Historical Movements Black Feminist

Black Feminist

Introduction

The black feminist roots can be traced to 1864 when slavery had not yet been abolished, and Sojourner Truth began selling pictures mounted to a paper card to fund her activism. After being enslaved, being in a position to own and sell her image for profit was revolutionary. According to Peterson (2019), Truth often commented that she “used to be sold for other people’s benefit, but now she sold herself for her own.” Her activism was mainly centered on the abolishment of slavery and securing the rights of women since she was convinced race and gender were inseparable. Truths activism is an early representation of the early black tradition. While the vision may differ in the different collectives of feminists in the cause of time, the foundational principles that exist are black women’s experiences of racism, classism, and sexism; their distinct view of the world from that of white men and women as well as black men; and need to address racism, sexism, and classism simultaneously.

Black women have been part of the Black Liberation Movement since slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, Black Panthers, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Black Nationalism. However, while these movements were interested in the black race’s liberation but were not specific to the needs of the women as members of the community and U.S citizens (Peterson, 2019). The women in these movements experienced sexism from their male colleagues and members from other ethnicities, including women. While they participated in the activism for the black community, the efforts were mainly nuanced towards the redemption of dignity for black masculinity.

The emergence of feminist movements in the 1960s attracted participation by black women but was met with racism and disapproval. Black women were only invited to participate in conferences specific to black women and women from third-world countries. Consequently, the emergence of black activism was necessary since the issues addressed in these conferences did not resonate with their lived experiences (Taylor, 1998). This marginalization within and out of the black liberalization movements resulted in the need for black feminism to lobby for the unique needs of black women. Such needs included the right to work and earn a living, access to education, and independence in making fertility decisions.

History of Black Feminism

As established, the black feminism movement has been a lifelong struggle advocating for the welfare and liberation of black women. Black women have a long-term negative relationship with the contemporary political system, which is predominantly occupied by white men subjecting women at a macro level to their perception of what is needed by women. This view is oblivious to the unique needs of the black women subjecting them to a governance system that influences their lives in overt and subtle ways (Taylor, 1998). Some leading women in the black feminist movement are Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Harriet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper, and Mary Church Terrell. They held the view that their sexual identity and racial identity were factors that contributed to their disenfranchisement.

The black feminist movement occurred in the second American Women’s Movement wave in the late 1960s. Women in third world countries, America, and women in the working class were a participant in the feminist movement from its beginning but due to the differences in the lived experiences of black women in the U.S., third world countries, and women in the working class. A reaction to the pervasive elitism and racism in the movement obscures their participation (Peterson, 2019). In 1973, black feminists originally located in New York felt the need to form a separate black feminist movement that was eventually known as the National Black Feminist Organization (NFBO). Most of the leaders of the black feminist movement were part of the black liberation in the 1960s and 1970s. The ideologies purveyed by these individuals were greatly influenced by the ideologies, objectives, and tactics employed to achieve their desires (Webster, 2022). The political position of the black feminist movement led to the development of antiracists, unlike the objectives of white women, and anti-sexists, unlike those of white and black men. Initially, women viewed their struggles as a result of subjugation by men and identified the systematic challenges that contributed to their disenfranchisement. In the black liberation movements, black women were hypersexualized in media and within the movement.

Areas in difference in the National Feminist Movement

Some of the differences between the black and white women in the national feminist movement were mainly centered on the racism experience out and within the movement and differences in their economic and social status in the community. White women had not been subjected to the racism that had a multigenerational impact on the Black community and the liberation movements and activism causes that had taken place between the emancipation pronouncement by Abraham Lincoln and the black panther movement in the 20th century (Crenshaw, 1989). Economically, white women were at an advantage since they would get employment without discrimination, healthcare for their families that lowered the mortality rates of children and enjoy their democratic rights without discrimination, unlike black women.

Black women faced discrimination while seeking healthcare and employment and were denied basic democratic rights. The pervasive racism affected women’s economic and social welfare, who often were forced to raise their children as single parents. These experiences were core to the interests of the black woman within the feminist movement. Still, they did not resonate with the white women in the leading roles and were the majority of participants (Nast, 2022). Purveyance of the perceptions of the black woman as angry and hypersexual in the feminist movement also contributed to the establishment of a separate black women’s movement (Taylor, 1998). Due to radicalization during the civil rights movement, black women’s tactics of lobbying for their issues led to a margin since the white women were unfamiliar with these tactics or felt that they were too violent or unnecessary.

