black feminism(s) 101

a syllabus | no. 1

editor’s note

i mark my official introduction to black feminism with an independent study i took in the summer of 2022 called “black feminist research methods.” with the help of my advisor, i curated a robust reading list with books and articles related to black feminist inquiry and my research topic. the first book i was assigned to read was Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought (2008) — a text that widely shaped my research through the rest of my masters program, prompted me to reconsider my relationship to (white) feminism, and affirmed much of what i felt growing up as a black girl in the u.s. in subsequent months and years, i discovered language for the black feminist politic i more or less lived.

i’m intentionally calling this syllabus black feminisms — emphasis on feminism being plural. the issues of black women across the united states and globally are evidently expansive. we do not always share the same goals, problems, or concerns based on our national and cultural histories. as a black woman whose cultural heritage is split between liberia and black america, this is a fact of black feminism that i’ve grown to appreciate.

in the syllabus you’ll find a list of texts and resources to act as an introduction to black feminisms. i do my best to share books i’ve read, but there are some texts that i feel could not be left off a preliminary list to enter this field. i indicate which books i have read with an asterisk(). there are also a list of reflection questions to consider as you read through this syllabus.*

i hope you find something useful, whether you’re brand new to black feminism or looking to keeping expanding your understanding of the subject! happy learning friends.

Womanist is to feminism as purple is to lavender.

Alice Walker

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reading list

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the foundations

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment by Patricia Hill Collins* (2008)

In spite of the double burden of racial and gender discrimination, African-American women have developed a rich intellectual tradition that is not widely known. In Black Feminist Thought, originally published in 1990, Patricia Hill Collins set out to explore the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals and writers, both within the academy and without. Here Collins provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde. Drawing from fiction, poetry, music and oral history, the result is a superbly crafted and revolutionary book that provided the first synthetic overview of Black feminist thought and its canon.

Combahee River Collective Statement* (1977)

“We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. [1] During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and movements. The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives. 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.”

Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, edited by Barbara Smith (1983)

Home Girls, the pioneering anthology of Black feminist thought, features writing by Black feminist and lesbian activists on topics both provocative and profound. Since its initial publication in 1983, it has become an essential text on Black women's lives and contains work by many of feminism's foremost thinkers. This edition features an updated list of contributor biographies and an all-new preface that provides Barbara Smith the opportunity to look back on forty years of the struggle, as well as the influence the work in this book has had on generations of feminists. The preface from the previous Rutgers edition remains, as well as all of the original pieces, set in a fresh new package.

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker (1983)

Originally published forty years ago, Alice Walker's first collection of nonfiction is a dazzling compendium that remains both timely and relevant. In these thirty-six essays, Walker contemplates her own work and that of other writers, considers the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the anti-nuclear movement of the 1980s, and writes vividly and courageously about a scarring childhood injury. Throughout, Walker explores the theories and practices of feminism, incorporating what she calls the "womanist" tradition of black women--insights that are vital to understanding our lives and society today.

Decolonization and Afro-Feminism by Sylvia Tamale* (2020)

Why do so many Africans believe they cannot break the “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” cycle? Six decades after colonial flags were lowered and African countries gained formal independence, the continent struggles to free itself from the deep legacies of colonialism, imperialism and patriarchy. Many intellectuals, politicians, feminists and other activists, eager to contribute to Africa’s liberation, have frustratingly felt like they took the wrong path. Analyzed through the eyes of Afro-Feminism, this book revisits some of the fundamental preconditions needed for radical transformation. It challenges the traditional human rights paradigm and its concomitant idea of “gender equality,” flagging instead, the African philosophy of Ubuntu as a serious alternative for reinvigorating African notions of social justice. If you are a student of Africa or in a space where you wish to recalibrate your compass and reboot your consciousness in the struggle for Africa’s liberation, this book is for you.

Daughters of Caliban: Caribbean Women in the Twentieth Century, edited by Consuelo Lopez-Springfield* (1997)

Essays by leading Caribbean scholars explore the shifting boundaries between public and private life cross-culturally. Daughters of Caliban demonstrates how gender, race, ethnicity, and class shape human experience and interpersonal relationships in increasingly global societies. The volume examines Caribbean women and women's studies; women and work; women, law, and political change; women and health; and women and popular culture.

reading further

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts* (1998)

In 1997, this groundbreaking book made a powerful entrance into the national conversation on race. In a media landscape dominated by racially biased images of welfare queens and crack babies, Killing the Black Body exposed America's systemic abuse of Black women's bodies. From slave masters' economic stake in bonded women's fertility to government programs that coerced thousands of poor Black women into being sterilized as late as the 1970s, these abuses pointed to the degradation of Black motherhood--and the exclusion of Black women's reproductive needs in mainstream feminist and civil rights agendas.

