Carol Giardina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034560
- eISBN:
- 9780813039329
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034560.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Social History
The chapter brings forth the debate which was initiated in black Women's Liberation groups as well as white groups over men being regarded as being the oppressors of women. Groups were formed among ...
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The chapter brings forth the debate which was initiated in black Women's Liberation groups as well as white groups over men being regarded as being the oppressors of women. Groups were formed among radical women over the reasons responsible for the oppression of women. Some declared capitalism to be the sole oppressor of women while others held the culpability of men to be responsible. These debates among radical women helped to give rise to ideas upon which the Women's Liberation Movement was built. The chapter also traces the formation of the Women's Liberation Movement which demanded women's representation in every walk of life be it in education or employment.Less
The chapter brings forth the debate which was initiated in black Women's Liberation groups as well as white groups over men being regarded as being the oppressors of women. Groups were formed among radical women over the reasons responsible for the oppression of women. Some declared capitalism to be the sole oppressor of women while others held the culpability of men to be responsible. These debates among radical women helped to give rise to ideas upon which the Women's Liberation Movement was built. The chapter also traces the formation of the Women's Liberation Movement which demanded women's representation in every walk of life be it in education or employment.
Carol Giardina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034560
- eISBN:
- 9780813039329
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034560.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter traces the help extended by the Left to weomen's liberation movements. The term “Old Left” is used for describing Marxist-inspired parties and individuals and the term “New Left” refers ...
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This chapter traces the help extended by the Left to weomen's liberation movements. The term “Old Left” is used for describing Marxist-inspired parties and individuals and the term “New Left” refers to the modernization of the group. The New Left gave much help and support to the Women's Liberation Movement. The women who commenced the Women's Liberation Movement were influenced by Old Left parties. The chapter brings together examples from lives of radical women and discusses how the Left parties affected their thought flow. The chapter also talks about the organizational help extended by the Old Left parties to the women's liberation movements. Next the chapter studies the presence of Women's Liberation pioneers in the New Left parties and the institutional help extended by the New Left to women liberation groups. Men on the Left front who extended their full support to women during the movement also get a mention in the chapter.Less
This chapter traces the help extended by the Left to weomen's liberation movements. The term “Old Left” is used for describing Marxist-inspired parties and individuals and the term “New Left” refers to the modernization of the group. The New Left gave much help and support to the Women's Liberation Movement. The women who commenced the Women's Liberation Movement were influenced by Old Left parties. The chapter brings together examples from lives of radical women and discusses how the Left parties affected their thought flow. The chapter also talks about the organizational help extended by the Old Left parties to the women's liberation movements. Next the chapter studies the presence of Women's Liberation pioneers in the New Left parties and the institutional help extended by the New Left to women liberation groups. Men on the Left front who extended their full support to women during the movement also get a mention in the chapter.
Dayo F. Gore
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814732366
- eISBN:
- 9780814733028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814732366.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter traces the continuity between the radical politics of the 1930s and that of the 1950s. Examining the roots of their affiliations with the organized US left, it details the ways black ...
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This chapter traces the continuity between the radical politics of the 1930s and that of the 1950s. Examining the roots of their affiliations with the organized US left, it details the ways black women—including Vicki Garvin, Yvonne Gregory, Maude White Katz, Thelma Dale Perkins, Marvel Cooke, and Claudia Jones—were radicalized within the milieu of 1930s Popular Front politics. It traces the political and life paths that brought these women into New York's black left. It also outlines how they negotiated the shifting politics of postwar America and began to carve out space for themselves within a range of left organizations, particularly those with ties to the Communist Party.Less
This chapter traces the continuity between the radical politics of the 1930s and that of the 1950s. Examining the roots of their affiliations with the organized US left, it details the ways black women—including Vicki Garvin, Yvonne Gregory, Maude White Katz, Thelma Dale Perkins, Marvel Cooke, and Claudia Jones—were radicalized within the milieu of 1930s Popular Front politics. It traces the political and life paths that brought these women into New York's black left. It also outlines how they negotiated the shifting politics of postwar America and began to carve out space for themselves within a range of left organizations, particularly those with ties to the Communist Party.
