Black Women during the Civil Rights Movement were Underrepresented by Men

1937 Words4 Pages

Black women have been placed in a struggle since slavery when they were brought to the Western world to be used as laborers to increase capitalism in America. Their struggle consisted of not only being oppressed as a Black , but also as a female. Since then Black women have struggled for equal opportunity politically, socially, and economically. Black women do not feel that they should be confined by their gender, class, or race due to society demanding them to take a subordinate role as a wife, caretaker, and cook. Slavery is were the struggle was introduced and it continues to be a struggle Black women face today. However, during the Black women struggle women have always continued to preserve and to still manage to be revolutionary in their actions for the betterment of Black people.

During the Civil Rights movement Black women were faced with not only being Black , but also being a women. A black woman was living as a minority within a minority, what society calls a double jeopardy. And society was expecting them to choose a struggle claiming they have to choose to be Black and then a woman or a Woman and then black. They can’t claim both. Black women felt as though they were never recognized as a woman given society couldn’t get passed their race of them being Black. So during the Civil Rights movement was when women saw fit for change; to speak up about their rights along with the rights of all.

Black women in the struggle did not let their circumstances define them. More importantly because of their struggle they were able to define themselves as the women they are today . Black women during the Civil Rights struggle were revolutionary in their service to society. Although they are not recognized like many of the ma...

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