African american family life: rediscovering our foundational works

Race, ethnicity, and culture are central to human development and family life. However, early research pathologized these influences on African Americans. Pioneering scholars studying African American families challenged pathology-focused perspectives, laying the foundation for the strengths-focused culturally-anchored research that is now seen in the field. This article revisits this pioneering scholarship, rarely published in peer-reviewed journals, reintegrating them into the discourse on families so that their significance can be understood and recognized. Pioneering scholars offered nuanced theoretical frameworks, identified contextual and within-group variations, developed innovative methods to capture complexities and variation in African Americans' functioning, and presciently recognized researchers' positionality impacting research.