Barbara Jean

About the Book

If I Perish, I Perish: A Story of Race and Civil Rights is the book I've written about my experiences not only growing up as an African-American woman in the South and in Boston, from the 1930s through the 50s but also the lawsuit I filed against the Massachusetts Department of Welfare in the 1970s after I was denied multiple promotions to positions for which I was qualified. I eventually won the case (resulting in the Barbara Jean Culbreath Consent Decree), serving as an acknowledgement of my perseverance and a touchstone for other African-Americans both in Boston and around the country who found themselves facing the ugly specter of racism in the workplace.

About the Author

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Barbara J. Culbreath moved to Boston in the late forties and completed her education in the Boston School system. She is the divorced mother of three children whose struggle to raise them alone has been worthwhile for the joy they have brought to her, her parents and her family members.