Christy’s story reveals how America’s care system relies on women to shoulder impossible responsibilities with too little support.
“If I had more financial stability, it would help a lot. It would help with food, the kids and the pressure of trying to keep everything together. Even a little more would give me some room to breathe. When I’m not so stressed, I can focus more on caring for my mom and helping my children. That is what I do every day.”
As the United States continues in its 250th year, another question has to be asked: what would it mean to repair the systemic conditions that Black women are too often forced to endure, navigate, and transform for generations?
This question sits at the heart of Making Joy Possible, a new poll from The Highland Project, brilliant corners Research & Strategies, and Springboard to Opportunities focused on Black women voters in Mississippi.
The findings are clear. Black women in Mississippi are deeply dissatisfied with the direction of the country and the economy. Nearly nine in 10 are dissatisfied with the country’s direction, and 90 percent say economic conditions are getting worse. A majority say their wages are falling behind the cost of living, and 44 percent say they experience racism and discrimination often. And still, 75 percent say they are highly motivated to participate in the 2026 midterms.
The poll also tells a deeper story: Black women in Mississippi know what wholeness requires, what is breaking it—and what must be repaired.
The MMT is an initiative from Springboard to Opportunities, a non-profit organization that Aisha Nyandoro, from Mississippi, co-founded in 2013. Springboard works directly with families who live in federally supported affordable housing in Jackson. Nyandoro calls it a “radically resident-driven approach”.
But by 2017, Nyandoro became concerned that Springboard wasn’t moving the needle enough on poverty. Though the organization has after-school programs, workforce development, reading circles and other programing, she started wondering what else they needed to offer.
A chance conversation with a mother put her on a new path.
Mississippi is one of a dozen states where the end of the school year can mean the start of a serious food shortage for families who depend on school meals, due to state leaders opting out of a federal program meant to feed hungry kids when they’re home during the summer. Springboard to Opportunities is helping to close that gap with direct cash assistance for families after the state again opted out of the SUN Bucks program.
Policy choices have real consequences for families — and while community-based solutions can support when systems fall short — the real solution is sustained, federal support: hunger does not fall on state or party lines.
“Living in Mississippi taught me how much wisdom exists in communities that are often underestimated. That understanding has shaped every aspect of my work.”
“Black women voters in Mississippi areoffering one of the clearest pictures ofwhere America is failing — and what itwould take to build something rooted in joyand dignity.“
This poll tells two stories at once: Black women in Mississippi have a vision of wholeness for the future, and they have a precise understanding of what is breaking that possibility now.
This poll is part of The Highland Project’s multi-year research effort with brilliant corners Research and Strategies to listen to Black women’s economic, civic, and well-being perspectives and translate that wisdom into a broader vision of multigenerational wealth and opportunity. Across years of national polling, Black women have consistently named that wealth is not only what people earn or own. It is whether families and communities have the conditions to live fully — with financial freedom, abundant choice, belonging, and thriving health. The Mississippi findings deepen that lesson. Black women in Mississippi are naming what wholeness requires and what is breaking it: economic strain, public systems that too often fail to meet people with dignity, and a civic landscape where participation should not be mistaken for satisfaction. Their responses remind us that civic life, economic life, family life, and wellbeing are deeply connected — and that systems cannot earn trust by treating them as separate.
Black Women in Mississippi Are Asking for Breathing Room
Black women across Mississippi are carrying extraordinary responsibilities while navigating systems that often leave them exhausted, stressed, and unseen. This statewide survey reveals a simple but urgent truth: families are not asking for excess. They are asking for stability, dignity, and the ability to experience joy. The findings show that joy is not separate from economic policy or financial well-being. For many Black women, joy is deeply connected to peace of mind, time for themselves, rest, and the ability to care for loved ones without constant financial strain. The research also challenges harmful narratives about poverty and assistance programs. Black women overwhelmingly describe financial hardship not as personal failure, but as the result of rising costs, inadequate wages, and systems that often make getting help feel humiliating and exhausting.
