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Black Women, Black Feminism, and the Women's Liberation Movement

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Black Women, Black Feminism, and the Women's Liberation Movement University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2018 The Sisterhood: Black Women, Black Feminism, And The Women's Liberation Movement Saraellen Strongman University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Strongman, Saraellen, "The Sisterhood: Black Women, Black Feminism, And The Women's Liberation Movement" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3061. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3061 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3061 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Sisterhood: Black Women, Black Feminism, And The Women's Liberation Movement Abstract This dissertation, “The Sisterhood: Black Women, Black Feminism, and the Women’s Liberation Movement” traces the development of second-wave Black feminism as an intellectual and activist tradition in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing on published and unpublished literary and academic works and extensive archival materials including personal correspondence, I argue that a cohort of Black women novelists, poets, critics, and academics used their work and social networks to build a distinct Black feminist movement while simultaneously imagining and producing new possibilities for political and personal relationships with individual white women and the larger feminist movement. This dissertation contributes to ongoing discussions in the fields of Black women’s intellectual history, Black feminism, and women’s studies in three ways: This dissertation contributes to these ongoing conversations in three ways: (1) by enlarging what has become a limited genealogy of second-wave Black feminist to include lesser-known and under-studied groups and women; (2) by illuminating the connections between the creative and political work Black feminists do including how Black feminists’ creative work (e.g. poetry and fiction) is a crucial form of theorizing the development of a Black feminist tradition; and (3) by explaining how Black feminists were consistently in dialogue with white feminists pressuring them to expand the mainstream feminist political platform to be more inclusive and attentive to women of color’s concerns. This dissertation is a recuperative project but also an effort to examine the robust, multi-layered contributions of Black women outside of mainstream second-wave feminist and Black Nationalist organizations. Tracing the circuits Black feminists navigated in their activist and intellectual work helps us to better understand the contemporary moment and to critically appraise contemporary, popular invocations of Black feminism as descendants of a historically specific movement and moment of Black feminist creativity and activism. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Africana Studies First Advisor Herman Beavers Keywords African American Literature, Black feminism, Feminism Subject Categories African American Studies | American Studies | Women's Studies This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3061 THE SISTERHOOD: BLACK WOMEN, BLACK FEMINISM, AND THE WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT SaraEllen Strongman A DISSERTATION in Africana Studies Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Supervisor of Dissertation _______________________ Herman Beavers Professor of English and Africana Studies Graduate Group Chairperson __________________________ Heather Williams, Presidential Professor of Africana Studies Dissertation Committee Barbara D. Savage Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Thought Salamishah Tillet Richard S. Blank Professor of English and Africana Studies THE SISTERHOOD: BLACK WOMEN, BLACK FEMINISM, AND THE WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT COPYRIGHT 2018 SaraEllen Strongman ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have been incredibly fortunate to have some of the best mentorship and support during my time at the University of Pennsylvania. I will be forever grateful to the people who nurtured me as a young scholar. First and foremost I must thank my amazing dissertation committee. My advisor, Dr. Herman Beavers, always had confidence in me, even when I doubted myself. He has modeled for me what it is to be both a rigorous scholar and a caring mentor and instilled in me the importance of being “in my office” for those who come after me. I will strive to live up to his example for the rest of my career. Dr. Barbara Savage knew I was an historian before I did. Her humor has been a gift in the midst of writing this dissertation and her candor and forthright feedback has made my writing so much stronger. Her guidance first sent me into the archives and that has made all the difference. Dr. Salamishah Tillet has been unfailingly generous with her time and energy. Her work as a public intellectual has been inspiring and changed how I think about the possibilities of the academy. She always asked the tough questions and pushed me to try new and exciting approaches to my interdisciplinary work. I am grateful to the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship, the Social Science Research Council, the Fontaine Society, the Rose Manuscript and Rare Book Library at Emory University, the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, the Penn MMUF program, and the Department of Africana Studies for generous funding and support of this project. My Africana Studies family has enriched my time here at Penn immensely. I could not have done it without my brilliant cohort-mates Osei Alleyne, Celina de Sa, Josslyn Luckett, and Natalie Shibley. The entire department faculty have been supportive and generous with their time. I want especially to thank Drs. Camille Charles and Heather Williams for their work in their roles as leaders of the department and the center. The hugs, kind words, smiles, and true deep care of Ms. Teya Campbell, Ms. Carol Davis, and Ms. Gale Garrison have buoyed my heart in difficult times and made celebrating my successes all that much sweeter. I have also benefitted from the support and brilliance of friends. Julia Cox, Rachel Corbman, Leslie Jones, Clare Mullaney, Omari Weekes, and Mary Zaborskis and many others have all been amazing colleagues and true friends. My Penn Mellon family has been a refuge from the stress and pressures of graduate school and I have always looked forward to Tuesday afternoons. Thank you to Dr. Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum and Pat Ravenell for the opportunity to work with iii amazing young scholars and for their unwavering support. I hope to make them proud. It has also been a privilege to work with Penn undergraduates in MMUF. It was an honor to be around the table with Camara Brown, Liza Davis, Imani Davis, Kelsey Desir, Rob Franco, Abrina Hyatt, Kassidi Jones, Erich Kessel, Sophie Lindner, Amari Mitchell, Elise Mitchell, Jose Romero, Isaac Silber, Spencer Stubbs and Melanie White. Thank you also to the White Dog Café, which nourished me during the writing of this dissertation. Special thanks to bartenders Miller Reed and Tim Wiley. Finally, I must thank my parents Esther and John Strongman. They were the first to instill in me a love of books and learning. They have never doubted me or questioned my decision to pursue a doctorate. Their pride in me is bottomless and I am so lucky to be their daughter. iv ABSTRACT THE SISTERHOOD: BLACK WOMEN, BLACK FEMINISM, AND THE WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT SaraEllen Strongman Herman Beavers This dissertation, “The Sisterhood: Black Women, Black Feminism, and the Women’s Liberation Movement” traces the development of second-wave Black feminism as an intellectual and activist tradition in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing on published and unpublished literary and academic works and extensive archival materials including personal correspondence, I argue that a cohort of Black women novelists, poets, critics, and academics used their work and social networks to build a distinct Black feminist movement while simultaneously imagining and producing new possibilities for political and personal relationships with individual white women and the larger feminist movement. This dissertation contributes to ongoing discussions in the fields of Black women’s intellectual history, Black feminism, and women’s studies in three ways: This dissertation contributes to these ongoing conversations in three ways: (1) by enlarging what has become a limited genealogy of second-wave Black feminist to include lesser- known and under-studied groups and women; (2) by illuminating the connections between the creative and political work Black feminists do including how Black v feminists’ creative work (e.g. poetry and fiction) is a crucial form of theorizing the development of a Black feminist tradition; and (3) by explaining how Black feminists were consistently in dialogue with white feminists pressuring them to expand the mainstream feminist political platform to be more inclusive and attentive to women of color’s concerns. This dissertation is a recuperative project but also an effort to examine the robust, multi-layered contributions of Black women outside of mainstream second-wave feminist and Black Nationalist organizations. Tracing the circuits Black feminists navigated in their
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