A Historical Deep Dive into the Founders of Black Womanism & Modern Feminism
These amazing Black American women each advanced the principles of modern feminism and Black womanism by insisting on an intersectional approach to activism. They understood that the struggles of race and gender were intertwined, and that the liberation of Black women was essential. Their writings, speeches, and actions have continued to inspire movements addressing systemic inequities, while affirming the voices of marginalized women who have shaped society. Through their amazing work, they have expanded the scope of womanism and intersectional feminism to include racial justice, making it more inclusive and transformative.
Quote: “The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class—it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.”
Contribution: Anna Julia Cooper was an educator, scholar, and advocate for Black women’s empowerment. Her book A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South (1892) is one of the earliest articulations of Black feminist thought. She emphasized the intellectual and cultural contributions of Black women and argued that their liberation was essential to societal progress. Cooper believed education was the key to uplifting African Americans and worked tirelessly to improve opportunities for women and girls, including founding organizations for Black women’s higher education. Her work challenged both racism and sexism, laying the intellectual foundation for modern Black womanism.
Quote: “We are all bound together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.”
Contribution: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a poet, author, and orator whose work intertwined abolitionism, suffrage, and temperance advocacy. A prominent member of the American Equal Rights Association, she fought for universal suffrage, arguing that Black women’s voices were crucial in shaping a just society. Her 1866 speech at the National Woman’s Rights Convention emphasized the need for solidarity among marginalized groups, highlighting the racial disparities within the feminist movement. Harper’s writings, including her novel Iola Leroy, offered early depictions of Black womanhood and resilience, paving the way for Black feminist literature and thought.
Quote: “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
Contribution: Ida B. Wells was a fearless journalist, educator, and anti-lynching activist who co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Her investigative reporting exposed the widespread violence and racism faced by African Americans, particularly lynchings. As a suffragette, Wells insisted on addressing the intersection of race and gender in the fight for women’s voting rights. At the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C., she famously defied instructions to march in a segregated section and joined the Illinois delegation at the front, demanding recognition for Black women in the feminist movement. Her activism laid the groundwork for modern feminisms inclusion of intersectionality, emphasizing the dual oppressions faced by Black women.
Quote: “Ain’t I a Woman?”
Contribution: Born into slavery, Sojourner Truth became a powerful voice for abolition, women's rights, and racial justice after gaining her freedom. Her famous 1851 speech, "Ain’t I a Woman?" delivered at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, directly challenged the exclusion of Black women from the feminist narrative. She highlighted the unique struggles of Black women, who faced both racism and sexism, calling out the hypocrisy of a movement that often-centered white women’s experiences. Truth’s legacy lies in her insistence on equality for all, inspiring future generations to confront the intersecting oppressions of race and gender in their advocacy.
Quote: “We specialize in the wholly impossible.”
Contribution: Nanny Helen Burroughs was an educator, activist, and founder of the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C., which emphasized self-sufficiency and vocational training for African American women. She championed the "Three B's" of her educational philosophy: Bible, bath, and broom, advocating for spiritual, personal, and professional discipline. Burroughs was also a leader in the Women's Convention Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention, where she pushed for the inclusion of women's voices in church leadership. Her dedication to empowering Black women as agents of social change influenced both the feminist and civil rights movements, promoting a vision of racial and gender equality.
Quote: “The ballot in the hands of a woman means power added to influence.”
Contribution: Elizabeth Piper Ensley was a suffragist and civil rights activist who played a pivotal role in securing women’s suffrage in Colorado in 1893, making it one of the first states to grant women the vote. As a Black woman operating in the predominantly white suffrage movement, Ensley worked to bridge racial and class divides, emphasizing the importance of political power for marginalized groups. She was an active member of the Colorado Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association and focused on voter education to ensure that women, especially women of color, could fully participate in the democratic process. Ensley’s legacy highlights the importance of coalition-building in achieving systemic change.
Modern black womanism and feminist activism can expand upon these little-known founders of woman's rights by continuously working on an addressing the disparities in education, healthcare, and economic opportunities for marginalized communities. Supporting Black Woman-led organizations, fostering inclusive black femme leadership, and embracing allyship will always be vital.
Additionally, when we continuously elevate their contributions in social media or multi-media art through various platforms, and academic curriculum we ensure their legacies continuously inspire future generations. By integrating their principles into feminism and advocating for collective liberation, women and feminine allies can continue their fight for justice, equity, and feminine empowerment, hand forging a society, by blood, sweat, bones and tears where all women can thrive, free from oppression.
I don't know why people think sex work has to be only one of these two:
Completely banned, where pimps, buyers, and prostitutes are all legally held responsible
Completely legal, where pimping, buying, and being a prostitute is fully legal and government regulated
A better solution is a compromise between the two. Buying sex work, and selling sex workers can be illegal, but being a prostitute can be legal.
Well,
1. Radical feminism isn't just for developed countries. Who told you that was the case?
I can agree, things have gotten better in countries with more feminist policies, but these things certainly have not been there even in "developed" countries for "more than a century". Need I remind you the fact that 50 years ago women weren't allowed to have bank accounts without a mans permission in America? Or that marital rape was only fully illegal in the US as of 1993? And dude look, abortion was made illegal again in many states, a lot of them overlap with the ones that have the most issues with teen pregnancy and child marriage (red states). This is another specific issue.
But enough about America alone. Globally, women's rights have been recently taking a turn for the worse.
You can't undo literal millennia of oppression in only 50 years, and yes attitude and perceptions around women's rights is also important to push policies. Policy doesn't come out of thin air and people generally don't protest for things they don't think they need.
