Oral Histories of African-American Midwives Collection: Opening Celebration, March 26

March 26, 2026
Neilson Browsing Room and on Zoom
6-7:30 p.m.
Click here to register

The Sophia Smith Collection of women's history at Smith College is thrilled to celebrate the opening of 46 oral history interviews Linda Holmes conducted with Black midwives across Alabama in 1981. The collection provides unprecedented access to the experiences of Black Alabama midwives who cultivated diverse birthing practices handed down from African foremothers and ancestral midwives who were enslaved.  

The event will feature a panel discussion on the roots and practice of Black midwifery as well as its legacy in the birthing justice movement today, moderated by Sophia Smith Collection Archivist Mariana Brandman. Panelists include:

Linda Holmes, M.P.A.
Author, Independent Scholar, Midwife Advocate, Culture Worker

Linda is an award-winning writer, researcher, biographer, oral historian, curator, and a longtime birthing justice activist. Supported by a Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Humanities in 1981, Holmes recorded interviews with Black midwives who have become nationally recognized, including Bey Moten, Louvenia Taylor Benjamin, Maude Drake, Mattie Hereford, Thelma Shamburger, and Margaret Charles Smith. Holmes’ book, Listen to Me Good: The Life Story of an Alabama Midwife, co-authored with Margaret Charles Smith, (Ohio State University Press, 1996), has received recognition from the Congressional Black Caucus, midwifery organizations, and Birthing Justice advocates as a groundbreaking book.

Byllye Avery, M.Ed.
Founder, Black Women's Health Imperative

Byllye has been a longtime reproductive justice advocate, beginning with her work with the Clergy Consultation Service, referring women from Florida to New York City for legal abortions before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Byllye served on the Board of Directors of the National Women’s Health Network and worked with the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, which authored the pioneering women’s health book  Our Bodies, Ourselves. She co-founded an abortion service, the Gainesville Women’s Health Center in 1974, and Birthplace, a birthing center, in 1978. In 1983, Byllye led the first national conference on Black women’s health issues, which launched the National Black Women’s Health Project (now the Black Women’s Health Imperative) in 1984 in Atlanta, Georgia. A recipient of the 1989 MacArthur Fellowship, Byllye has served as a clinical professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, an advisor to the National Institutes of Public Health, and a visiting fellow at Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MPH, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM
Chief Clinical Officer, CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health
Associate Clinical Professor, UCSF School of Nursing

Nikia is a nurse-midwife, anthropologist, and reproductive justice leader dedicated to restoring and advancing Black midwifery in the United States. She serves as Chief Clinical Officer of CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health, where she helped build a comprehensive, midwifery-led reproductive health system serving predominantly Black and marginalized communities in the South. Dr. Grayson is also an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, where she co-directs the nurse-midwifery program and mentors the next generation of midwives. Her work centers on reproductive justice, community birth, and expanding access to full-scope midwifery care. Through clinical leadership, education, and storytelling, she works to reclaim the legacy of Black midwives and ensure that birth equity is a lived reality for all families.

Contact

Mariana Brandman, Sophia Smith Collection Archivist: mbrandman@smith.edu