Black Feminists
Women
Theories/Perspectives
What is Black Feminism? – Introduction to Black Feminism – Research Guides at Rutgers University
A few foundational principles among black feminisms:
- Black women’s experience of racism, sexism, and classism are inseparable.
- Their needs and worldviews are distinct from those of black men and white women.
- There is no contradiction between the struggle against racism, sexism, and all other-isms. All must be addressed simultaneously.
Club Movement: seen as sites of development for black feminist leadership and thought despite their elitism. The club movement ushered in a new era of intellectual, artistic, and philosophical production by black women about their own experiences.
Combahee River Collective the statement is at The Combahee River Collective Statement: Annotated – JSTOR Daily; the Collective recognized the interconnectedness of different injustices, be they class warfare or homophobia, while noting that white supremacy otherizes all that are marginalized. Black women’s experiences, especially Black lesbian women’s experiences, had to be contextualized within all of these various identities. The Collective coined the term “identity politics,” a term gleaned directly from their experiences as Black women; purpose of the collective was to weave Black feminism into the public consciousness, and by doing so, affirm lesbianism as a valid identity and a crucial element in solidarity work. In multiple interviews,
Books & Articles & Websites
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment” by Patricia Hill Collins
A Colored Woman in the White World by Mary Church Terrell
“Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be” by Nichole Perkins
Carefree Black Girls by Zeba Blay
Bad Fat Black Girl by Sesali Bowen
Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance by Moya Bailey
Digital Black Feminism by Catherine Knight Steele
How Barbara Smith Launched a Black Feminist Revolution
National Women’s History Museum (womenshistory.org)
Activists – The Black Feminist Movement – LibGuides at Florida State University LIS