Women of the Movement
Black Nationalism
In the traditional Civil Rights Movement, women were thoroughly involved but blocked from positions of higher leadership and often not fully trusted by the male and deeply religious leaders of the movement. Martin Luther King, Jr., for instance, refused to appoint veteran field organizer Ella Baker as his fledging organization’s--the Southern Christian Leadership Conference--Executive Director, instead inexplicably searching for months for an alternate as Baker continued to perform the exact duties the position entailed.
As the movement went on and shifted toward student activism, women continued to gain power and prominence: Diane Nash negotiated with Memphis’ mayor during Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee sit-ins, and was joined by Spelman student Ruby Doris Smith Robinson on the Mississippi Freedom Rides.
These young women, though still edged out of power by socially conservative factions of their respective movements, managed to broaden the path for future young women in the movement. Like many young women in the mid-60s, Kathleen Cleaver saw young female activists like Nash and Robinson and was inspired to join SNCC, and then the Black Panther Party.
By 1969--three years after the Party’s founding in 1966-- two thirds of Black Panthers were women. The Party’s Afrocentric and socialist philosophies ensured that gender equality was inherent in the organization, an important draw to many female members.
Founder and leader Huey P. Newton in particular worked to align the struggles of Black people and women against their oppressors. However, Newton also believed that it was counterproductive for Black women to fight against Black men, because of their shared oppressor in White men. Such an ideology could be silencing to women in the movement for fear of furthering women at the expense of the Party. Furthermore, only under the leadership of first female Party leader Elaine Brown (when did she become leader) did the haze of Black masculinity give way to a balanced and gender-neutral leadership team, according to Brown.
In the Party, women held prominent roles, establishing offices and divisions, headlining rallies and attracting national media attention through legal battles, in addition to the traditional administrative work usually assigned to women in the early CRM. Meanwhile, men cooked and served food at the Panthers’ Free Breakfast Programs, a subversion of traditional White gender roles and therefore the respectability politics of gender that guided the traditional Civil Rights Movement. (Alameen-Shavers)
In other factions of the broader Black nationalism movement, however, Black pride and afrocentrism translated to the pigeonholing of Black women’s role as giving birth to Black men, who would go on to reclaim the manhood and dignity which “may have been compromised under the restrictive nonviolent policies of the Civil Rights movement.” (Alameen-Shavers)
While Brown criticizes the misogyny within the movement, Cleaver and others emphatically defend gender equality in the Party. Cleaver recalls one meeting in particular in which a male member was accused of raping a visiting member from another Black Panther chapter. “He got voted out of the Party on the spot,” she writes. (Cleaver, 235)
August 7, 1970: the Marin shootout and the Free Angela movement
In college, Angela Davis joined the Black Panthers and an all-Black chapter of the Communist Party (which caused tension with both UCLA, the college where she later worked, and, later, the Reagan administration). When in 1970 three Black Panther Party members (known as the Soledad Brothers, though unrelated) were in court in Marin County, California after being accused of killing a guard in the Soledad Prison during a riot in which Black men were killed, an armed escape attempt was made during trial and people in the courtroom were killed. Immediately afterwards, Davis went "underground" and made the FBI's most-wanted list. Caught two months later, on October 13th, Davis was charged with murder for her involvement--she had bought the guns--and served 18 months in jail, during which time the Black Panther Party circulated literature such as this newsletter advocating Davis' acquittal. The campaign to acquit Davis was expansive: a New York Times article on the topic at the time claimed Davis "has an unprecedented political campaign being waged for her release all over the world. It is not to belittle the seriousness of her situation to say that she has the best-organized, most broad-based defense effort in the recent history of radical political trials--more potent than that afforded to any of the Panther leaders or the Chicago Seven."
