This document summarizes key aspects of Black feminist thought and its development. It discusses [1] early voices that advocated for women's rights like Sojourner Truth and Maria Stewart, [2] the intersecting oppressions Black women face around race, class and gender, and [3] how Black feminist intellectuals have worked to develop Black feminist thought through discovering and reinterpreting works by Black women.

1. Black Feminist Thought

2. 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

3. “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…..”
Maria Stewart
(1803 –1879)
African American public speaker,
abolitionist, and feminist

4. “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 lives
beneath the shadow of that problem which
envelopes and obscures her.”
Fannie Barrier Williams
(1855 –1944)
African American Educator and
women's rights activist

5. Other Voices of the Past

6. The Dimensions of Oppression
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.

7. The Development of Black Feminist Thought
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.

8. Why U.S. 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.

9. 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.
Alice Walker
Author, Poet

10. Look at the Stars
Shawna R. Kimbrell Michelle Obama Oprah Winfrey Maya Angelou
Toni Morrison Richest African American Writer
First Black Woman First Lady
Nobel Prize in Literature in the 20th Century Presidential Medal of Freedom
Fighter Pilot
Aretha Franklin Condoleezza Rice Halle Berry Dr. Mae Jemison Serena Williams
World No. 1 Woman Tennis Player
Queen of Soul First African-American woman First Black Woman to First Black Woman (July, 2002)
Secretary of State win the Oscar Astronaut

11. Current Day Voices
Barbara Smith Angela Davis Toni Morrison Patricia Hill Collins
Lesbian Feminist Political Activist Novelist, Editor, Professor Feminist Author
Rev. Dr. Katie G. Cannon Michele Wallace
First African-American woman Bell Hooks Alice Walker Feminist Author
ordained in the United Social Activist Author, Poet
Presbyterian Church

12. Jump at the Sun
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.
- Zora Neale Hurston