2to )11 't t t I \ t I t( c River Collective

llrrllr, Harriet Ttrbman, Frances E. W Harper, Ida B. Wells Barnett, A Black Feminist . rrrt I Mary Church Terrell, and thousands upon thousands unknown - Statement rr, lro had a shared awareness of how their sexual identity combined Combahee River Collective * lvith their racial identity to make their whole life situation and the lot'rrs of their political struggles ur.rique. Contemporary Black femi- We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting rrisrn is the outgrowth of countless generations of personal sacrifice, together since 1974. lDuring that time we have been involved rrrilitancy, and work by our mothers and sisters. process of defining in thc, and crarifying our politics, whire A Black feminist presence has evolved most obviously in connection doing at the same timc political work within o.tt o"*r. gffi r"a in coalition with other with the second wave of the American women's movement beginning progressive organizations and have movelenis. The state in the late 1960s. Biack, other Third World, and working women ment of our poritics at the present -"rt ;;;;.;i time wouid be that *-" ur" u"trrr"ty bcen involved in the feminist movement from its start, but both out- committed to struggling agiinst racial, sexual, heterosexual, side reactionary forces and racism and elitism within the movement oppression ancl class and see as our particular task the development itself have served to obscure our participation. In 1973 Black feminists, analvsis of integrated and practice based upon th" f;"ithr;H;j;:;r't'.8-, primarily located in New York, felt the necessity of forming a separate oppression are interlocking. or The synthesis of these opp."r,riorr, .r" Black feminist group. This became the National Black Ferninist ates the conditions of our ives. As Bla"k *o_"r, we see Biack Organization (NBFO). nism.as the iogical poritical femi_ -orr"^"r*-io combat the maniford Black feminist politics also have an obvious connection to move- simultaneous oppressions and that all *o_"r, of color face. rnents for Black liberation, particularly those of the 1960s and 1970s. We will discuss four major topics in the paper that follows: (1) the Many of us were active in thosc movernents (civil rights, Black nation- genesis of contemporary black feminism; p) what we believe, i.e., the alism, the Black Panthers), and all of our lives were greatly affected specific province of our politics; (3) the pJoUf"-, i" uiu.f. and changed by their ideology, their goals, and the tactics used to feminists, including a bit"r ";;;;;;, h".ri";;J;;r coilective; and (4) Black achieve their goals. lt was our experience and disillusionntcnt within feminist issues and practice. these liberation movements, as well as experience on the periphery of 1. The led to the need to develop a politics that was Genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism ihe #hite male left, that antiracisi, unlike those of white women, and antisexist, unlike those B"i?l: looking at the recent development of Black feminism we of Black and white men. would like to affirm that we find our in the Thi:ie is iiso undeniably a personal genesis for Black feminism, that Afro-American "ri;i"r histori.ur .""iiiy or women's continuous lifE-and-death is, the political realization that comes from the seemingly personal vival and liberation. struggre for sur- Black wome.,," ot.Jr"ty negative ?Ei",i""rfrip experiences of individual Black women's lives. Black feminists and to the American politicat system {" ,y;i;; oi wh"ite ;rl;;;i"il", many more Black women who do not define themselves as feminists always been determined byour _;_6*;ip rn two oppressed racial have all experienced sexual oppression as a constant factor in our day- and sexual castes. as AlSe! ,,Reflections nu"i, poi"i, out in on to-day existence. As children we realized that we were differeni from Black Woman,s Role inth! Comm;"i!;i;ir"es,,, the Btack wome' have boys and that we were treated differently. For example, we were told always embodied, if only in tf-,U.pfrfri'.Jianifestatio", u" in the same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being "ladylikel-and stance to white male rul.e.and have actively resisted its inroads";;;;;;.y upon to rnahe us less objectionable in the eyes of white people. As we grew them and their communities in both d;;;iic and subtle ways. There older we became aware of the threat of physical and sexual abuse by have always been Black wo-",, u"tirrir;_';;^" known, like Sojourner men. However, we had no way of conceptualizing what was so appar- *The ent to us, what we /tnew was realiy happening. cornbahee River collective is a Black ferninist group in Boston -'Black feminists often talk about their feelings of craziness before comes from the guerr'la u.tiutr .un""piuu'tiJ"a'r,.i lvhose narne 