“Some of my favorite memories are of being in the care of my grandmother, who was a family child care provider, but Nana to me. I wanted my own daughter to enjoy that same feeling of love and security Nana provides when it was time for her to be in child care. Finding a child care environment that surrounded my daughter with love and recognition that her Black is beautiful in the same way that Nana cared for me was important. That culturally responsive care that we yearned for was ultimately found in a Black child care provider.”  

“My career in child care policy made me more familiar with the history of child care in America. As I searched down the timeline to get to the origin of the experience that families and providers face, I made the connection that child care in the U.S. is rooted in chattel slavery. Enslaved Black women were forced (and trusted) to nurture their oppressors. Black women cared for (including breastfeeding) their enslaver’s children, while their own children were sold, or forced to work alongside them.”  

  - Keisha Nzewi, Co-Founder, Black Californians United for Early Childcare Education