MUFFY MENDOZA, FOUNDER OF “BROWN MAMAS”
7,000 Black mothers in region part of the network
It’s hard being a mother.
Really hard.
Cynthia “Muffy” Mendoza is the founder of “Brown Mamas,” which began as a group of mothers meeting, talking, discussing, uplifting each other, and since has grown to more than 7,000 Black mothers in Pittsburgh. The number is more than 10,000 Black mothers nationally.
As Mendoza said on KDKA-TV’s “Talk Pittsburgh” in mid-July 2024 promoting her annual “Brown Mamas Weekend,” “the task of mothering is very difficult, and you need your people. ‘Brown Mamas Weekend’ is an opportunity for you to come and find your Brown Mama People.”
“Brown Mamas Weekend” was July 27-28 at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center. On July 27, the event was moreso focused on stories of resilience and triumph from Pittsburgh-area Black mothers, otherwise known as the “Brown Mama Monologues.” It was hosted by Pittsburgh native and actor Lamman Rucker. On July 28, it was the first “Womb, Wealth and Wellness Summit,” where people like Cassandra Cummings hosted a wealth-building-through-investing seminar, and Latham Thomas spoke on womb wellness for a lifetime.
Cummings and Thomas are powerhouses in their respective fields. Cummings, a California native and resident, is behind “The Stocks and Stilettos Society,” which has more than 100,000 Black women nationally interested in investing. Thomas, a New York City resident, is the force behind “Mama Glow,” which delivers an array of offerings for women and families along the paths of fertility, pregnancy and new motherhood.
Local Black mothers were also featured throughout the new summit, such as LaKeisha Wolf, Nisha Blackwell, Latoya Hamm Wilson, and Jada Shirriel.
EXPLORING DIVERSE PATHS TO HOLISTIC WELLNESS PANEL—IT FEATURED DORIS KING, STACEY BARLOW-HILL AND TAYLER CLEMM. IT WAS HOSTED BY MUFFY MENDOZA, FAR LEFT, DURING “BROWN MAMAS WEEKEND.” (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO)
People like Mendoza, who formerly lived in New York, knew the dire straits that many Black women and mothers face in Pittsburgh. Mendoza started Brown Mamas in 2012, seven years before Pittsburgh’s infamous “Gender Equity Commission Report” that was released in 2019 which said, among other things, that Pittsburgh’s Black women made 54 cents for every White man’s dollar in the city, and that Pittsburgh’s Black women were five times more likely to live in poverty than the city’s White men.
The report found that 18 out of every 1,000 Black women pregnancies end in a fetal death, compared to 9 out of every 1,000 White women pregnancies.
MUFFY MENDOZA WITH JENNIFER HUDSON, ON “THE JENNIFER HUDSON SHOW” IN 2023.
Another statistic that won’t be in a future “Reasons to stay in Pittsburgh” brochure—Pittsburgh’s Black maternal mortality rate is higher than Black mortality rates in 97 percent of similar cities, the Gender Equity Commission report found.
Brown Mamas, throughout the year, has programs that include healing circles, self-care meet-ups, networking events and helps connect mothers with therapists, doctors, homeschooling support and food banks.
“Brown Mamas Weekend is an opportunity for us to celebrate being Brown Mamas, an opportunity for us to take a deeper look at what it means to be a Black mother in the United States,” Mendoza, who is a wife with three sons, said on KDKA-TV. “But it’s also an opportunity for us to really celebrate each other, celebrate all the highs and lows that we experience and all the trials and triumphs we have as being moms.”
Jennifer Hudson, the R&B singer, actress and now host of her own daytime talk show, “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” got wind of the work Mendoza does. In an episode that aired in December 2023, Hudson invited the Mendoza family to the show, where Hudson applauded the work of the Brown Mamas movement. Hudson then surprised the Mendoza family with an all-expenses-paid trip to Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, which is about 20 minutes southeast of Uniontown, Pa.
With husband, Mack, and her three sons by her side, Muffy Mendoza told Hudson how Brown Mamas was born out of humble beginnings; how, when she and Mack came to Pittsburgh from New York City, the Mendoza family had to live in Muffy Mendoza’s best friend’s basement. After finding their own place, Muffy Mendoza eventually started Brown Mamas with six other Black women in Muffy Mendoza’s home—just talking, supporting and uplifting each other.
The rest, as they say, is history.
“I never thought in a million years I’d be here,” Muffy Mendoza, holding back tears, told Hudson, herself a mother of a son.
Hudson replied: “Oh, but you made it.”
GEORGE PEARSON, CHRISTOS, CHRISTINEA, DOM GILES, AND KAMCAM GILES, AT “BROWN MAMAS WEEKEND.”
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