Black Love Reimagined: Is Marriage Still The End Goal?
This story is featured in the 55th Anniversary, July/August 2025 issue of ESSENCE. Fifty-five years ago, ESSENCE published its very first issue—with the cover line, “Sensual Black Man, Do You […] The post Black Love Reimagined: Is Marriage Still The End Goal? appeared first on Essence.
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By Jasmine Elise ·Updated August 18, 2025 < /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… This story is featured in the 55th Anniversary, July/August 2025 issue of ESSENCE.
Fifty-five years ago, ESSENCE published its very first issue—with the cover line, “Sensual Black Man, Do You Love Me?” The article dove deep into the glaring uptick in numbers of single Black women. Writer Louise Meriwether framed the rise of marriages between Black men and White women—which had been legalized only three years before, in 1967—as the main cause of the “man drain” at the time.
While some of the sentiments in that article ring true today, things have changed in monumental ways. Recent data published by ESSENCE paints an interesting picture of
The post Black Love Reimagined: Is Marriage Still The End Goal? appeared first on Essence.