1863 irrtheporr r"a r' Harriet Tubman on ru1e, Rovar revi,,11 s1 5"rrh'i;i;,';.iii,)l,,r"rrcejp16r.rharrT5uslaresJune 2, becorning conscious of the concepts of sexual politics, patriarchal and is thc onJy miliiary rlmpaig,r t,'atr-i."" and most importantly, feminism, the political analysis and practice rririJ.]1r""""u and led bv a \ rorran. that we women use to struggle against our oppression. The fact that racial politics and indeed racism are pervasive factors in our lives did 212 Combahee River Cottective Combahee River Collective 213 not allow us' and still does not alrow most Black women, to rook more deeply into our own.experiences and, from.that sharing and growing We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in consciousness, to build a politics that will change our lives anl Black women's lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often tably end our oppression. ou.r"t"tof-"rrt inevi_ must also be tied to the find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because contemporary economic and political position Bh;k;"rpl". fn" in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. We know post world war II generation oi glack "f yo.rin *u, the first to be able to that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neiiher minimally partake of certain educationar and emproyment options, solely racial nor solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of Black women previously closed completely to Black p"opr". errrr,irgir i.1"""-r" by-white men as a weapon of political repression. position is still at the very bottom "", or th"i-".ican capitalistic econ- i ,tlthougn we are feminists and lesbians, we feel solidarity with pro- omy, a handful of us have been able to gain certain tools as a result of giessive Black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that tokenism in education. and employ_"rri-*t i.f, p"a""ii"ffy ,, white women who are separatists demand. Our situation as Black peo- to more effectively fight our oppr"rrlorr. ";;l;" ple necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which A combined antiracist und^u.rtise"ist position drew us together white women of course do not need to have with white men, unless it initially' and as we deveroped p"riil;i;'we udd.essed ourselves is their negative soiidarity as racial oppressors. We struggle together hetero-sexism and to ""orro-i. ofpression'under capitalism. with Black meq against racism, while we also struggle with Black men 2. What We Believe about sexism. \ We realize tdat tt e liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates Above all erse, our politics initialry sprang from the shared belief the destruction of the political-economic systems of capitalism and that Black women are inherently;;i;";i;, ;hat our liberation is a nec- imperialism as well as patriarchy. We are socialists because we believe essity not as an adiunct to someLody but because of our need as the work must be organized for the coliective benefit of those who do human persons foi autonomy. Thi, "tr.ls ;r;;lm so obvious as to sound the work and create the products, and not for the profit of the bosses. simplistic, but it is apparent that no ott *t.rrrlUly progressive move_ Material resources must be equaliy distributed among those who cre- ment has ever considered o,ur specific". ofp.ession as a priority or ate these resources. We are not convinced, however, that a socialist worked seriously for the endi:g of rnui oipr"rrion. Merely naming revolution that is not also a feminist and antiracist revolution will the pejorative stereotypes ghck attributed to women (e.g. guarantee our liberation. We have arrived at the necessity for develop- matriarch, Sapphire, *ho.", brild;g;;;;1", mammy, u,orr" cataloguing the ing an understanding of class relationships that takes into account the cruel, often murderous, treatment ,ir"" ,"""rrr", indicates how little specific class position of Black women who are generally marginal in value has been praced upon our rives during four centuries the labor force, while at this particular time some of us are temporarily in thewestern hemisphere. Vle r"urir"-tr.uiirre "i;;;;;g" only people who care viewed as doubly desirable tokens at white-collar and professional *9gclr.ab*!.ys !9.work eonsistentty ro. ou. tio"r";";;r;; ir", levels. We need to articulate the real class situation of persons who are .rcs evolve lrom a healthy love for 0.,, orrr"lu"i, our sisters and our com_ not merely raceless, sexless workers, but for whom racial and sexual nunity which allows us to continue our struggle and work. oppression are significant determinants in their working/economic This focusing upon o-ur own oppression ls embodied theory as it rf identity in the concept lives. Although we are in essential agreement with Marx's politics. we believe ,rr", ,rr" he -"riiroro.rrra