Talk with You Like a Woman

“A remarkable collection of individual stories . . . . Hicks succeeds in opening up a new conversation about early twentieth-century New York, one in which black working-class women’s voices are finally heard.” — American Historical Review

“A masterly study of black women, reform, and the criminal justice system.” — Journal of American History

“Hicks gives voice to women who have not been studied thus far. Recommended.” — CHOICE

“An excellent, often riveting series of portraits of working-class black women in New York City whose lives intersect with social reform, city policing, the first sexual revolution, and the great migration of southern African Americans to the North. Hicks provides an ambitious and important corrective to the scant treatment of these women by academic historians.” — Patricia Schechter, Portland State University

“This creative, cross-disciplinary book will make significant contributions to African American and women’s history, as well as sociology and legal studies. Hicks brings a fresh perspective to under-researched topics and much-needed revision to long-held assumptions about the dynamics of class and moral reform issues among African Americans.” — Tera Hunter, author of To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors after the Civil War