Dayo F. Gore
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814732366
- eISBN:
- 9780814733028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814732366.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter analyzes the writings of black women radicals such as Thelma Dale Perkins, Beulah Richardson, Alice Childress, and Claudia Jones, who engaged public conversation over dominant ...
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This chapter analyzes the writings of black women radicals such as Thelma Dale Perkins, Beulah Richardson, Alice Childress, and Claudia Jones, who engaged public conversation over dominant constructions of black womanhood and gender relations in the United States. It examines the debates about the black family and heterosexual relationships that emerged in the black-owned publication Negro Digest, as well as the calls for addressing women's equality by white women in the Communist Party. These debates provide a backdrop for examining black women's discussion of such issues in various publications, speeches, and their own cultural work, as they intervened to include black women's experiences in theorizing “the woman's question” and “the Negro question” within a range of left spaces. In analyzing this political contestation, the chapter pays particular attention to the ways in which black women radicals critiqued white women's privilege, discussed constructions of black women's sexuality, and articulated a black feminist politics.Less
This chapter analyzes the writings of black women radicals such as Thelma Dale Perkins, Beulah Richardson, Alice Childress, and Claudia Jones, who engaged public conversation over dominant constructions of black womanhood and gender relations in the United States. It examines the debates about the black family and heterosexual relationships that emerged in the black-owned publication Negro Digest, as well as the calls for addressing women's equality by white women in the Communist Party. These debates provide a backdrop for examining black women's discussion of such issues in various publications, speeches, and their own cultural work, as they intervened to include black women's experiences in theorizing “the woman's question” and “the Negro question” within a range of left spaces. In analyzing this political contestation, the chapter pays particular attention to the ways in which black women radicals critiqued white women's privilege, discussed constructions of black women's sexuality, and articulated a black feminist politics.
Dayo F. Gore
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814732366
- eISBN:
- 9780814733028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814732366.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Drawing on the work and writings of Marvel Cooke and Vicki Garvin, this chapter explores how black women analyzed—and resisted—the dual impact of gender and race discrimination in the labor market ...
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Drawing on the work and writings of Marvel Cooke and Vicki Garvin, this chapter explores how black women analyzed—and resisted—the dual impact of gender and race discrimination in the labor market during the early Cold War years. It details the journalism of Marvel Cooke, who chronicled the experiences of black women domestic workers by revisiting the “Bronx Slave Markets” in the pages of the New York newspaper The Daily Compass. It follows the political development of Vicki Garvin, as her commitment to labor activism took her from Smith College, where she became one of the first black women in the college to earn a master's degree in economics, to wartime work at the National Labor War Board and to leadership in the National Negro Labor Council during the 1950s. Their labor activism, which went beyond the traditional bounds of trade union organizing, illustrates how black women radicals helped to develop a more expansive view of labor activism that addressed the full range of experiences of black women workers.Less
Drawing on the work and writings of Marvel Cooke and Vicki Garvin, this chapter explores how black women analyzed—and resisted—the dual impact of gender and race discrimination in the labor market during the early Cold War years. It details the journalism of Marvel Cooke, who chronicled the experiences of black women domestic workers by revisiting the “Bronx Slave Markets” in the pages of the New York newspaper The Daily Compass. It follows the political development of Vicki Garvin, as her commitment to labor activism took her from Smith College, where she became one of the first black women in the college to earn a master's degree in economics, to wartime work at the National Labor War Board and to leadership in the National Negro Labor Council during the 1950s. Their labor activism, which went beyond the traditional bounds of trade union organizing, illustrates how black women radicals helped to develop a more expansive view of labor activism that addressed the full range of experiences of black women workers.
Dayo F. Gore
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814732366
- eISBN:
- 9780814733028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814732366.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter traces the extension of black women radicals' activism and political vision beyond the 1950s. It outlines the key strategies that allowed many of them to continue their work for such a ...