Assata Shakur
Assata Shakur, originally named Joanne Chesimard was a former Black Panther, and member of the Black Liberation Army. On May 2, 1973, Assata Shakur was accused of killing a New Jersey State Trooper. She was sentenced to life in prison, but escaped from jail on November 2, 1979, with the help of colleagues. She lived underground, and was eventually granted political asylum by Fidel Castro of Cuba, in 1984. Shakur, like other black revolutionaries was targeted for what society deemed as “radicalism”. Not only was she a victim of police harassment and brutality, but she suffered from sexism as well. It was one thing to be black, but it was another to be a woman. Shakur considered herself a black revolutionary because she believed in the fight against oppressive systems that subordinated all black people. Shakur understood that the government’s labeling of her, and other revolutionaries as terrorist was a way to brand the liberation movement as “…vicious, brutal, mad-dog criminals (Assata, pg. 50).” It was a way to frame revolution as anti-white and therefore anti-patriotic. Shakur, eventually became the first woman to be added to the FBI’s most wanted list, in 2013, and a subsequent bounty for her apprehension was set at $2 million. When we mention Black Nationalism and liberation, as seen with the traditional civil rights movement, we often times forget about the many women who dedicated their lives to the cause. Liberation is not something that can be reached by a subset of individuals within a marginalized group. More times than not, women are often marginalized within a marginalized community. Shakur embodied the essence of black liberation, all while challenging notions of what it not only means to be black in a white dominated society, but what it means to be a black woman, engaging in leadership activities usually reserved for men.
Chicano Movement
Chicana feminists were central voices in the Chicano movement. They embraced a Latina perspective of struggle and resistance that acknowledged the multiple sources of oppression for brown women: race, class, gender, and sexuality. Without the full understanding of Chicana experiences, the entire Chicano movement was hindered in its effort to achieve liberation. Freedom and equality had to be a reality for every Chicano/a. Chicana feminists were caught between two political worlds, the machismo nationalism of the Brown Power movement and the liberal racism of the women’s liberation movement of the era. Their experiences with racism and imperialism were not those of white feminists and their experiences with sexism in machismo notions of la familia contradicted the ideal of Chicano unity. This meant attacking the sexism and racism within the Chicano movement and the second wave feminist movement.
Several Chicana feminist organizations emerged during the 1960s. These organizations first began as small groups, where women initially shared their new political awareness with other Chicanas. These small groups turned into organizations and eventually larger gatherings. In May 1971, activists held the first national conference in Houston, Texas. It was called Mujeres Por La Raza Conference. There, feminists discussed their issues and grievances: poverty, occupational segregation, inadequate child care, welfare rights, prison reform, and an end to forced sterilizations.
Political organizations powered the Chicana feminist movement. Las Hijas de Cuauhtemoc (Daughters of Cuauhtemoc) formed in 1969. It was the brainchild of Chicana university students. It aimed to raise awareness and to provide information about resources from feminist activities. In 1970, Chicanas established the Comision Femenil Mexicana Nacional (CFMN, or National Mexican Women’s Commission), which directed its efforts toward many causes, including the fight against forced sterilization of brown women.
Prominent Chicana feminists would offer their leadership in words and deeds. Among them were writers Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherie Moraga, and Ana Castilo. Chicana feminists produced a lively world of music, literature and art. In addition, there were Chicana newspapers and journals that carried their message.
Works Cited
Cleaver, Kathleen Neal. “Women, Power, and Revolution.” New Political Science. Volume 21, Number 2, 1999. Accessed on April 2, 2017. http://proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=6673500&site=eds-live
Shakur, A. (2014). Assata: an autobiography. London: Zed Books.
“The Campaign to Free Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee.” The New York Times. June 27, 1971. Accessed on April 2, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-campaign.html/
“The Panthers’ Revolutionary Feminism.” The New York Times. October 2, 2015. Accessed on April 2, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/movies/the-panthers-revolutionary-feminism.html
“The Woman Question: Gender Dynamics within the Black Panther Party.” Spectrum: a journal on Black men. Fall, 2016. Accessed on April 2, 2017. https://muse-jhu-edu.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/article/634848/pdf