By Susan Graham

A Black Feminist Thought

Ain’t I a Woman?

..."That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody helps me any best place. And ain't I a woman?..."Look at me! Look at my arm. I have plowed, I have planted and I have gathered into barns. And no man could head me. And ain't I a woman?" ..."I could work as much, and eat as much as man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne children and seen most of them sold into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me. And ain't I a woman?" 1797 –1883

abolitionist, author, human rights activist

Maria Stewart(1803 –1879)

African American public speaker, abolitionist, and feminist

“Shall it any longer be said of the daughters of Africa,They have no ambition, they have no force?

By no means.

Let every female heart become united…..”

Fannie Barrier Williams(1855 –1944)

African American Educator and women's rights activist

“The colored girl… is not known and hence not believed in; she belongs to a race that is designated by the term “problem,” and she livesbeneath the shadow of that problem whichenvelopes and obscures her.”

“In my dreams and visions, I seemed to see a line, and on the other side of that line were green fields, and lovely flowers, and beautiful white ladies, who stretched out their arms to me over the line, but I couldn't reach them no-how. I always fell before I got to the line.”

Harriet Tubman1820-1913

Civil War Nurse, Suffragist, Civil Rights activist

“At present, our country needs women's idealism

and determination, perhaps more in politics

than anywhere else.”

Shirley Chisholm1924-2005

Congresswoman, educator, and author

“Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of

people and deny it to others.”

Coretta Scott King1927-2006

Civil Rights, Women's rights, Human rights, Equal rights Activist, Author

Other Voices of the Past

Economic Dimension: The exploitation of Black women’s labor essential to U.S. capitalism – the “iron pots and kettles” symbolizing Black women’s long-standing ghettoization in service occupations.

Political Dimension: Forbidding Black women to vote, excluding from public office, and withholding equitable treatment in the criminal justice system all substantiate the political subordination of Black women.

Ideological Dimension: Negative stereotypes applied to African-American women have been fundamental to Black women’s oppression.

The Dimensions of Oppression

Discovering, Reinterpreting, & Analyzing the works of individual U.S. Black women thinkers (locating unrecognized and unheralded works, scattered and long out of print)

Discovering, Reinterpreting, & Analyzing the ideas of subgroups within the larger collectivity of U.S. Black women who have been silenced

Reinterpreting existing works through new theoretical frameworks

Searching for its expression in alternative institutional locations and among women who are not commonly perceived as intellectuals (the concept of intellectual must be deconstructed)

Collaboration leadership among those who participate in the diverse forms that Black women’s communities now take.

The Development of Black Feminist Thought

Black women’s subordination within Intersecting oppressions of race, class, gender, sexuality and nation.

Diverse responses to common challenges with Black feminism: No homogenous Black woman’s standpoint exist. Many factors explain diverse responses (social class differences, sexuality signals, and varying ethnic and citizenship statuses.

Black feminism occurs through an ongoing dialogue whereby actions and thought inform one another .

Black feminist intellectuals are central to Black feminist thought: Black feminist scholars in studying oppression among black women are less likely to walk away when the obstacles seem overwhelming or when he rewards for staying diminish.

Black feminism is dynamic and changing: The changing social conditions that confront African-American women stimulate the need for new Black feminist analyses of the common differences that characterize U.S Black womanhood.

Black feminism is part of a wider struggle for human dignity, empowerment, and social justice.

Why U.S. Black Feminist Thought

Alice WalkerAuthor, Poet

“And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.”

Look at the Stars

Michelle ObamaFirst Lady

Shawna R. KimbrellFirst Black Woman Fighter Pilot

Oprah WinfreyRichest African American in the 20th Century

Toni MorrisonNobel Prize in Literature

Maya AngelouWriter

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Aretha FranklinQueen of Soul

Halle BerryFirst Black Woman to

win the Oscar

Dr. Mae Jemison First Black Woman

Astronaut

Serena WilliamsWorld No. 1 Woman Tennis Player

(July, 2002)Condoleezza Rice

First African-American woman Secretary of State

Current Day Voices

Rev. Dr. Katie G. Cannon First African-American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church

Bell HooksSocial Activist

Alice WalkerAuthor, Poet

Michele WallaceFeminist Author

Barbara SmithLesbian Feminist

Angela DavisPolitical Activist

Toni MorrisonNovelist, Editor, Professor

Patricia Hill CollinsFeminist Author

Pioneering Superheroines

Aisha Campbell – Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger

Aisha was the 1st African American female Yellow Ranger in Power Rangers History.

Tanya Sloan – Zeo Yellow Ranger/Yellow Turbo Ranger Tanya is the First female Yellow

Ranger who wore a skirt.

Pioneering Superheroines

Shelby Watkins – Pink Dino Charge Ranger

Shelby is the 1st African American Pink Power Ranger in Power Rangers History!!

Shelby is also the first Pink Ranger on a dinosaur-themed Power Rangers team to have

a triceratops motif

Storm/Ororo Munroe-Iqadi T'Challa – X-Men member and leader

Storm, is the descendant of an ancient line of African priestesses, all of whom have white hair, blue eyes, and

the potential to wield magic.Storm has been considered as a potential Omega Level Mutant One of the primary sources of her powers is the

Earth's electromagnetic field.

Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at the sun.'

We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.

1891-1960Folklorist, anthropologist, novelist, short story writer

Jump at the Sun

- Zora Neale Hurston