Soto, LiliaMeadows-Fernandez, Ambreia2024-02-092024-02-0910.15786/19706746https://wyoscholar.uwyo.edu/handle/internal/1901https://doi.org/10.15786/19706746The purpose of this thesis is to actively assert the presence and validity of Black mothers in the Wyoming and surrounding areas. This thesis was developed based on surveys that I conducted with mothers in Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska. Within these pages, I explore the tools Black mothering individuals employ when attempting to navigate, survive — and hopefully, learn to thrive in — the structural, political, and social influences on their experiences in Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado.  I engage with the language that Black mothers use to describe their own experiences as they raise children in the Mountain and mid-West. Upon reflecting on the surveys, two themes were most salient for survey respondents: The first is the obstacles impeding Black mothers in the West, which is comprised of smaller themes such as monolithic representations, navigating simultaneous hypervisibility and invisibility along with intra-community expectations, and the struggle to develop and pass positive self-image to their children. The second theme is the resistance strategies they use to survive, and occasionally thrive, which contains smaller components such as challenging narratives through reflection and self-definition and holding and transmitting self-love with faith and inherited lessons.  Highlighting the experiences of Black mothers in Wyoming and surrounding areas is necessary to tell a more complete picture of life in the Mountain and mid-Western regions. The perspectives shared by these individuals can be used to locate gaps of care, lack of resources, and highlight the untold diversity of the area.enghttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/African American participantswomenGender equalityWyomingMountain WestBlack mothersthesis