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This chapter traces the extension of black women radicals' activism and political vision beyond the 1950s. It outlines the key strategies that allowed many of them to continue their work for such a long time, and highlights the connections and alliances that sustained them throughout these years. It begins with the emergence of the Negro Women's Action Committee (NWAC) and the founding of Freedomways journal, which began publication in 1961 as a revival of Paul Robeson's Freedom newspaper. It goes on to detail Maude White Katz's work in parent-led school protests in New York and her contributions to Toni Cade Bambara's The Black Woman, Vicki Garvin's travels abroad, and black women radicals' participation in the campaigns to free Angela Davis and Joan Little. The chapter also explores a range of local, national, and transnational activism and cultural work that black women radicals took up as the political landscape expanded, and they sought to connect with a new generation of activists and contribute to the radical politics taking shape during the 1960s and 1970s.Less
This chapter traces the extension of black women radicals' activism and political vision beyond the 1950s. It outlines the key strategies that allowed many of them to continue their work for such a long time, and highlights the connections and alliances that sustained them throughout these years. It begins with the emergence of the Negro Women's Action Committee (NWAC) and the founding of Freedomways journal, which began publication in 1961 as a revival of Paul Robeson's Freedom newspaper. It goes on to detail Maude White Katz's work in parent-led school protests in New York and her contributions to Toni Cade Bambara's The Black Woman, Vicki Garvin's travels abroad, and black women radicals' participation in the campaigns to free Angela Davis and Joan Little. The chapter also explores a range of local, national, and transnational activism and cultural work that black women radicals took up as the political landscape expanded, and they sought to connect with a new generation of activists and contribute to the radical politics taking shape during the 1960s and 1970s.
Dayo F. Gore
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814732366
- eISBN:
- 9780814733028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814732366.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, namely to document a network of black women leftists who became politicized in the 1930s and 1940s, and defiantly maintained communist ...
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This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, namely to document a network of black women leftists who became politicized in the 1930s and 1940s, and defiantly maintained communist affiliations in the midst of a politically repressive “red scare” of the 1950s. This dynamic community of women included established Communist Party (CP) organizers such as Louise Thompson Patterson, Maude White Katz, Marvel Cooke, and Claudia Jones; authors Beulah Richardson, Lorraine Hansberry, and Alice Childress; and lesser-known activists such as Vicki Garvin, Yvonne Gregory, Thelma Dale Perkins, and Halois Moorhead. The remainder of the chapter reviews accounts of the work of these black women that emerged since the 1990s followed by an overview of the subsequent chapters.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, namely to document a network of black women leftists who became politicized in the 1930s and 1940s, and defiantly maintained communist affiliations in the midst of a politically repressive “red scare” of the 1950s. This dynamic community of women included established Communist Party (CP) organizers such as Louise Thompson Patterson, Maude White Katz, Marvel Cooke, and Claudia Jones; authors Beulah Richardson, Lorraine Hansberry, and Alice Childress; and lesser-known activists such as Vicki Garvin, Yvonne Gregory, Thelma Dale Perkins, and Halois Moorhead. The remainder of the chapter reviews accounts of the work of these black women that emerged since the 1990s followed by an overview of the subsequent chapters.
Dayo F. Gore
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814732366
- eISBN:
- 9780814733028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814732366.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines the political strategies and organizing that shaped black women radicals' activism in the celebrated fight to free Rosa Lee Ingram, a black woman convicted, along with two of ...
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This chapter examines the political strategies and organizing that shaped black women radicals' activism in the celebrated fight to free Rosa Lee Ingram, a black woman convicted, along with two of her sons, of murdering a white man in rural Georgia. It highlights black women's leadership in organizing to win the Ingrams' freedom and in publicly asserting black women's right to self-defense and control over their bodies. These women situated their activism within the postwar context, as well as within black women's long history of sexualized violence. Working through the Civil Rights Congress, the Women's Committee for Equal Justice, and the all-black women's organization Sojourners for Truth and Justice, Yvonne Gregory, Beulah Richardson, and other women crafted a political analysis that sought to broaden the scope of civil rights activism. Through such efforts, these women fought to assert black women's leadership and vision in shaping postwar civil rights politics.Less
This chapter examines the political strategies and organizing that shaped black women radicals' activism in the celebrated fight to free Rosa Lee Ingram, a black woman convicted, along with two of her sons, of murdering a white man in rural Georgia. It highlights black women's leadership in organizing to win the Ingrams' freedom and in publicly asserting black women's right to self-defense and control over their bodies. These women situated their activism within the postwar context, as well as within black women's long history of sexualized violence. Working through the Civil Rights Congress, the Women's Committee for Equal Justice, and the all-black women's organization Sojourners for Truth and Justice, Yvonne Gregory, Beulah Richardson, and other women crafted a political analysis that sought to broaden the scope of civil rights activism. Through such efforts, these women fought to assert black women's leadership and vision in shaping postwar civil rights politics.