Women, Race, & Class by Angela Y. Davis* (1983)

Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. While Black women were aided by some activists like Sarah and Angelina Grimke and the suffrage cause found unwavering support in Frederick Douglass, many women played on the fears of white supremacists for political gain rather than take an intersectional approach to liberation. Here, Davis not only contextualizes the legacy and pitfalls of civil and women's rights activists, but also discusses Communist women, the murder of Emmitt Till, and Margaret Sanger's racism. Davis shows readers how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of rape, reproductive freedom, housework and child care in this bold and indispensable work.

Lifting As They Climbed: Mapping a History of Trailblazing Black Women in Chicago by Mariame Kaba & Essence McDowell (2023)

Geographically, historically, and politically, Lifting As They Climbed gives readers an in-depth understanding of the numerous Black women, from the nineteenth century to today, who empower(ed) their neighborhoods and communities. Structured as five self-guided tours, with crisp maps and accessible narratives, Lifting As They Climbed showcases seventy-eight women-activists, artists, musicians, and more--through sites and landmarks on Chicago's South and West Sides.

Including Margaret Burroughs, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mahalia Jackson, and many others, this updated and extended edition is a testament to women whose stories have gone largely untold, and whose lives reveal powerful connections between their endeavors and present-day struggles for radical community-building and solidarity. With no "official" landmarks to preserve the history of their social justice efforts, this book is an intervention against their erasure.

A Voice from the South by Anna Julia Cooper (1892)

Published in 1892, A Voice from the South is the only book published by one of the most prominent African American women scholars and educators of her era. Born a slave, Anna Julia Haywood Cooper would go on to become the fourth African American woman to earn a doctoral degree. Cooper became a prominent member of the black community in Washington, D.C., serving as principal at M Street High School, during which time she wrote A Voice from the South. In it, she engages a variety of issues, including women’s rights, racial progress, segregation, and the education of black women. Cooper also discusses a number of authors and their representations of African Americans, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Albion Tourgée, George Washington Cable, William Dean Howells, and Maurice Thompson, reaching the conclusion that an accurate depiction had yet to be written.

Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance by Moya Bailey* (2022)

When Moya Bailey first coined the term misogynoir, she defined it as the ways anti-Black and misogynistic representation shape broader ideas about Black women, particularly in visual culture and digital spaces. She had no idea that the term would go viral, touching a cultural nerve and quickly entering into the lexicon. Misogynoir now has its own Wikipedia page and hashtag, and has been featured on Comedy Central's The Daily Show and CNN's Cuomo Prime Time. In Misogynoir Transformed, Bailey delves into her groundbreaking concept, highlighting Black women's digital resistance to anti-Black misogyny on YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, and other platforms.

At a time when Black women are depicted as more ugly, deficient, hypersexual, and unhealthy than their non-Black counterparts, Bailey explores how Black women have bravely used social-media platforms to confront misogynoir in a number of courageous--and, most importantly, effective--ways. Focusing on queer and trans Black women, she shows us the importance of carving out digital spaces, where communities are built around queer Black webshows and hashtags like #GirlsLikeUs.

Bailey shows how Black women actively reimagine the world by engaging in powerful forms of digital resistance at a time when anti-Black misogyny is thriving on social media. A groundbreaking work, Misogynoir Transformed highlights Black women's remarkable efforts to disrupt mainstream narratives, subvert negative stereotypes, and reclaim their lives.

“Crooked Room,” Sister Citizen: Shame Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa Harris-Perry* (2011)

“Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women in the Middle West” by Darlene Clark Hine* (1999)

“Remembering This Bridge Called My Back, Remembering Ourselves,” Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics, Memory, and the Sacred by M. Jacqui Alexander

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“To a Dark Girl” by Gwendolyn B. Bennet

I love you for your brownness,
And the rounded darkness of your breast;
I love you for the breaking sadness in your voice
And shadows where your wayward eyelids rest. 

Something of old forgotten queens
Lurks in the lithe abandon of your walk,
And something of the shackled slave
Sobs in the rhythm of your talk.

Oh, little brown girl, born for sorrow's mate
Keep all you have of queeliness
Forgetting that you once were slave
And let your full lips laugh at Fate!

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other material & resources

• The Revolutionary Practice of Black Feminisms | National Museum of African American History and Culture

• Daughters of the Dust (1991)

• Lifting As They Climbed

• Black Women Radicals

• The Darkest Hue

• Black Feminist Research Methods Syllabus

questions to reflect on…

• what is black feminism and who is it for?

• what are common themes of black feminisms?

• how does black women’s subjugation influence black feminist politic?

• where do authors’ and intellectuals’ ideas about black feminism converge? where do they diverge?

• what are ways we can adopt a black feminist lens and politic in our day-to-day lives?

• how can we expand black feminisms outside of the u.s./the west?

• who/what is missing from this syllabus?

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