Hi, I’m Clint Smith and this is Crash Course Black American History!
One theme we’ve seen throughout this series is that women were, and are, some of the most
important people in the movement for equality.
There is a long lineage of Black women freedom fighters that extend from slavery, through
reconstruction, through Jim Crow, through the civil rights movement.
Folks like Harriet Tubman, Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells, Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin,
Zora Neale Hurston, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Daisy Bates the list goes on and on.
But that work didn’t end with the Civil Rights Movement.
Black women continued to lead this fight even when they weren’t at the center of attention.
The Black Power movement is usually characterized by what men did, but today we’re going to
specifically highlight the roles that Black women played in that space and how their work
helped to bring us to where we are today.
Let's start the show!
(Intro Music) Listen, the role of women in activism is imperative
to acknowledge.
It’s not just some “inclusivity” thing we do just because we think we’re supposed
to do it.
We bring it up because it reflects what /actually/ happened.
Black women were at the forefront of community organizing and Black thought, both before
and after the Civil Rights Movement.
The women of the Black Power movement, brought to light the significance of “intersectionality,”
which is a way of saying that women experience the world differently than men do because
misogyny and gender discrimination, and then if you multiply that by the consequences of
being a Black woman, then you often find that the world treats you even worse.
And intersectionality applies to all different parts of identity including sexual orientation,
nationality, and socioeconomic status.
The Black Power movement was a global activist movement that involved three essential pillars:
Black community control, Black self-determination, and Black self-defense.
Black Power has historically been characterized as being anti-white.
But that is not really the case.
The Black Power movement was an outgrowth of Black nationalist thought that privileged
self-determination and pride, but was not racist in its scope.
It recognized the role of white supremacy in everyday society, and essentially encouraged
Black people to create spaces for themselves in a society that was constantly excluding
them from its services, resources, and institutions.
Inspired by folks like Malcolm X, the Black Power movement encouraged Black people to
stop worrying about inclusion and start creating spaces for themselves.
The idea of Black Power was not a new phenomenon, but it became more popular during the 1960's.
Its popularization stemmed from the decolonization of the African continent, disillusionment
with the shortcomings of the Civil Rights Movement, and a recognition of the decades-long
trauma of Jim Crow.
Many Black Americans were struggling to find social and economic stability after generations
of state-sanctioned segregation.
While many believe that the Civil Rights Movement did /formally/ end Jim Crow, one of the major
critiques of the movement and its legislative victories – the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 – was that it did not
adequately address issues of poverty, housing inequality, unemployment, over-policing, and
lack of educational resources.
These all disproportionately impacted Black communities.
And while the Black Power movement was a political phenomenon, it was also a cultural one.
It provided a space for Black Americans looking for validation of their culture, affirmation
of their dignity, acknowledgement of their beauty and intelligence, and a collective
assertion of pride in a world that was often devalued them.
Many organizations within the Black Power movement have been framed as male-dominated
and sexist.
And in many ways, this is true.
These organizations weren’t perfect by any means.
Sexism did manifest itself—both structurally and interpersonally and it should be acknowledged
and taken seriously.
At the same time, it’s also true that women were present, vocal, and influential in the
ranks of all of these organizations, just as they were during the Civil Rights Movement
and are in today’s Black Lives Matter movement.
Again, both can be true, and it’s always important for us to sit with that complexity.
Many women joined these organizations in order to push the men to be more thoughtful and
equitable with regard to sex and gender.
And the organizations were better for it.
The women members were the ones who pushed the groups in the direction of a more radical
interpretation of what it means work towards full liberation, for /all/ Black people, not
just Black men.
So let's talk about the role of Black women in one of these organizations, the Black Panther
Party, in the Thought Bubble.
The Black Panther Party, originally known as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense,
was founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in October 1966 in Oakland, California.
The first female member was J. Tarika Lewis.
She was a 16-year-old high school student when she joined the party in 1967.
She participated in their political education classes, attended rallies, and was the artist
for their newspaper.
She played an integral role in shaping how the Black Panther Party was publicly viewed,
as well as how they viewed themselves.
