Situating Sojourning for Freedom within the conceptual framework of “black left feminism,” McDuffie traces the political lives of black radical women such Claudia Jones, Grace Campbell, Williana Borroughs, and Audley “Queen Mother” Moore. The story begins in the 1920s with the conclusion of first wave of feminism through the 1970s with the beginning of third wave feminism. Originally McDuffie looks to study black communist women as a way to stabilize the “overwhelming attention to the church, women’s clubs, and the Garvey movement” that overshadows other brands of black women’s radical activity (6–7). Instead of observing these black communist women as individual activists, McDuffie chooses to demonstrate their activities as “part of a community of black women radicals whose collective history spanned more than fifty years” (7). With this work, he proposes an “alternative genealogy of twentieth century black feminism” which places the black women radicals, instead of civil rights, black power, and feminist movements as the foremost “progenitor for the black feminism of the 1960s and 1970s” (13).
In Radicalism at the Crossroads, Gore’s purpose is to “insert both the analysis of black women radicals and their collective experiences into the history of postwar radicalism by
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The texts that come to mind are Rebecca Sharpless’s Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens, Living In, Living Out by Elizabeth Clark-Lewis, Making a Way Out of No Way by Lisa Krissoff Boehm, Georgina Hickey’s Hope and Danger, Tera Hunter’s To Joy My Freedom, and Jacqueline Jones’s Labor of Love, Labor of
McGuire, Danielle L. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance- A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. New York, New York: Vintage Books. 2011.
As both Tracey Reynolds and Audre Lorde have emphasized, Black women are not perpetually passive victims, but active agents. It is totally possible for Black women to seize a form of empowerment, whether that be alternative education, or the creation of organizations that weren’t situated in either the Civil Rights movement or Women’s
Claudia Jones’s political activism has had a momentous impact on the study of politics and the African Diaspora. She is a significant figure in the history of feminism, communism, and black politics. Jones is regarded as one of the most radical and revolutionary thinkers of her time. Her writings are still regarded today as influential. I think this book was very informative and interesting because it gives you an insight of history and communism through a different perspective. Claudia Jones’s life and dedication to social justice is very inspiring to read about and her works and legacy still lives on
Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000
Beale, Frances. "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female." An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. New York: New, 1995. 146. Print.
Women, Race and Class is the prolific analysis of the women's rights movement in the United States as observed by celebrated author, scholar, academic and political activist. Angela Y. Davis, Ph.D. The book is written in the same spirit as Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. Davis does not merely recount the glorious deeds of history. traditional feminist icons, but rather tells the story of women's liberation from the perspective of former black slaves and wage laborers. Essential to this approach is the salient omnipresent concept known as intersectionality.
Patten, Neil A, The Nineteenth Century Black Women as Social Reformer: The New Speeches of Sojourner Truth, Negro History Bulletin, 49:1 (1986, Jan/Mar) Association for the study of African-American Life and History
Ogbar, Jeffrey. Black Power Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2004, 124.
Jeffrey, Julie Roy. The great silent army of abolitionism: ordinary women in the antislavery movement. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
In the weekly readings for week five we see two readings that talk about the connections between women’s suffrage and black women’s identities. In Rosalyn Terborg-Penn’s Discontented Black Feminists: Prelude and Postscript to the Passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, we see the ways that black women’s identities were marginalized either through their sex or by their race. These identities were oppressed through social groups, laws, and voting rights. Discontented Black Feminists talks about the journey black feminists took to combat the sexism as well as the racism such as forming independent social clubs, sororities, in addition to appealing to the government through courts and petitions. These women formed an independent branch of feminism in which began to prioritize not one identity over another, but to look at each identity as a whole. This paved the way for future feminists to introduce the concept of intersectionality.
It is believed by the author that the feminist movement in many ways parallels the struggles faced by African Americans in the US during the same time period. The authors will offer ideas on where the pro...
9. Gilmore, Stephanie. "The Dynamics Of Second-Wave Feminist Activism In Memphis, 1971-1982: Rethinking The Liberal/Radical Divide." NWSA Journal 15.1 (2003): 94. Academic Search Elite. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
At one of Paul’s demonstrations in DC, they are speaking to women factory workers who are not aware that they should be able to vote for something like having a fire exit in the factory. Gaining the support from working class women was very important to the movement because these women are at the brunt of society’s negative views and are most affected by the societal hardships. Paul’s feminist movement received additional support from Ida B. Wells, an African American women rights activist, as long as they were allowed to march with the white women, not behind them. Although this minute aspect of the movie did not thoroughly discuss the racist issues also present at the time, it made me think about Sojourner Truth’s speech ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ Representation from all races and social classes is imperative in the fight for women’s equality because African American women are women too, color does not matter.
All too often, "black" was equated with black men and "woman" was equated with white women. As a result, black women were an invisible group whose existence and needs were ignored. The purpose of the movement was to develop theory which could adequately address the way race, gender, and class were interconnected in their lives and to take action to stop racist, sexist, and classist discrimination. (Vol. 9.1 - A History of Black Feminism in the U.S.)
The black feminist movement was a political and social protest which grew out of discontent with both the civil rights movement and the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Black feminism had derived from the woman’s movement, however entailed that african american women face a greater extent of oppression due to mixed factors such as sexism, classism, and racism which render them inferior to middle class white women and complicate their social conditions. During this time, African American female writers were vital components in the fight for gender equality by documenting their endeavors at overcoming racism and sexism as they sought to identify with other black women through common culture and a shared struggle for justice. In commemorating