The Historian
T H E B L A C K H I S T O R Y E D I T I O N T E R M 1 - 2 0 2 0 / 2 0 2 1 A C A D E M I C Y E A R U N I V E R S I T Y O F E X E T E R H I S T O R Y S O C I E T Y Editorial
Welcome to the first digital edition of The Historian for the 2020/21 academic year. This term’s edition is themed around Black History and showcases several excellent essays by Exeter’s undergraduate history students, which cover a wide range of Black history at the local, national and global level. We are also delighted to introduce a dedicated section on Black Women’s history in this edition, featuring two essays discussing the role of women in the Civil Rights and the Black Power movements. Particularly in the wake of the George Floyd protests during this summer and renewed focus on Britain’s history of slavery and colonialism, studying and learning about Black History has never been so important. Exeter itself it has a rich history, exemplified by stories such as abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ visit in 1841 to protest against slavery in the US, the experience of Black US Army battalions stationed in the city during the Second World War, and the painting ‘Portrait of an African’ hanging at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. If you would like to do your own research on Black History in Exeter, sites such as Telling Our Stories, Hannah Murray’s African American abolitionist mapping project (http://frederickdouglassinbritain.com/Map:Ab olitionists/), and the UCL Legacies of British Slave-Ownership database are all excellent places to start.
Finally, we would like to thank our junior editors, Joe, Chloe, Elliot, Alice and Sophie for their hard work in helping to put this edition together.
Tommy Maddinson and Evie Tonks, Senior Editors, 2020/1
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Contents Abstracts
1. African American Resistance to Slavery in Tom Spargo analyses the multiple ways in which enslaved and free African Americans resisted the United States - By Tom Spargo and helped dismantle the institution of slavery 2. Exeter’s Forgotten Slave Owners - By in the United States.
Tommy Maddinson Tommy Maddinson examines the history of Black Women’s History section Exeter’s forgotten slave-owners and their physical legacy today. 3. African American Women and the Civil
Rights Movement – By Chloe Mabberley Chloe Mabberley explores the role of African 4. Black Women and the Black Power American women in the Civil Rights movement and their influence on its outcome. She Movement– By Kate Brown (alumni) challenges the traditional view of their role as “bridge-leaders”, noting the range of skills Black History today performed by women in the movement and the importance of an intersectional approach. 5. Racism in Twentieth Century Britain and Midwestern America: Comparisons, Legacies and Steps Forward – By William Kate Brown (alumni) discusses the influence of black women and the issue of women’s rights Mirza on the Black Power movement. She argues that women’s activism was vital in expanding the movement’s political, social, and economic The Editorial Team reach. (2020/2021) William Mirza highlights the historical similarities between racism in Midwestern Senior Editors: America and the United Kingdom during the twentieth century. He also discusses the transnational legacies of racism and suggests Tommy Maddinson, Evie Tonks the measures needed to remedy the inequalities of the past. Junior Editors:
Elliot Gibbons, Alice Gustinetti, Chloe Mabberley, Joe Newell, and Sophie Porteous
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resistance. The Civil War fundamentally altered African American these power relations, creating conditions where not only did these fears materialise, but slaveholders became powerless to deal with Resistance to them. In this new context, everyday and radical resistance by African-Americans became central Slavery in the to the collapse of slavery. Instances of everyday resistance clearly show United States how enslaved people were active agents navigating a complex web of conflicting desires - By Tom Spargo and constraints. This experience, however, was entirely misunderstood and distorted by traditional white supremacist histories, African-Americans resisted slavery in a myriad epitomised by Ulrich Philips, who portrayed of ways. For those in bondage, to resist was to slavery as a benign, paternalistic institution and navigate a complex web of desires for survival, constructed an image of slaves as content, improvement of personal circumstances, and docile and stupid, reaping the rewards of white the wellbeing of their community. No simple civilisation.2 Stanley Elkins’ Slavery shows how binary opposition between cooperation and such racism – in this case masked in elaborate resistance is thus observable. Acts of resistance psychoanalysis – persisted in academic circles were a blend of both, by which enslaved despite increasing pressure from the Civil Rights African-Americans worked the system to their movement. According to Elkins’ ‘Sambo thesis’, 1 ‘minimum disadvantage’. Therefore, the typical slave was a ‘perpetual child antebellum slave resistance in itself had a incapable of maturity’, psychologically negligible effect on the institution; instead, the traumatised by the Middle Passage and the biggest effects can be found in the way ‘closedness’ of plantation life, and rendered representations of this resistance shaped the ‘docile but irresponsible, loyal but lazy’ and ‘full collective memory of Southern slaveholders. of infantile silliness’.3 Racist histories did not, Everyday resistance, radical resistance, and however, go totally unchallenged. Herbert external pressure from abolitionists Aptheker and Kenneth Stampp were crucial in accumulated in the memory of Southern deconstructing this a priori racism and analysing society. From restrictive legislation to racist and slave testimonies as credible sources of slave paternalist ideologies, all aspects were part of a resistance.4 Historians in the 1970s began to dynamic institution constantly pre-empting and use the Gramscian theory of cultural responding to fears of African-American ‘hegemony’, an extrapolation of Marxist ‘false