Dayo F. Gore
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814732366
- eISBN:
- 9780814733028
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814732366.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
With the exception of a few iconic moments such as Rosa Parks' 1955 refusal to move to the back of a Montgomery bus, we hear little about what black women activists did prior to 1960. Perhaps this ...
More
With the exception of a few iconic moments such as Rosa Parks' 1955 refusal to move to the back of a Montgomery bus, we hear little about what black women activists did prior to 1960. Perhaps this gap is due to the severe repression that radicals of any color in America faced as early as the 1930s, and into the Red Scare of the 1950s. To be radical and black and a woman was to be forced to the margins and consequently, these women's stories have been deeply buried and all but forgotten by the general public and historians alike. This book unearths and examines a dynamic, extended network of black radical women during the early Cold War, including established Communist Party activists such as Claudia Jones, artists and writers such as Beulah Richardson, and lesser known organizers such as Vicki Garvin and Thelma Dale. These women were part of a black left that laid much of the groundwork for both the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and later strains of black radicalism. This book offers a sustained and in-depth analysis of the political thought and activism of black women radicals during the Cold War period and adds a new dimension to our understanding of this tumultuous time in US history.Less
With the exception of a few iconic moments such as Rosa Parks' 1955 refusal to move to the back of a Montgomery bus, we hear little about what black women activists did prior to 1960. Perhaps this gap is due to the severe repression that radicals of any color in America faced as early as the 1930s, and into the Red Scare of the 1950s. To be radical and black and a woman was to be forced to the margins and consequently, these women's stories have been deeply buried and all but forgotten by the general public and historians alike. This book unearths and examines a dynamic, extended network of black radical women during the early Cold War, including established Communist Party activists such as Claudia Jones, artists and writers such as Beulah Richardson, and lesser known organizers such as Vicki Garvin and Thelma Dale. These women were part of a black left that laid much of the groundwork for both the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and later strains of black radicalism. This book offers a sustained and in-depth analysis of the political thought and activism of black women radicals during the Cold War period and adds a new dimension to our understanding of this tumultuous time in US history.
Roberta Gold
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038181
- eISBN:
- 9780252095986
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038181.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines the work of young radicals in the Black Panthers, Young Lords Party, student left, and lower-profile neighborhood groups who sought to establish community say over housing ...
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This chapter examines the work of young radicals in the Black Panthers, Young Lords Party, student left, and lower-profile neighborhood groups who sought to establish community say over housing during the Vietnam War period. It first provides an overview of ghetto radicalism in the late 1960s before turning to school activism and the involvement of women radicals in the housing struggle under the banner of community control. It then considers the emergence of the squatter movement, along with the squatter actions launched by young radicals in collaboration with older activists in an attempt to preserve ome of New York's scarce low-rent housing stock. It also discusses the interaction between Old and New Left housing organizers that amplified the feminist awakenings taking place in New York during this period. In particular, it looks at how young people who became active with Met Council on Housing were mentored by women whose brand of feminism focused on a deliberate analysis of sexual exploitation.Less
This chapter examines the work of young radicals in the Black Panthers, Young Lords Party, student left, and lower-profile neighborhood groups who sought to establish community say over housing during the Vietnam War period. It first provides an overview of ghetto radicalism in the late 1960s before turning to school activism and the involvement of women radicals in the housing struggle under the banner of community control. It then considers the emergence of the squatter movement, along with the squatter actions launched by young radicals in collaboration with older activists in an attempt to preserve ome of New York's scarce low-rent housing stock. It also discusses the interaction between Old and New Left housing organizers that amplified the feminist awakenings taking place in New York during this period. In particular, it looks at how young people who became active with Met Council on Housing were mentored by women whose brand of feminism focused on a deliberate analysis of sexual exploitation.