and potentialry applied to the very specific economic relationships he analyzed, we most radical politics come directly out'of ,pposed our own identity, as know that his analysis must be extended further in order for us to to working to end someUoay oppression. In the case of understand our specific economic situation as Black women. ilack women this is a narticularJy,"[rgrrri'aangerous,"ir",, threateninp A political contribution which we feel we have already made is the nd therefore revolutionary concept because it is obvious tro- Iooi- expansion of the feminist principle that the personal is political' In our rg at all the poiitical movements that have preceded us that anyone is consciousness-raising sessions, for example, we have in many ways rore worthy of liberation than ourselves. Vie ,elect p"A"rtuLr,-q.r"".r_ gone beyond white women's revelations because we are dealing with ood, and walking ten paces behind. To be recognized as human, the implications of race and class as well as sex. Even our Black :velly human, is enough. women's style of talking/testifying in Black language about what we have experienced has a resonance that is both cultural and political. We have spent a great deal of energy delving into the cultural and 214 Combahee River Cctllective t \tmbahee RiverCollective 215 experiential nature of our oppression out of necessity because none 'l'he ps-ycholggic,q! toll o-f being a Black woman.a4d tle difticulties these matters has ever of been iooked uiu"ror.. No one before examined has ever I I r is presents..in p"olitical consciousness and doing. political the multilayered texture of Jqachtqg Black women,s lives. An exam- There is a very low value placed ple of this kind of revelation/con""ptrutirution work can never be underestimated. occurred ut a meeting ,,por el#k'*orii6ils psyches in this society, which is both racist and as we discussed the ways in which our early intellectual interests had scxist. As an early group member once said, "We are all damaged peo- been attacked by our peers, particularly Black males. we discovered merely by virtue of being Black women." We are dispossessed psy- that all of us, because we were,,smart,,had lrle also been t'hologically and on every other level, and yet we feel the necessity to r.e., "smart,ugly.,,,,Smart_ugl/, crystalliz"a,fr" "orrriJ"rJ;.rg1y,,, way in which most struggle to change the condition of all Black women. In'A Black Femi- us had been forced to of devellp ou. i"t"ri""ts at great cost lives' The to our,,sociar,, nist's Search for Sisterhood," Michele Wallace arrives at this conclusion: sanctions in the Black communities women thinkers ""d;;i; against Black "We exist as women who are Black who are feminists, each is comparativelymuch higher than fo.;fi,;;;-"", for the moment, working independently because there is particularly ones from the educated stranded mi;;le ;p;;;il;. not yet an environment in this society remotely congenial to our As we have alreadystated, we ""d reject the stance of lesbian separatism struggle because, being on the bottom, we would have to do what because it is not a vra,bl"e political - ;";l;;i, or strategy for us. It leaves no one else hgs done: we would have to fight the world."2 out far too much too many pi"pf", particularly Black is pessimistic but realistic in her assessment of Black femi women' and ch'dren'"T {i: men, Wallace we have u gi"ut aiea or criticism nearly isola- for what anJi"",rri"g nists'position, particularly in her allusion to the classic men have been socialized"to be in this port, society: ,rrrr,-,rr.v r"p tion most of us face. W9 gg!!y_tS-o:l-po_s-ttio:".fl1h,9.po_t!9q1r.hqyuSy.g., how they act, and how they oppr"rr.-e"a _" a" t c l ea pl ir"irrr""ini _r, o make a r l e ep1!fl uti 1'4y a. eilff J-f'Ele"9}-i)'"e*nq.9.p ;.. guided notion that it is,their ffi " " _"f"r"rr, per se_i.e., their biological free, it would mean that eve-{yone else_.would have to be freg,gipgq gur mareness - that makes them what they aie. As Black women we find freedom would necesqltat9, the d-e.-s!1y.ction of all the systenrs o[ any type of biologicar determinism a particularly d.;g;;;; urra"r"u"- oppression. tionary basis upon which to. build G _;"ri;l;;!"1r,,o" is, threatening to the majority of Black whether resbian ".p"ji,i" Feminism nevertheless, very separatism-ir utr ua"iuut" and analysis progressive political people because it calls into question some of the most basic assurnp- and strategy, for those #no pru"ti"e pletely :":" it, since it so com_ tions about our existence, i.e., that sex should be a determinant o[ denies any but the sexual ,or."J, of negating women,s oppression, power relationships. Flere is the way male and female voices were the facts of class and race. defined in a Black nationalist pamphlet from the early 1970's. 3. Problems in Organizing Black Feminists "We understand that it is and has been traditional that the man is the head of the house. He is the leader of the house/nation because his During our years together as a Black feminist collective we have knowledge of the worid is broader, his awareness is greater, his experienced success u"d d:l::t, joy and pain, victory and failure. understanding is fuller and his application of this information is have found that it is very We difficultio ;;g:;lr" around wiser. . . After all, it is only reasonable that the man be the head of issues' Brack feminist difficult even to announce in certrin the house because he is able to defend and protect the deveiopment feminists' contexts that we are Brack we have tried to . as men * they are think aboui the r"uro.r, for our difficulties, of his home . . Women cannot do the same things particularly since the white women's made by nature to function differently. Equality of men and morr"-"nt to be str'ng and to grow in manv directions. In "o.rtinues women is something that cannot happen even in the abstract world. this section we w'l discuss some the general reasons for rt orgu.riri;g;;;;i"_, of Men are not equal to other men, i.e. ability, experience or even we face and also specifically about the " talk understanding. The value of men and women can be seen as in the s.tages in orgurrlr'ing our own collective. The major source of difiiculty value of goid and silver - they are noi equal but both have great ii". f"riti"al work is that we are women are a complement to just trying to fight oppression o'or" not value. We must real\ze that men and f.;;; even two, but instead to each other because there is no house/family without a man and his address a whole ranse of opp.essiorrs. w; ;; not have racial, sexuar, wife. Both are essential to the development of any life.": heterosexuar, or clas! privil^ege r"lt nor do we have lead minimal access l" ;;"; even the The material conditions of most Black women would hardly to resources and power that groups one who possess any them to upset both economic and sexual arrangements that seem to of these types of privilege have. 276 Combahee River Collective 217 Combahee RiverCollectivt

represent some stability in theirlives. MAly Black women were first conceptualized as a Lesbian-straight split but which were understanding ha._s agood of both sexism and ru"ir-, 6", il;;;;ii1r" also the result of class and political differences. During the summer constrictions of #rro* their rives cannot risk struggri.,g uguirr;t ih;iotir. those of us who were still meeting had determined the need to do polit- The reaction of Black men to feminism r.r"u", uJ"n"no,"ii"rrry ical work and to move beyond consciousness-raising and serving tive' They are, of course, even exclusiveiy as an emotional support group. At the beginning of 1976, more threatened than Black wo-"',""g, by the possibility that Black. feminitrr when some of the women who had not wanted to do political work -iilt organize around our own needs. They realize that they and who also had voiced disagreements stopped attending of their might noionly lose vaiuable and hard_ working allies in their own accord, we again looked for a focus. We decided at that time, struggles 6ut that they might ulso be-folcea with change their to habitually sexisl ways of inieracting with the addition of new members, to become a study group. We had always Black and oppressing Agg_xsatiqns. thai Biack feminism divides shared our reading with each other, and some of us had written papers struggle,women. the Black are powerfur deterrenrs to the growth ;Hi on Black feminism for group discussion a few months before this deci- women's movement. "rl" ^i.""n-,l}, sion was made. We began functioning as a study group and also began Stiil'" hundreds of women discussing the possibility of starting a Black feminist publication. We have been active at different times during the three-year existence oj had a retreat in the late spring which provided a time for both political oyr group. arra Black woman who came/ came out of a strongly-felt ",r".y discussion and working out interpersonal issues. Currently we are t-t""d for ro-e lever.rporriiirity *nut did not previously exist in ier life. planning to gather together a collection of Black feminist writing. We when we first started feel that it is absolutely essential to demonstrate the reality of our poli' meeting early in rg74 after the NBFO first eastern regionar conference, tics to other Black women and believe that we can do this through *" Jid noi hru" a strategy for organizing, or even a focus. We just wanted writing and distributing our work. The fact that individual Black fem- to see what we had.'Afte, u i".ioa of months of not meeting, we inists are living in isolation all over the country, that our own numbers b"g"" i; ;;;t ugutn tate in the year and started