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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumshow many of these early black feminists do you know?
How Many of These Early Black Feminists Do You Know?
Though black feminists have wielded social media to make willful strides into public consciousness, black feminism is nothing new. The challenge of being doubly oppressed as a black woman has always colored feminist conversations, and minority women rarely have the luxury of fighting solely on behalf of their gender. The question of intersectionality predates hashtags and Twitter feminism and goes all the way back to impasses such as the one between black journalist Ida B. Wells and white suffragist Frances Willard. Wells implored Willard to acknowledge the evil of lynching, while Willard, blinded by her race and class privileges, believed black men to be deserving targets.
Though not always recognized, black women have always made forays into the feminist dialogue to ensure black women and girls dont remain an afterthought. In celebration of Black History Month, here are 11 early black feminists, in no particular ordersome youve learned about and some you probably havent.
Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964)
One of the most prominent black scholars in American history, Cooper was the fourth African American woman to earn a PhD when she graduated from University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1924. Having been born in slavery in Raleigh, N.C., Cooper used both her lived experience with racism and her scholastic ability to pen her first book in 1892, A Voice from the South: By a Woman from the South. The book, in which Cooper argued for the self-determination of black women, is considered the first volume of black feminist thought in the U.S.
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
An abolitionist and womens rights activist, Truth was also born into slavery, but escaped with her young daughter. She later went to court to obtain freedom for her son, becoming the first black woman to win such a case. Her famous speech on gender inequity, Aint I a Woman was delivered in 1851 at a womens rights convention in Akron, OH, and has endured as a raw and powerful utterance of the tribulations and burdens black women shoulder.
Amy Jacques Garvey
Amy Jacques Garvey (1895-1973)
Garvey, the second wife of black nationalist Marcus Garvey, was a daunting intellectual and social activist in her own right. A gifted journalist, she worked as a columnist for Negro World in Harlem and often discussed the intersectionality of race, gender and class as it pertained to black women. She wrote once in an essay, The [black men] will more readily sing the praises of white women than their own; yet who is more deserving of admiration than the black woman, she who has borne the rigors of slavery, the deprivations consequent on a pauperized race, and the indignities heaped upon a weak and defenseless people? Yet she has suffered all with fortitude, and stands ever ready to help in the onward march to freedom and power.
Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954)
An activist for civil rights and suffrage, Terrell was one of the first African American women to earn a college degree when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1884. A close of acquaintance of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, she campaigned for racial equality, becoming a well-known activist in Washington, D.C. A writer and the first president of of the National Association of Colored Women, many of her works, including A Plea for the White South by a Colored Woman and A Colored Woman in a White World, focused on the status of black women in society. Terrell was also a founding member of the NAACP and helped organize the black sorority Delta Sigma Theta.
. . . .
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2014/02/19/how-many-of-these-early-black-feminists-do-you-know/
thucythucy
(8,104 posts)Thanks for posting.
You might want to cross post, if you haven't already, in the History of Feminism thread.
Thanks again, and best wishes.
niyad
(113,701 posts)leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)ms tubman i learned about in school
niyad
(113,701 posts)might not be so familiar to all of us.
leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)RainDog
(28,784 posts)I could only hope to be half as brave.
leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)ida bell wells
RainDog
(28,784 posts)niyad
(113,701 posts)gopiscrap
(23,766 posts)Thanks for sharing
niyad
(113,701 posts)MadrasT
(7,237 posts)Thanks niyad.
niyad
(113,701 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)In addition to Mary Church Terrell, who was profiled in the OP...
Mary Jane Patterson (1840-94) was the first African American woman to receive a bachelors degree in the United States when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1862. Her parents came to Oberlin in her early youth, probably as fugitive slaves. Upon graduation, she taught in the Institute for Colored Youths for seven years in Philadelphia. In 1869, she started teaching in Washington, DC, and in 1871, became the first African American principal of the newly established Preparatory High School for Negroes.
Edmonia Lewis (1843-?) was a sculptor famous for drawing on themes of African American slavery and emancipation. She attended Oberlin College and left in 1862 due to a scandal. She was accused of poisoning two of her white friends. Oberlin alumnus John Mercer Langston, however, represented Lewis, and she was proven innocent. She left and after briefly working in Boston, moved to Rome in 1865. At that time, Oberlin was one of the few institutions in the United States to admit female and African American students. Attending Oberlin made a huge influence on her; it enabled her to start studying arts. The Death of Cleopatra, a life-size sculpture by Lewis, is on long-term loan to the Allen Memorial Art Museum. Lewis was the first African American sculptor to achieve national and international recognition for her portraits of abolitionists and for her depictions of ethnic and religious themes. Later, the college established the Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People to represent anti-heterosexism and anti-racism and offer a safe space on campus to support and advocate for those disenfranchised based on gender, cisgender, or transgender.
And some still making history...
Jacqueline Berrien was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She received a bachelors degree in English with High Honors in government from Oberlin College, and attended Harvard Law School, where she worked as a general editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Her nomination is still pending.
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (1970-present) is a politician and 49th mayor of Baltimore, the second woman and the youngest mayor in the citys history. In 1992 she graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in political science.
Thanks for this thread, Niyad!
niyad
(113,701 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)I'm convinced if she were white there would have been a score of books and movies based on her extraordinary life.
RedRoses323
(199 posts)niyad
(113,701 posts)Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)thank you.
Pretzel_Warrior
(8,361 posts)They all departed prior to my arrival.
RBStevens
(227 posts)women's history, especially the history of women who are not white, is of little/no value.