The experiences of black feminists limited their objectives in racism and sexism since they were the primary factors affecting their existence. According to “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female,” a feminist pamphlet authored by Beal in 1969;

“It is idle dreaming to think of black women caring for their homes and children like the middle-class white model. Most black women have to work to help house, feed and clothe their families. Black women make up a substantial percentage of the black working force, which is true for the poorest black family and the so-called ‘middle-class’ family” (Nast, 2022).

Beal notes that the oversight of black women’s plight was overlooked at the national level and by black men. Black feminists felt that black men were aware of the consequences of subjugation as men but failed to acknowledge the additional burden on black women.

Despite the differences between the middle-class white women’s demands and aspirations and those of the poor working-class women of color, there was a concerted effort to realize reproductive justice. This involved the expansion of what constituted reproductive justice to include the right to bear children, abortion rights, and encompassing the context within which such decisions about having a child or not were made. However, differences in the approach to lobbying for abortion rights in movements, such as “NOW,” which was predominantly white, were indifferent to the issues about abortion that affected black women, such as coerced sterilization. In a study by Princeton University in 1970, 21% of married black women had been sterilized (Nast, 2022). The ideology mainly informed the marginalization within the black liberation movement that black women needed to follow the black man’s political leaders. According to Beal, this belief was contradictory since limiting the room for action among the revolutionary women to housekeeping limited their ability to contribute to the black community’s political liberation from the black man’s perspective. Notably, this belief was unacceptable since the political assail on the black man left the women to play a primary role in the care of black families.

However, some of the efforts toward reproduction justice were met with rivalry in the contemporary culture among the black Christians and in the mainstream media. For example, Reverend Jesse Jackson argued the political leverage of the black community lay in reproduction to increase its population and create a voting population that would influence the country’s political discourse (Webster, 2022). In 2014, the Guttmacher Institute reported that more than three-quarters of the abortion patients were low-income earners, and more than half of the people who had abortions were from the black and brown communities. However, black women were disproportionately affected by poverty and considered what bearing a child meant for the rest of their lives.

The Combahee River Collective

In the 1970s, the Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist lesbian who believed that the black woman was inherently invaluable and their liberation was a necessity but not adjunct to anyone’s because of the need for autonomy (Taylor, 1998). While it seems obvious and simplistic, the collective held that there is no other progressive movement that had ever considered the oppression of lesbians and prioritized lobbying for the end of their oppression. They were classified collectively and disparaged along with black women by being referred to using stereotypes, such as Sapphire, whore, mammy, a matriarch, and bulldagger. Further subjugation that the collective unacceptable was the cruel treatment with murderous intent towards lesbians that covertly communicated that they were not valued and their life was not perceived with dignity. As such, the establishment of the Combahee River Collective was after realizing that they were the only ones who suffered under this banner and could address or work consistently to change this status along with other black women.

The Combahee River Collective held that identity and sexual politics were purveyed by patriarchy that had been normalized and pervasive in black women’s lives. They found it difficult to separate issues that ranged from sex, oppression, race, and class since, more often than not, they affected their lives simultaneously (Reed, 2019). The example given for this issue was the rape of black women during and after slavery as means of intimidation and political repression. Being feminists and lesbians, the collective fostered solidarity with the progressive black men and were active in the movements against the fractionalization that white women who were separatists demanded. The collective held that presenting a solid front on such issues was critical to creating a momentum that would lead to successful changes in policy and instigate change in the cultural norms.

According to the collective, the challenge in inorganizing black feminists to rally behind the changes they needed towards change was the need to address the challenges identified simultaneously and differences in focus. The resources at the disposal of the feminist movement that was budding were limited, leaving them with no leverage to help in articulating their aspirations and challenges. Some of the areas where the collective felt it did not have leverage and privilege that other political groups would rely on were racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege (Reed, 2019). The consistent encounter with the challenges that disproportionately affected black women, particularly lesbians, was mentally exhausting, leading to some of the core members abandoning the causes halfway, resulting in a consistent front in lobbying for change. Intimidation by the government also contributed to the lack of support from allies locally and internationally.