As the party grew, more women joined.
Some of the most notable women were Kathleen Cleaver, Ericka Huggins, and Elaine Brown.
Kathleen Cleaver was a former member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Cleaver was the communications secretary and the first female member of Black Panther’s
main decision-making body.
Ericka Huggins had multiple leadership roles - becoming a leader in the Los Angeles chapter
and founding the New Haven, Connecticut chapter.
Elaine Brown was appointed the new leader of the entire Black Panther Party in 1974,
after Huey Newton fled prosecution to Cuba.
Even though she faced quite a bit of sexism during her tenure, she led the party for three
years and also established the Black Panther party's Liberation School.
Thanks Thought Bubble.
Needless to say, women were a huge part of the Black Panther Party and the Black Power
Movement!
And that wasn’t all of them.
There was Charlotte Hill O'Neal, a musician, poet, and artist who was a major figure in
the International Section of the Black Panther Party; Assata Shakur who led the Black Panther
Party in Harlem.
She was later charged with killing a police officer in 1973 and fled to Cuba where she
maintains her innocence; and of course Angela Davis, who remains incredibly influential
as a mentor for young activists today.
Women ultimately composed two-thirds of Black Panther Party membership across 40 chapters.
And their influence within the organization grew.
Many of the head editors of the Black Panther Party newspaper were women.
They even pushed the Panthers to include childcare centers for each local chapter.
Black women weren’t only involved in political organizations tied to the Black Power Movement,
but also artistic and cultural ones.
In these spaces, Black women writers and artists used Black Power ideologies to help express
themselves.
Through music, literature, and theater Black women told stories of their lived experiences
and outlined how that shaped their political philosophies.
Much of this was done through the Black Arts Movement.
The Black Arts Movement lasted from 1965 until 1975.
It was founded by the writer Leroi Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka.
He also founded the Black Arts Repertory Theater/School.
Many of the women who produced art during this period were cultural naturalists.
Cultural naturalists used culture – poetry, novels, visual arts, and theater – to affirm
community, promote Black consciousness and achieve liberation.
If you read any poetry during your high school literature courses, you may have heard of
some of these poets.
For example, Maya Angelou’s work grew out of the Black Arts Movement.
Her most famous work, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” is an autobiography of her
childhood which addresses themes of Black girlhood, femininity, racism, and trauma.
There was also the play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow
Is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange, who was influenced by the Black Arts Movement.
Poet and writer Sonia Sanchez was another major contributor to the movement.
Two of her most important collections of poetry were “Homecoming”and “We a BaddDDD People.”
Her work focused on the highs and lows in the lives of everyday Black women.
Audre Lorde was another important contributor to this movement.
She wrote many books during this time including The First Cities, Cable to Rage, and From
a Land Where Other People Live.
Her books address many topics: her Blackness, her identity as a woman, her identity as a
lesbian, and motherhood.
Nikki Giovanni is one of the more famous poets to come out of this period.
Dubbed “The Poet of the Black Revolution,” some of the most important works she contributed
to the movement were the poetry collections Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgment,
and Re: Creation.
I feel lucky to have been able to talk to Ms. Giovanni about her work and how so much
of the work she did makes the work I do possible.
All of these women paved the way for even more exploration of Black liberation and the
nuance of Black women’s experiences in literature.
Much of the work produced by women in the Black Arts Movement focused on power and agency
through the feminist lens to tell the story of Black women in America.
Even though the 1960s and 70s can sometimes be thought of as an era in which women were
rarely more than secretaries, typists, assistants, and homemakers, the women of the Black Power
Movement redefined and rejected that notion.
These women shaped the trajectory of the fight for inequality not just in the Black power
movement, but in the feminist and gay rights movement too.
And not only did they lead across these movements, but they forced them to become even more radical,
by decentering the experiences of men to create space for the experiences of women and LGBTQ
communities.
But again, this was not new and it was not the last time.
Black women have been at the forefront of social movements throughout American history
and there is no doubt that they will continue to.
Thanks for watching!
I’ll see you next time.
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