By The Editors
Tributes to Mom are a Mother’s Day tradition. But we wanted to look at the other side of the coin. We sent out a call for mothers to write about the challenges, joys, heartbeats and lessons of life’s greatest journey.

By The Editors
The role mothers have in families and the meanings mothers have to individual human beings is almost beyond description. We feel no need to attempt a large self-consciously profound statement on motherhood. Instead, we simply present to you the words of several well-known writers who love their mamas. They include: Martha Southgate, Jill Nelson, Tananarive Due, Bernice McFadden, Errol Louis, William Jelani Cobb, Troy Johnson, and the Reverend Al Sharpton.

By TaRessa Stovall
“What do you think about black men with white women?”

By high school, I thought I’d pretty much grappled with most of the thornier questions that came with being both biracial and ethnically ambiguous-looking. But when my two high school running buddies asked how I felt about interracial couples, I found myself facing a whole ‘nother dilemma.

By Lee A. Daniels

I was in Houston attending a conference in late July of 1999, when my sister Lois called to tell me our mother was dying. I wasn’t surprised. I knew that was what my mother had planned. Six years earlier I had, literally, seen it in her face.

By Stacey Patton
The photo shown above, in some ways, belies the reality of my relationship with my mother. The truth is, she and I have never been captured in the same frame and images of us from that era are rare. For years, I’ve carried a tattered photograph of her in my wallet, pulling it out from time to finger its edges, gaze into her eyes, and plant a gentle kiss on her forehead before sliding it back into its place among credit cards, receipts and business cards.