Black Feminist Thought

Ain’t I a Woman?

..."That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody helps me any best place. And ain't I a woman?..."Look at me! Look at my arm. I have plowed, I have planted and I have gathered into barns. And no man could head me. And ain't I a woman?" ..."I could work as much, and eat as much as man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne children and seen most of them sold into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me. And ain't I a woman?" 1797 –1883

Maria Stewart(1803 –1879)

African American public speaker, abolitionist, and feminist

“Shall it any longer be said of the daughters of Africa,They have no ambition, they have no force?

By no means.

Let every female heart become united…..”

Fannie Barrier Williams(1855 –1944)

African American Educator and women's rights activist

“The colored girl… is not known and hence not believed in; she belongs to a race that is designated by the term “problem,” and she livesbeneath the shadow of that problem whichenvelopes and obscures her.”

Other Voices of the Past

The Dimensions of OppressionEconomic Dimension: The exploitation of Black women’s labor essential to U.S. capitalism – the “iron pots and kettles” symbolizing Black women’s long-standing ghettoization in service occupations.

Political Dimension: Forbidding Black women to vote, excluding from public office, and withholding equitable treatment in the criminal justice system all substantiate the political subordination of Black women.

Ideological Dimension: Negative stereotypes applied to African-American women have been fundamental to Black women’s oppression.

The Development of Black Feminist ThoughtDiscovering, Reinterpreting, & Analyzing the works of individual U.S. Black women thinkers (locating unrecognized and unheralded works, scattered and long out of print)

Discovering, Reinterpreting, & Analyzing the ideas of subgroups within the larger collectivity of U.S. Black women who have been silenced

Reinterpreting existing works through new theoretical frameworks

Searching for its expression in alternative institutional locations and among women who are not commonly perceived as intellectuals (the concept of intellectual must be deconstructed)

Collaboration leadership among those who participate in the diverse forms that Black women’s communities now take.

Why U.S. Black Feminist ThoughtBlack women’s subordination within Intersecting oppressions of race, class, gender, sexuality and nation.

Diverse responses to common challenges with Black feminism: No homogenous Black woman’s standpoint exist. Many factors explain diverse responses (social class differences, sexuality signals, and varying ethnic and citizenship statuses.

Black feminism occurs through an ongoing dialogue whereby actions and thought inform one another .

Black feminist intellectuals are central to Black feminist thought: Black feminist scholars in studying oppression among black women are less likely to walk away when the obstacles seem overwhelming or when he rewards for staying diminish.

Black feminism is dynamic and changing: The changing social conditions that confront African-American women stimulate the need for new Black feminist analyses of the common differences that characterize U.S Black womanhood.

Black feminism is part of a wider struggle for human dignity, empowerment, and social justice.

Alice WalkerAuthor, Poet

And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.

Look at the Stars

Michelle ObamaFirst Lady

Shawna R. KimbrellFirst Black Woman Fighter Pilot

Oprah WinfreyRichest African American in the 20th Century

Toni MorrisonNobel Prize in Literature

Maya AngelouWriter

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Aretha FranklinQueen of Soul

Halle BerryFirst Black Woman to

win the Oscar

Dr. Mae Jemison First Black Woman

Astronaut

Serena WilliamsWorld No. 1 Woman Tennis Player

(July, 2002)

Condoleezza RiceFirst African-American woman

Secretary of State

Current Day Voices

Rev. Dr. Katie G. Cannon First African-American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church

Bell HooksSocial Activist

Alice WalkerAuthor, Poet

Michele WallaceFeminist Author

Barbara SmithLesbian Feminist

Angela DavisPolitical Activist

Toni MorrisonNovelist, Editor, Professor

Patricia Hill CollinsFeminist Author

Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at the sun.'

We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.

Jump at the Sun

- Zora Neale Hurston