A major theme in Wayward Lives is the unique form that sexuality, kinship, and gender norms took in African American urban neighborhoods.

As opposed to the expectation of formal, long-term, monogamous, and heterosexual relationships, Black people at the turn of the century were increasingly engaged in casual sex with multiple lovers of varying genders. Hartman writes, “A small rented room was a laboratory for trying to live free in a world where freedom was thwarted, elusive, deferred, anticipated rather than actualized” (59). These popular practices of intimacy were opportunities for people otherwise limited by racism and poverty to assert autonomy. However, they also raised panic among law enforcement and white residents who feared that such sexual freedom would damage the morality of the cities they inhabited.

Such sexual freedom was also linked to nonmainstream interpretations of marriage and the gender roles assumed in such a union. A Black woman might, for instance, live with a man and identify herself by his last name although they were not legally married. Such a choice could offer her social legitimacy. The challenges of poverty and the demand for domestic work also created many households where women were the main breadwinners. Daniel Patrick Moynihan would later reflect on this in “The Moynihan Report” (1960), using statistics to demonstrate how Black women were outpacing their counterparts.