2. I provided specific policies already. It's not my fault if you can't read. And boycotts or each of these polices are just examples, not the full solution. It's a lot more complex and gradual. For example, living women the right to vote also didn't get rid of the patriarchy but it did help. Telling the suffragettes they should give up protesting and that it's hopeless for women to have equal rights however, was not. How are you going to accuse us of doomerism and then delegitimize all political activism and call it useless?
3. The ideas of male and female socialization are pretty integral to radfem theory on gender. If you had doubts, then you can just ask her. No need for charades. What tells you "that person doesn't actually agree that the problem lies in socialisation" lmao?
4. That's the thing, we're against gendered socialization in general. There's not really much to be done in policy at this time, other than trying to educate people get rid of the notion that male and female brains are significantly different or that people are hard-wired as feminine vs masculine because of their brain's gender. Gender ideology/activism did push this back a bit in the scientific field.
What are your proposed solutions or specific issues you want addressed? I hear a lot of criticism from you but... no suggestions?
We used to make fun of people for saying "not all men" it was beautiful
Look up what mirror means. You use the same arguments against asexuals that homophobes use against gay people. Basically word for word. It's insane.
I don't think that, just as I don't think it's mental illness and unnatural to not feel sexual attraction. I'm mirroring your language.
I understand you misplaced your brain but please find it soon, I beg you.
#yeah #lesbianism is not a thing #you either are a pervert or have some type of trauma #Stay like that or go to therapy idc #just don't pretend you're oppressed in the axis on sexuality #the reason you family complains that you can't have kids is because you're a WOMAN #the reason men want you to try their dick when you aren't attracted to it is because they think they're entitled to sex #its all sexism and misogyny #Also your family has the right to disown you when they want a straight kid and you're not #what they dont have a right to is to force you to marry a man #period
Do you see how fucking stupid you sound now?
when a man does something wrong, whose fault is it?
a. his mother
b. “society”
c. every woman who will never have sex with him
The cruelty of racist white men.
reminiscing on warehouse work, how it affected me, and how it's a capitalist trap that's actually working, to everyone's detriment.
LITERALLY
These religions just exist to break you and build you up in the way that they want. They're just so... out there. Like, the most weird black and white thought.
And how the fuck is God gonna save you from HIMSELF??? Literal abuser rhetoric. Not to sound like an athiest neckbeard but it really does have all the traits of a cult.
I don't think people understand just how cruel the Abrahamic God IS according to believers.
According to each Holy Book, God created humans, giving them freewill and skepticism and no solid proof of him, so everyone has a different idea of him, and everyone who chooses the wrong belief gets tortured for eternity. And then this is considered… a blessing? This would be the majority of people. According to these books, he's torturing billions of souls for not sucking his dick. How insane. According to Christians and Muslims, their God would be more cruel to Jews and gay people than Hitler. Judaism is slightly better in that it doesn't even consider the Goyim as humans, so they aren't tortured and just go out of existence. I don't understand how believers in these religions can have somewhat normal morality and act normal around nonbelievers but then love a being like that. What about that feels you with love and light? Oh yeah, and what's even more insane is considering these religions peaceful and religions of love. I can't think of something more hateful than these religions. How much more hateful can you get exactly? Even Heaven is arguably bad too. In Christianity and Judaism, it's just constant worship of this genocidal grotesque God and you're a "sinless" shell of a human. That sounds like psychological torture to anyone who isn't absolutely batshit. In Islam, Heaven is basically nothing substantial for women, and for men, it's an eternity of cheating on your wife with 72 virgins who have no soul of their own. How can anyone hear these things and not have their skin absolutely crawl?
I would prefer Satan, I would say Satan is better for the sole virtue of rebelling against something so fucked up. Although I would say he's equal considered he only wanted to replace God out of his own ego. But, Satan is not the one who owns Hell, he's another soul being tortured there, God owns everything and chooses to cause suffering. How can an all forgiving Father cause his children to feel pain for eternity for something as small as disobeying him. Even the most abusive fathers in the world have not achieved that level of cruelty (although arguably the absolute worst ones would if they could, regardless, what a horrible metric). And apparently child rape is forgivable in the eyes of God and equal to the "sin" of masturbating, but simply refusing to believe? That's what gets you tortured forever? I'm not sure if a human being that reach that level of narcissism, but a supposedly self-sacrificing loving God according to Christianity can. The self-sacrifice wasn't even an actual sacrifice, he just supposedly got humans to kill an incarnation of him. What the hell is the point of that? According to the Bible, God also decided to get a 13 year old pregnant. He could have impregnated any virgin woman in the world begin God and all, but people want to believe it was a child. Jesus's teen mother is also one of the only significant female figures in Christianity and women supposedly came from a mans rib and then the rib-woman clone and the man created all humans through like 2000 generations of incest. Anything but admit that we're just a species of animal and we're more connected to rest of the Earth than they want to believe right? The misogyny of these religions creep into every page. Males couldn't accept that women in reality are the creators of life, so they had to make up this weird shit.
And sure, morality, is relative maybe. If we want to argue that. But these same people would be absolutely terrified of actually meeting a being like that. Horror books touch on it but rarely even meet that level of cruel. Maybe it's hard to conceptualize what torture for eternity means exactly or how insane it is for that to be a punishment for a belief, but I think you can fucking guess?
But it's the Buddhists, Hindus, pagans, witches, atheists, who are barbaric. Right.
I'm an 18 yo womanI'm a socialist and radical feminist and I will post about these topics a lotNo DNI but I will roast you if you deserve itkanrade #2 ☭✯☭
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