Black Feminism: Black Feminists and the Movement's History

Black feminism is a movement and field of study dedicated to the celebration of Black women and their fight for liberation from structural racism, sexism, classism, and white supremacy. The Black feminist movement grew out of a desire to address the specific injustices Black women face.

For example, while all women might struggle under the weight of the patriarchy, Black women must also overcome the burden of white supremacy and racialized class oppression in a way white women do not.

Strains of Black feminism are present at most key moments in the last several centuries of Black history. Here are some of the ways Black women have fought for their liberation over the years:

• Abolitionism: The fight to end slavery also served as an early battleground of Black female empowerment. In 1851, Sojourner Truth, a former enslaved woman and social justice activist from New York, delivered a landmark speech titled “Ain’t I a Woman?” that questioned the preferential treatment of white women in comparison to that of women of color. After the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, Black women acknowledged there were many battles still to fight.
• Post-slavery: In the era of Jim Crow and segregation, Black women joined with Black men to fight systems of oppression. Around the same period, the Women’s Suffrage Movement began to pick up steam. Activists like Ida B. Wells asked why white women seemed to focus on gaining the right to vote for themselves as opposed to working to include their Black counterparts in their suffrage goals. These racial discrepancies and injustices remained prevalent throughout the women’s movements and activism of the twentieth century as well.
• The Women’s Liberation Movement: The Civil Rights Movement worked toward Black liberation at the same time the Women’s Liberation Movement fought to smash the patriarchy. Organizations like the National Black Feminist Organization (or NBFO) formed to counteract the elitism of middle-class white women, who largely ignored the plight of Black women. The Combahee River Collective Statement of 1974 was an articulation of Black feminist thought during this period. In 1979, writer Alice Walker coined the term “womanism” as an alternative term to “feminism” for Black women.
• The world today: In recent years, Black Lives Matter and other anti-racist movements continue to advocate for Black feminism. For many activists, this includes fighting for reproductive justice and against police brutality as part and parcel with the broader goal of achieving total equality and justice for Black women everywhere.

Countless Black women have made their mark on history and on the Black feminist movement as well. Here are four prominent Black feminists who have advanced the cause in recent years:

1. 1. Angela Davis: A longtime professor, philosopher, and activist, Angela Davis has spent her life advancing the causes of Black people. She focuses specifically on the intersection of Black women’s rights and their class status in Western society. She also advocates for prison abolition and stands against war and imperialism.
2. 2. Audre Lorde: For decades, Audre Lorde fought against racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia through her work as both a poet and an activist. In both her prose and poetry, she explored the ways existing systems of oppression could become even more insidious and cruel toward Black lesbians in particular.
3. 3. bell hooks: As a theorist, bell hooks spent much of her life exploring how systems of oppression can intersect to harm Black women. She contributed to the field of women’s studies at the same time she made a name for herself as a poet.
4. 4. Kimberlé Crenshaw: Contemporary feminist theory deals quite a bit with intersectionality, largely thanks to the efforts of Kimberlé Crenshaw. In her academic work, she draws on the ideas of previous Black feminists to show how important it is to consider the intersection of race, sex, and class.

Black feminism is a far-reaching academic discipline and aspirational activist movement. These are three of its most abiding principles:

• Global awareness: Black feminists insist on the importance of fighting for the liberation of Black women globally, rather than for just African American women. The goals of Black feminism are to achieve justice for women of color and BIPOC women from developed and developing countries alike.
• Identity politics: Black feminism recognizes the unique injustices or privileges each person faces as a result of their identity. For example, white feminists might experience sexism and Black men might experience racism, but they both remain unable to experience the specific type of racialized sexism Black women face. This informs the sense of identity politics in the movement as a whole.
• Intersectionality: Injustice and oppression operate like an intricate web. Racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and other forms of bigotry can all intersect to harm and challenge people in individual and distinct ways. Black feminism aims to take an intersectional approach to all forms of oppression, working to eliminate injustice and inequality in all its forms.

Feminism is an intersectional movement with a focus on issues that touch every part of our lives, including reproductive rights, workplace culture, and caregiving. Gain access to exclusive videos on feminism with the MasterClass Annual Membership and get a crash course from leaders adrienne maree brown, Gloria Steinem, Amanda Nguyen, and Tina Tchen.