelou once asked, “How did it happen that we could nurse a nation of strangers, be maids to multitudes of people who scorned us, and still walk with some majesty and stand with a degree of pride?” Her words echo today. In 2025, Black women face rising unemployment, over 300,000 have lost jobs, and the rate has climbed to 7.8 percent, higher than the national average and double that of their counterparts. Yet even in this moment, Black women do what they have always done: they pivot, they rise, and they transform uncertainty into action. Their resilience, honed across centuries of challenge, remains unbroken.
This is not a story of pity. It is a story of perseverance, ingenuity, and refusal. Black women do not simply survive—they create paths, build opportunities, and lay foundations where none existed before.
“Through their challenges and activism, Black women force the United States to hold true to its democratic ideals—or at least shine a mirror on where it fails,” said Dr. Taura Taylor, sociology professor at Morehouse College. “These numbers reflect both economic trends and social disconnect, but they also reveal what we’ve always known: Black women have a way of making a path out of nowhere.”
Dr. Taylor notes that Black women literally built the nation’s labor force, even through the horrors of enslavement. The myth of the “strong Black woman” can be heavy, she adds: “It places an unfair expectation of endurance that harms physical, emotional, and spiritual health.” Yet, that enduring strength is also what allows Black women to pivot, to innovate, to transform obstacles into opportunity.
“This might be a moment where Black women can decide to take their labor, their skills, and their expertise elsewhere—to pivot entrepreneurially—and that’s very dynamic and important,” Dr. Taylor said.
Feeding the soul and Health
In April 2025, Carolyn Henry, a certified project and scrum manager at the Food and Drug Administration, was laid off. Federal downsizing under a new administration claimed her role, along with thousands of others. For Henry, it was not unexpected—but it was still a rupture.
She returned to a passion rooted in childhood, growing up on a family farm in Southern Maryland. Her food truck, The Stop Food Truck, specializing in sustainably sourced ingredients, became her lifeline. Most of her produce comes from her backyard or local farmers. Her mission is simple yet profound: bring healthy food to communities with limited access, to “show folks how to take what little bit they have.”
Henry’s work echoes the long legacy of Black women in agriculture—from Fannie Lou Hamer to generations who shaped communities through labor, care, and creativity. On a Thursday in Augusta, despite clouds overhead, her dishes sold out in minutes. The line of customers was proof not just of flavor, but of resilience, adaptation, and the power of pivoting.
A Pivot to Writing
For Nicole Knight-Justice, the layoff notice came as expected. Federal budget cuts had been shrinking K–12 program funding, and her role as Director of Program Design and Innovation at a national nonprofit—helping districts redesign teacher coaching—was being eliminated.
“Schools and districts were shrinking their budgets, and so the money we got as a nonprofit was shrinking too,” Knight-Justice said. After over a decade in academia—starting as a middle school teacher in Charlotte, moving to charter schools in metro Atlanta, and consulting in education—her layoff in May 2025 was part of the third wave of reductions.
At first, the news was frustrating. One salary gone from her household meant recalibration and uncertainty. But it also became a pivot, a moment to reimagine her path. “When the bottom falls out and you realize you’re actually standing on something more solid than you were before—that’s where I am,” she said.
Her skills—leading and communicating with groups of all ages, designing lesson plans, and enlightening the minds of young and old landed her a contract with a startup developing HR training strategies. But more importantly, the layoff created space for a long-held love: writing.
“Writing is something that I’ve always loved to do and just haven’t always made space for,” Knight-Justice explained. Two days after being laid off, she entered a writing fellowship, gaining the time and support to begin a young adult fiction book she is now working on. The gift of writing had been present since her early teaching years. “My kids were like, ‘Miss KJ, you should write a book. You write really well.’ I just never made the space for it,” she said.
Though unwelcome at first, the layoff ultimately became a relief. “I had a lot of relief because for me, God is my source,” Knight-Justice said. Her faith, perseverance, and willingness to pivot allowed her to embrace a calling she had long set aside—a reminder that even in disruption, purpose can guide the way.
Stay Prepared, Not Scared
Unemployment is uncomfortable to confront, but it is universal. Amber Cabral, founder of Human(ing) Well Co., noticed many people are unprepared when a job ends. She created a free Layoff Survival Guide, offering advice on navigating the emotional and practical challenges of unemployment.
“A lot of people don’t know how to talk about themselves,” Cabral said. “Make sure you know how to talk about what you do and can tell your story…figure out your story: who are you, what have you done, what’s the work you’ve created that has left a lasting impact?”
The guide emphasizes not just survival, but opportunity—leveraging skills, experience, and creativity to pivot effectively, even in a shaky economy.
Closing Thought
Across history and today, Black women have transformed adversity into opportunity. From shaping the nation’s labor force to innovating in business, education, and community life, they continue to pivot, create, and thrive. Unemployment may interrupt a chapter, but it rarely ends the story. Carolyn Henry, Nicole Knight-Justice, Amber Cabral, and those alike show that resilience, ingenuity, and perseverance are constants in a world that often underestimates them.
Maya Angelou’s question returns, and the answer is clear: they walk with majesty, they rise with pride, and they make a way where none existed before.
Black women rise. They pivot. They persist. They thrive. And in that persistence, the nation is held to its promise, again and again.