I said to myself, “I have to write this book. The gap in the historical narrative regarding what happened to these women was so appalling to me. This is a story that I believe was willfully and intentionally swept under the rug of history. with a focus in African American literature in history, and I didn’t know this story. Yet I had gone through high school, college an Afro American studies major, had gotten a Ph.D. and testified before a Senate subcommittee, led by the late Senator Ted Kennedy. They were on the nightly news on every major network.

When I started researching, I was really astounded by how big a deal it was at the time. KAYLA GRANT: What made you want to dive into this story?ĭOLEN PERKINS-VALDEZ: I was just shocked it hadn’t been written yet. Shondaland caught up with Perkins-Valdez to discuss Take My Hand, women’s health care rights, winning the NAACP award, and more. Although the novel was inspired heavily by the true story of Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf, two Black women who were involuntarily sterilized as young girls at a federally funded clinic, Perkins-Valdez says that it also was influenced “by every low-income family that found themselves being convinced that this was the right procedure for their children.” The NAACP Image Award-winning novel highlights the stories of young Black women who were forcefully sterilized in 1973 by the federal government in Montgomery, Alabama. Her third release, Take My Hand, continues her passion for highlighting Black stories.

Her debut novel, Wench, follows the story of four Black enslaved women before the Civil War, and her second novel, Balm, explores the lives of three people after slavery ended. Perkins-Valdez believes that Black stories need to be told. “I didn’t come from a reading household, so that’s how I knew I was a true reader,” she says. Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s writing career may have begun in college when a short story that she submitted to a magazine was published, but she has loved books and storytelling since she was a child.

Dolen perkins valdez take my hand