Introduction
Black women in America have always faced the same struggles as white women, yet on top of those struggles they have also had to face issues of racism in addition to sexist inequality. These women have also had to fight against suppression from the larger movements in which they are involved, such as the civil rights movement. Not only did the civil rights movement mainly focus on only the oppression of black men not women, but also many black women faced extreme sexism within the civil rights groups. They were fighting for the same end as black men during the civil rights movement, but because they were women they had to deal with dual oppression for being black and for being women. During the 1950s and 1960s, black women’s participation in the civil rights movement was crucial and had a major impact on the end result. Yet few black women were even recognized for their leadership roles. Frustration with the narrowness of white feminists' agendas and dissatisfaction with male dominance in the civil rights and Black Nationalist movement lead to black women confronting issues of the oppression in their individual lives.
Black Men's Treatment of Black Women in the Movement
Black women faced constant sexism in the Black Liberation Movement. The Black Liberation Movement basically consisted of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Nationalism, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the Black Panthers. The different movements that made up the Black Liberation Movement, even though they said that they were for the liberation of the black race, was in all actuality mainly for the liberation of the black male not the black female. Race was almost always extremely sexualized in the rhetoric of the movement. Freedom was equated with manhood and the freedom of blacks with the redemption of black masculinity and manhood. Also, Black men in the Black Liberation Movement often made extremely sexists comment and statements that were largely accepted by the followers of the various movements without criticism.
Black Women's Treatment of Black Women in the Movement
Yet another important factor to recognize is that it was not only the men were enforcing strict gender roles on black women, but also a large amount of the women in the Black Liberation Movements who were also. In pretty much the same way that women in dominant society do not resist but instead encourage sexism and sterotypes, black women fell prey to perpetuating patriarchy within the black community and the Black Liberation Movement.
Important Black Women Activists
Black women's participation in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s was extremely important to the success of the movement, yet very few black women were actually recognized for their leadership roles in the movement.
Clara Luper
A civic leader and a pioneering leader in the Civil Rights Movement who was best known for her leadership role in the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-in Movement (Pinkney, 2000).
June Jordan
A bisexual African-American writer and activist (Pinkney, 2000).
Ella Baker
An important woman in the civil rights movement was Ella Baker who “played her customary dual role as logistical coordinator and movement philosopher” (Ransby, 325).
Baker helped a lot with coordination of events during the movement but “her most significant contribution was ideological” (Ransby, 325).
Baker’s career in the movement lasted for fifty years and “touched thousands of lives” (Ransby, 2003).
Baker helped a lot with coordination of events during the movement but “her most significant contribution was ideological” (Ransby, 325).
Baker’s career in the movement lasted for fifty years and “touched thousands of lives” (Ransby, 2003).
Rosa Parks
An African-American Civil Rights Activist. The United States Congress called Mrs. Parks "the mother of the freedom movement" and "the first lady of the civil rights" (Pinkney, 2000).
Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights act was passed in 1964 and this development was something that Baker fought her whole life for and was a development that really “spurred the women’s movement to a new level of intensity” (Giddings, 300).
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded on February 12, 1909 and “is the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization” (NAACP, 2012). The civil rights movement and the NAACP tended to focus a lot of the needs of black men and not on the dual oppression that black women faced not only from white people but also from black men.
SNNC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, also known as SNCC was one of the organizations of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and it emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker in April 1960 (Ransby, 2003).
Words of Fire by Beverly Guy-Sheftall
"As Black women we see black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face" (Guy-Sheftall, 232).
"We believe that the most profound and potentially the most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression" (Guy-Sheftall, 234).
"Feminism is, nevertheless, very threatening to the majority of black people because it calls into question some of the most basic assumptions about our existence, i.e., that gender should be a determinant of power relationships" (Guy-Sheftall, 237).
"We believe that the most profound and potentially the most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression" (Guy-Sheftall, 234).
"Feminism is, nevertheless, very threatening to the majority of black people because it calls into question some of the most basic assumptions about our existence, i.e., that gender should be a determinant of power relationships" (Guy-Sheftall, 237).
Home Girls by Barbara Smith
In her introduction, Barbara Smith states that "to this day most Black women are unwilling to jeopardize their 'racial credibility' (as defined by Black men) to address the realities of sexism" (Smith, 2000).
Smith also mentions that "even fewer are willing to bring up homophobia and heterosexism which are, of course, inextricably linked to gender oppression" (Smith, 2000) .
Smith also mentions that "even fewer are willing to bring up homophobia and heterosexism which are, of course, inextricably linked to gender oppression" (Smith, 2000) .
When and Where I Enter by Paula Giddings
"For years in this country there was no one for black men to vent their rage on except black women" (Giddings, 310).
"The theme of the late sixties was 'Black Power' punctuated by a knotted fist. It sought a common ethos between northern and southern Blacks. Although it may no have been consciously conceived out of the need to affirm manhood, it became a metaphor for the male consciousness of the era" (Giddings, 315).
"The theme of the late sixties was 'Black Power' punctuated by a knotted fist. It sought a common ethos between northern and southern Blacks. Although it may no have been consciously conceived out of the need to affirm manhood, it became a metaphor for the male consciousness of the era" (Giddings, 315).
Timeline
1954- Brown v. Board of Education
1955- Fourteen-year-old Emmett Tills brutal murder (Moody, 2004)
1955- NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger (NAACP, 2012) and Montgomery Bus Boycott, led my Martin Luther Kind Jr.
1957- Establishment of SCLC or Southern Christian Leadership Conference
1960- Establishment of SNNC or the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (Ransby, 2003)
1963- Medger Evers is murdered outside his home (Moody, 2004) and Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech
1964- President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act (Giddings, 300)
1965- Malcolm X is murdered and congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965
1966- The Black Panthers are founded
1967- A leader of SNCC, coins the phrase "black power" in a speech. He defines it as an assertion of black pride and "the coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary" (Giddings, 1984).