Most of them departed before my arrival too but I was at least familiar with Sojourner Truth.
alp227
(32,068 posts)no wonder our nation is deep in misogynshit. NCLB has censored ANY "inconveniences" like feminism and the labor movement from the classroom.
niyad
(113,701 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)RBStevens
(227 posts)thank you for sharing the link
myrna minx
(22,772 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)...many, many, many moons ago, the word "slavery" was barely even mentioned in history class and you never heard a peep about women. My real education came from the public library and the "other histories" we weren't supposed to know about, much less talk about.
RBStevens
(227 posts)"minority women rarely have the luxury of fighting solely on behalf of their gender".
People often try to deflect/redirect feminist energy by implying that not enough is being done about racism. It is sadly necessary to remind those people that half of all people of color are female.
Thank you for posting this in general discussion.
niyad
(113,701 posts)uppityperson
(115,681 posts)"People often try to deflect/redirect feminist energy by implying that not enough is being done about racism. It is sadly necessary to remind those people that half of all people of color are female. "
What do you mean? Thanks
RBStevens
(227 posts)Perhaps I could have worded it like, 'by implying that my advocacy/energy would be better spent on racism because racism is a *bigger issue*'
Yes, racism is a really big issue but so is sexism. I choose to expend the political energy I can afford on women's issues and by extension, since half of all people of color are female, I am also expending a good deal of that energy on racism because not all female people are white.
My point is that it is normally men who are asking those of us who focus on women's girls' issues to re-focus our energy to a *main* cause that includes men. And women's issues (all of them, including racism) do not.
One edit, I want to add that women who experience racism and sexism do have a double burden of course, no question about that!
uppityperson
(115,681 posts)for clarification helps me avoid the excess energy needed in jumping to conclusions based on assumptions.
I am in agreement with what you write, thanks
RBStevens
(227 posts)kenichol
(252 posts)Your posting this in February (African American Month) is a great way of reminding us all of those brave feminists abolitionist and womens rights activist of earlier days and their contribution toward a real and lasting equality of the races and genders. Thank you!
niyad
(113,701 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)Fantastic list. May I add Claudia Jones?
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/claudia-jones-a-life-in-the-struggle/
<snip>
In the post war period, Jones' published numerous articles criticizing the emerging Cold War mentality offered by the likes of Winston Churchill, rejected the anti-Semitism of the ultra right and the anti-Communists, called for end to lynching and terrorism against African Americans, and opposed the anti-labor Taft-Hartley law. In 1947, Jones accepted the position of chair of the National Women's Commission of the Communist Party. It was during her tenure at this post that Jones first formulated the theory of the triple oppression of working-class women of color who represent a 'vital link' to a 'heightened sense of consciousness' of the need for a common, united struggle against oppression and exploitation. In her report to the Communist Partys 1950 national convention, Jones asserted the need to 'demonstrate that the economic, political and social demands of Negro women are not just ordinary demands, but special demands, flowing from special discrimination facing Negro women as women, as workers and as Negroes.' Jones also viewed racial oppression as a strong motivation and justification for proponents of U.S. imperialism and aggressive wars, making international solidarity, a strong peace movement, and a vigorous movement for equality more necessary than ever.
<snip>
niyad
(113,701 posts)TBF
(32,116 posts)gwheezie
(3,580 posts)The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: "It's a girl.
― Shirley Chisholm
Ms Chisholm was elected to congress when I was just becoming politically aware as a young teenager, she was my 1st political hero.
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)Great post!
niyad
(113,701 posts)Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)I've never heard of any of them in my life. This country needs more than 1 month (albeit the shortest month of the year) for Black History. It's a shame that I was never even taught the full history of my own people!
I know one. Where's my prize?
TBF
(32,116 posts)Lucy Stanton Day Sessions (1831-1912) became the first black American to graduate from a four-year college when she received a Literary Degree from Oberlin in 1850.
A Plea For The Oppressed
by Lucy Stanton (1850)
When I forget you, Oh my people, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, and may my right hand forget her cunning! Dark hover the clouds. The Anti-Slavery pulse beats faintly. The right of suffrage is denied. The colored man is still crushed by the weight of oppression. He may possess talents of the highest order, yet for him is no path of fame or distinction opened. He can never hope to attain those privileges while his brethren remain enslaved. Since, therefore, the freedom of the slave and the gaining of our rights, social and political, are inseparably connected, let all the friends of humanity plead for those who may not plead their own cause.
Reformers, ye who have labored long to convince man that happiness is found alone in doing good to others, that humanity is a unit, that he who injures one individual wrongs the race;that to love one's neighbor as one's self is the sum of human virtueye that advocate the great principles of Temperance, Peace, and Moral Reform will you not raise your voice in behalf of these stricken ones!--will you not plead the cause of the Slave?
Slavery is the combination of all crime. It is War.
Much more here: http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/stantonaplea.html
niyad
(113,701 posts)MerryBlooms
(11,773 posts)Thanks for posting and thanks to all the others for contributing additional info.
Great thread.
niyad
(113,701 posts)Number23
(24,544 posts)myrna minx
(22,772 posts)niyad
(113,701 posts)TheSarcastinator
(854 posts)thank you for the education. This type of article is much more transformative than the "let's villify each other based on gender stereotypes" and the "hey, look: swimsuit models! whats da madder wichoo angry broads anyway?" posts. Thank you!
niyad
(113,701 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Oh, how I miss her. From the moment you first heard Barbara's impassioned eloquence, you couldn't wait to claim yourself as a Democrat.
Bio:
http://www.biography.com/people/barbara-jordan-9357991