Yall Just Don't Like Black Women

Black Feminism

Part 2

by Jasmine

Florynce Kennedy and Margaret Sloan founded the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) in 1973 to "address ourselves to the particular and specific needs of the larger, but almost cast aside half of the Black race in Amerika, the Black Woman." The NBFO was formed after Sloan held a meeting with other Black women who identified as feminists. They shared their experiences in the Women's Liberation movement and were surprised by their commonalities. They realized that they were tired of being cast aside so they formed the NBFO. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a founding member, said the NBFO was necessary because "the time was ripe for Black women to speak up for themselves."

On August 15, 1973, the NBFO held a press conference in New York to inform Black women that an organization for them existed. Sloan told the press "Black women have suffered cruelly in this society from living the phenomenon of being Black and female in a country that is both racist and sexist." Thus, the NBFO held the Eastern Regional Conference from November 30 to December 2, 1973 and signaled a turning point for Black feminist organizing. Around 400 Black women attended to discuss the wide range of issues they faced such as welfare, child care, and prison.

The "Statement of National Black Feminist Organization" provides an intersectional interpretation of the problems with both movements and Black women's needs for an organization meant for them. They write, "The [Women's] Movement has been characterized as the exclusive property of so-called 'white middle-class' women and only Black women seen involved in this movement have been seen as 'selling out,' 'dividing the race,' and an assortment of nonsensical epithets." Feminists' and Black men's definition of their movements ostracized Black women who care about both but want to pay attention to their needs. The statement says Black women must "define our own image as Black women" and "establish ourselves as an independent Black Feminist organization." They saw the NBFO as an opportunity for Black women to be leaders and advocate for themselves.

In the statement, the NBFO also asserts that their organization "will lend enormous credibility to the current Women's Liberation Movement" and "remind the Black Liberation Movement that there can't be liberation for half of the race." NBFO members, aware that they stand with and apart from both groups, believed Black feminism would benefit everyone. Despite being excluded, they were willing to be a bridge for both movements and build coalitions to liberate all people, not just Black women.

The National Black Feminist Organization showed Black women that they were not alone and opened the door for other Black feminist organizations. The Combahee River Collective (CRC), named after the river in South Carolina where Harriet Tubman freed 750 slaves in 1853, was a radical Black feminist organization born out of the NBFO in 1974. Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, and Demita Frazier formed an NBFO chapter in Boston and split from the organization due to disagreements about classism and sexual orientation. The Combahee River Collective expanded Black feminism beyond the intersection of race and gender to examine how capitalism and homophobia oppressed Black women as well.

"A Black Feminist Statement," also called the Combahee River Collective Statement, was published in 1977. The CRC's statement provides the organization's purpose and an analysis of oppression based on multiple identities. They state, "we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression."The Collective argues that Black feminism as a movement is an avenue to liberate everyone because Black women's "freedom would necessitate the destruction of all systems of oppression."

Like the NBFO, the CRC criticized the Black Power and Women's Liberation movement for not embracing antisexist and antiracist ideologies. "We struggle together with Black men against racism," they write, "while we also struggle with Black men about sexism." The Collective also says "As Black feminists we are made constantly and painfully aware of how little effort white women have made to understand and combat their racism." Black women feeling excluded from both movements contributed to their decision to form an independent organization to advocate for themselves.

The Combahee River Collective also reshaped Black feminism to include the working class and lesbians. In the statement, they write "We realize that the liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political-economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy." They call themselves socialists while also stating that Marxism must be antiracist and antisexist so socialism benefits everyone. The CRC goes on to say "we reject the stance of Lesbian separatism because it is not a viable political analysis or strategy for us. It leaves out far too much and far too many people." The liberal feminists distanced themselves from lesbians because of homophobia and they believed a lesbian agenda was not expedient. Lesbians responded by creating their own organizations. The Collective disagreed with lesbian separatism because they were an inclusive organization and believed in liberating all people, regardless of sexual orientation. Early Black feminists did not have this stance.

At the end of her essay, Frances Beal writes "the society which we are trying to create is one in which the oppression of all members of that society is eliminated." Black women were active in Black Power and Women's Liberation but both movements' singular approach to liberation marginalized Black women. Individual Black feminists wrote about their experiences with both movements and discussed their struggle with other Black women to find commonalities. They built on each other's experiences to organize against their own oppression while also advocating for others because of their multifaceted identities. The National Black Feminist Organization raised Black women's consciousness while the Combahee River Collective redefined Black feminism to become a framework for Black women to explain how race, sex, class, and sexual orientation interact to oppress them. Black feminism never became a revolutionary movement because of a lack of funding and the exhaustion that comes with being a Black woman. Black feminist theory, however, became a framework which continues to shape feminist and antiracist theory and practice.

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