Rowena Kennedy-Epstein
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474414432
- eISBN:
- 9781474426923
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474414432.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
In A Proper Marriage (1954), Martha Quest wants to ‘break the nightmare of repetition’ that has shaped the twentieth century — the seemly unending cycle of patriarchy, nationalism, war, colonialism, ...
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In A Proper Marriage (1954), Martha Quest wants to ‘break the nightmare of repetition’ that has shaped the twentieth century — the seemly unending cycle of patriarchy, nationalism, war, colonialism, and rigid political ideologies. In TheGolden Notebook (1962), Lessing enacts this disruption through an experimental crossing of genres, documenting, as if fulfilling Virginia Woolf’s wish in Professions for Women (1931), the ‘sexual lives of women’ in the context of collective histories. Through her combination of fiction, documentary material, political theory, and memoir, Lessing offers a nuanced reading of the connections between state violence, sexual hierarchies, and political crises. Using textual hybridity to resist closed formal and political structures that reinscribe authority, Lessing writes women as central narrators and subjects of twentieth-century politics and history, subverting the boundaries of gender and genre. However, Lessing’s radical textual and political project is not a singular one. This chapter considers new ways of reading Lessing’s text alongside works by Virginia Woolf, Muriel Rukeyser, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Arundhati Roy, and Claudia Rankine, arguing that the The Golden Notebook is not only better understood within these networks, but is pivotal for understanding the formal and political possibilities of hybridity in the hands of women writers.Less
In A Proper Marriage (1954), Martha Quest wants to ‘break the nightmare of repetition’ that has shaped the twentieth century — the seemly unending cycle of patriarchy, nationalism, war, colonialism, and rigid political ideologies. In TheGolden Notebook (1962), Lessing enacts this disruption through an experimental crossing of genres, documenting, as if fulfilling Virginia Woolf’s wish in Professions for Women (1931), the ‘sexual lives of women’ in the context of collective histories. Through her combination of fiction, documentary material, political theory, and memoir, Lessing offers a nuanced reading of the connections between state violence, sexual hierarchies, and political crises. Using textual hybridity to resist closed formal and political structures that reinscribe authority, Lessing writes women as central narrators and subjects of twentieth-century politics and history, subverting the boundaries of gender and genre. However, Lessing’s radical textual and political project is not a singular one. This chapter considers new ways of reading Lessing’s text alongside works by Virginia Woolf, Muriel Rukeyser, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Arundhati Roy, and Claudia Rankine, arguing that the The Golden Notebook is not only better understood within these networks, but is pivotal for understanding the formal and political possibilities of hybridity in the hands of women writers.
Dayo F. Gore
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814732366
- eISBN:
- 9780814733028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814732366.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter summarizes the book's main themes. This book sought to insert both the analysis of black women radicals and their collective experiences into the history of postwar radicalism by ...
More
This chapter summarizes the book's main themes. This book sought to insert both the analysis of black women radicals and their collective experiences into the history of postwar radicalism by centering their insights and documenting their contributions to sustaining a black left politics well into the 1970s. In so doing, it builds upon an expanding new field of scholarship that examines the political leadership of black women radicals from the 1930 to the 1950s, even as it extends this research into the 1960s and 1970s. Investigating their activism introduces an alternative perspective on many key aspects of U.S. radicalism and postwar politics, and de-centers dominant narratives that privilege the decimation of the US left and the experiences of well-known leaders in the black left and in the Communist Party.Less
This chapter summarizes the book's main themes. This book sought to insert both the analysis of black women radicals and their collective experiences into the history of postwar radicalism by centering their insights and documenting their contributions to sustaining a black left politics well into the 1970s. In so doing, it builds upon an expanding new field of scholarship that examines the political leadership of black women radicals from the 1930 to the 1950s, even as it extends this research into the 1960s and 1970s. Investigating their activism introduces an alternative perspective on many key aspects of U.S. radicalism and postwar politics, and de-centers dominant narratives that privilege the decimation of the US left and the experiences of well-known leaders in the black left and in the Communist Party.