Women In The Civil Rights Movement Analysis

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Social justice organizing has the main goal of eliminating oppression; thus, the Black Panther Party aimed to challenge oppressions seen in the US during the 1960s and 1970s through gender, race, and class. However, their practices did not always follow through with their proposed theory. As a former female member of the Party explains, “[W]e could talk about this stuff [gender and sexism]. We could talk about it just as we talked about capitalism and imperialism. But I don’t know that we internalized it” (Matthews 248). Thus, she acknowledged that discussions between members surrounding gender and sexism occurred; yet, the contradictions between the theory and the practices of the BPP still remained throughout. This translated to women in …show more content…

Yet, as the movement begins to develop more of an organizational structure, women are seen to fade out of the picture and often do not reemerge until declining phases of the movement, when personal costs tend to be high” (Blumberg 134). A key example cited by Blumberg is of Ella Baker, an NAACP activist, who was asked to assume the administrative duties of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SNCC) until someone with qualified credentials could shoulder the position; however, as Blumberg notes, those credentials were “male” and “minister” although Baker possessed the experience and ability to retain the position (Blumberg 134). Likewise, despite the significant role that women activists such as Diane Nash, a Nashville sit-in leader, played in the SNCC as well as the crucial contributions that they made, “no woman was elected to the top leadership post in SNCC” (Blumberg

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