doing an intense variety are smail, and that we have some skills in writing, printing, and pub- of consciousness-raising. The over- yhll-i"g feeling that we had lishing makes us want to carry out these kinds of projects as a means of ls that after years and years we had finally found each other. organizing Black feminists as we continue to do political work in coali- Althorgl', -" *"." .rot doing political work as a group/ ir"rdividuals continued their involvement iJi"rrri""'p.u tion with other groups. tics, sterilization abuse and abortion rights work, Third International world women,s 4. Black Feminist Issues and Projects Women,s Day activitie"s, orra ,,rppor, fo. trials of Dr. Kenneth tfr. Edelin, Joan Little, f"ei Curliu."",i"iiy ;;.;; During our time together we have identified and worked on many first summer, when ""a or. membership had dffied off considerably, issues of particular relevance to Black women. The inciusiveness of of us remaining those devoted se.ious discurri-Ji ,o the possibilii; ;;"" our politics makes us concerned with any situation that impinges ing a refuge for battered women gh;k ",f upon the lives of women, Third World and working people. We are of in u .ommunity. (There was no refuge in Boston at that course particularly committed to working on those struggles in time.)".we also clecrded around that time which b1c.o19an independent to collective since we had serious disagreements race, sex and class are simultaneous factors in oppression. We might, s bourgeois-feminist stance anJtheir lr"k.i;;;;;. for example, become involved in workplace organizing at a factory ;;liJjJ" i"',i that employs Third World women or picket a hospital that is cutting We also were contacted back on already inadequate health care to a Third World community, at that time by socialist feminists, with whom we had worked on abortion or set up a rape crisis center in a Black neighborhood. Organizing rights activities, who wanted to encourage us to attend the around welfare and daycare concerns might also be a focus. The work National sociarist Feminist conference in Yellow Springs. one of to be done and the countless issues that this work represents merely our members aiJ utterra and despite the rowness of the nar_ ideology that was promoted at that particular reflect the pervasiveness of our oppression. ence, we became more aware of the need for us to .r.ra".riur.rJ-or."orJ"r_ Issues and projects that collective members have actually worked own economic situation on are abuse, rights, women, rape and and to make our own economic analysis. sterilization abortion battered In the fall, when some members health care. We have also done many workshops and educationals on returned, we experienced several months of comparative inactivity and internal disagreements which Combahe e Ri rt,, r, ( i r//rrr.ln€ Black feminism on. college campuses, at women,s confercn(t.r,t, most recently for high sclool *o_"rr.' Hlttf one issue that is or major publicly "";;;r;;; "dd;;; iJ*"r,- i,, th" ;;;;;*:"1,T:y""#J". feminists we are ."";;:tf,,"0 [iii,,,:; effort -":-" O"f"f"ily aware of how white women have made liille to.rnJ"-rrturrd and combat ism' which reQuires among trrr,ir other trrrrg, irrut they 'ar, superficiar comprehension have a m.rt. ,ra' of race, corrr, and black history ture' Eliminating racism i" th";;;;;J-"r,, arrtr r,rrr tron work for movemenr is bv rrr,ri'r white women to do, but we demand "" wit"' continue to speak t.,rrrr accountability on this *;;. In the practice of oui poritics justifies *" io not berieve that the the means. Many reacti;6ffi;estructive end arw,yn done in the name or"chieving:;;,;;;licul acts havc [rt.err do not goulr. As feminisrs want to mess over people in we collective t'. ,ru-" of politics. we believc process u'a u rrorrhi;;il;ffirrr.,o,rr,o'of irr our own group power wittrirr and in our vision of a revolutir;";; committed to a continual-examinatl";;;;r ,;""i"ty.'#i',,r,. politics as they through criticism and serf-criti";;;; devcrrlr tice' Jsr"rrtiut aspect of our prac. In her introduction to srslerft ooa i, io*.rrr1 Robin Morgur, *iit"r, "I haven't the faintest notion-what possible revorutionary role heterosexual men could fulfill, ,i";;;;re whitt, of reactionary_vested_int"r"ri'_p"*".."-, the very embodimerrr As Black feminists and Lesbian, nite _. krro_ that we have a very defi- revolutionary task to perform work ready for the lifetime and struggle before us. ""d;;;;" of

I This statement is dated Ap.il ,nE#totet 2 ,A Michele Wallace, Black Femirnist's Search for Sisterhood,, 28 July 1925, pp. 6_2. The Village Voice, 3 Mumininas of Commi'ee for unified Nationalist Newark, Mwanamke Mwananchi Woman), Newark, nl.,; irri ir. l . rThe From capitarist patriarchv and the cose t'or sociarist Lbminism, stein, New york, Monthly n"ui"*Fr"r.: "r";;;:;",, ed. by Zilla_h Eisen_