Black Feminism

In the days of racial discrimination in the West, even Feminism was not too far from it. While
white women went all out in shouting about feminism, they forgot all about their black
counterparts. So, the war for the black feminists was not just against the patriarchy but against the
racial system too. Firstly, they had to prove to other black women that feminism was not only for
white women. Secondly, they also had to demand that white women share power with them and
affirm diversity and finally, fight the misogynist tendencies of Black Nationalism. It is indeed
rather sad that in a movement for justice, injustice was being meted out. The Black Feminists,
however, did manage to secure all the rights that whites secured for themselves and even rose
above the racial discrimination to some extent. For as long as women of African descent have
been in the United States, they have resisted oppression. Enslaved in the Americas, they
organized themselves and others to fight for freedom.
1

As the decade continued, more and more Black women began to question for the first time the
reality of sexual oppression within the Black community as well as how the sexism of the society
as a whole impacted them as Black women. The work of Black feminist writers and theorists,
most notably Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and Michele Wallace, led to national debates about
sexual politics in the Black community.
Black women fought for inclusion in the womens suffrage movement after the abolition of
slavery. Women gained the right to vote in 1920, but African-Americans were systematically
denied the right to vote during the Jim Crow era. Many resisted this oppression by both overt and
subversive means. Black womens militant activism and leadership during this oppression helped
create the Civil Rights movement of the 20th century. African-Americans such as Martin Luther
King Jr. and Malcolm X have become icons of the 1950s and 1960s, but the organizational
skills and grassroots activism of women such as Ella Baker, Septima Clark , Rosa Parks and
Fannie Lou Hamer propelled the movement forward to many successes and inspired a new
generation of activists. Despite the risk of great personal loss, African-American women have
had a long tradition of civil and human rights activism. That tradition lives on today in the
experiences and examples of women activists and leaders like Angela Davis, Marian Wright
Edelman, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Maxine Waters and Alice Walker.
In conclusion I hope that this small passage through history have convinced you of the
importance and respect that every woman should receive. For me, this project has meant a lot,
because thanks to it I have managed to find more information about the people who should be in
the school textbooks, but also because through this project I have succeeded in paying a tribute to
women and indirectly to thank them for not given up fighting.





1
http://listdose.com/top-10-feminist-movements-around-the-world