What Does it Mean to Be Black and a Woman?

What does it mean to be black and a woman?  How is femininity measured, and who measures it? In 1974, Shirley Chisholm delivered a speech to the University of Missouri, The Twin Jeopardies of Race and Sex, in which she stated:

The black woman’s role has not been placed in its proper perspective, particularly in terms of the current economic and political upheaval in America today. Since time immemorial, the black man’s emasculation resulted in the need of the black woman to assert herself in order to maintain some semblance of a family unit. And as a result of this historical circumstance, the black woman has developed perseverance; the black woman has developed strength; the black woman has developed tenacity of purpose and other attributes which today quite often are being looked upon negatively. She continues to be labeled a matriarch. And this is indeed a played-upon white sociological interpretation of the black woman’s role that has been developed and perpetrated by Daniel Moynihan and other sociologists.

Angela Davis’ essay from the same period, The Reflection of Black Women in the Community of Slaves, asserts that black women have weathered being labeled as “aggressive and matriarchal” by white scholars, and to some degree, by the black community. She also makes points about the courageous black women who take a stance against white male rule on behalf of their community, despite having membership in two politically oppressed communities.

While both of these reflections on race and sex look at a black woman’s political quandaries, the work that both of these activists have done helps to dismantle oppressive identities. In 1968, Shirley Chisholm was the first African-American female elected to U.S. Congress and received 151 delegates for the 1972 presidential nomination. Through her sojourning efforts toward equal rights, she became a voice for the poor, minorities, and children;  groups whose cries for help generally go unheard.

Angela Davis, who grew up during the ’50s and ’60s in Birmingham, Alabama watching explosive reactions to non-violent protests, also was a voice for the unheard. By the ’70s, she became a member of the Black Panther Party and spoke out on behalf of inner-city communities that face poverty and racial discrimination.  Though she was viewed as a radical because of her political stance, her ability to bring people together and raise awareness made her the poster child of the BlackPower Movement in the ’70s.

By Mildred Fallen