1 Eric Hobsbawm, ‘Peasants and Politics’, The Journal of Chicago Press, 1959), pp. 82-84; p. 128. Nazi of Peasant Studies, 1:1 (1973), p. 13. concentration camp psychologists, Bruno Bettelheim 2 Ulrich B. Philips, American Negro Slavery: A Survey and Elie Cohen, are referenced extensively. of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro 4 Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts Labor as Determined by the Plantation Régime (New (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944), p. 17; York: D. Appleton & Company, 1918), pp. 3-4. Kenneth Stampp, The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in 3 Stanley Elkins, Slavery: A Problem In American the Ante-Bellum South (New York: Knopf, 1956), pp. Institutional and Intellectual Life (Chicago: University xii-ix. 3 consciousness’ and material class relations, to Resistance to working conditions exemplifies argue enslaved African-Americans were entirely this. Slave labour was a web of temporal claims imprisoned by the ideologies of the white made by masters, dictating working day length, slaveholders.5 James Scott’s widely-respected crop cycles, holidays, and working ages. Slaves critique of Gramsci, however, convincingly resisted such temporal restrictions, through argues that oppressed classes had the ability to working slowly, feigning illness, privately penetrate and subvert ruling ideologies.6 producing outside of working hours, and Enslaved African-Americans were not passive pretending ignorance.9 Often this was informed victims of ideological domination, but were by gender: women capitalised on their master’s constantly aware of the severe punishment to ignorance of the female body, including one themselves or others if this opposition was instance of a ‘protracted pseudo pregnancy’, acted upon too overtly. whilst a punch-up with an overseer was often re-affirmation of manhood.10 However, Subordinate classes never stand in diametric individual microhistories should not obscure the opposition to ruling institutions, but rather bigger picture. Recently, Edward Baptist has work it to their ‘minimum disadvantage’.7 Both dismantled misleading preconceptions – Aptheker’s picture of total opposition and perpetuated by both racist and neo-abolitionist Philips’ picture of total docility fail to recognise schools – of the institution as essentially this. As punishments – including whipping, unprofitable, pre-modern and static. Slavery chains, confinement, stocks, sale to the deep was dynamic and modern, a ‘world in motion’, south or separation from family – were so ever more effective at quashing resistance and severe, it is unsurprising that radical resistance extracting labour.11 Resistance to working was rare. A more complex relationship between conditions happened within these broader cooperation and resistance existed. Enslaved macro-economic changes, so this resistance African-Americans should therefore be seen as placed heavier burdens on others, but did not ‘powerfully conditioned’ by slavery, but not weaken the institution itself. reducible to it, and therefore it is essential that historians disentangle the often confused Theft was also a common occurrence. ‘Stealing meanings of ‘agency’ and ‘resistance’.8 is common to all negro slaves’ wrote one North Carolinian slaveholder, encapsulating the
5 Antonio Gramsci, Selections From The Prison Slavery’, in A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity Notebooks (New York: International Publishers, and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660-1840, 1971), pp. 245-247. This Marxist philosophy ed. by Kathleen Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge underpins Eugene Genovese, ‘The Hegemonic University Press, 2004), pp. 205-207. Function of The Law’, Roll, Jordan, Roll (New York: 10 Stampp, The Peculiar Institution, p. 104; Frederick Pantheon Books, 1974), pp. 25-49. This is applied to Douglass, ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’, directly to resistance p. 587 and p. 658. in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An 6 James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms American Slave, Written by Himself: A Norton Critical of Peasant Resistance (New Haven: Yale University Edition (New York: W. W. Norton and Company Ltd., Press, 1985), pp. 315-318. 1997), pp. 49-51. 7 Hobsbawm, ‘Peasants and Politics’, p. 13. 11 Edward Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told: 8 Walter Johnson, ‘On Agency’, Journal of Social Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (New History, 37:1 (2003), 115-116. York: Basic Books, 2014), pp. xxii-xxiv. 9 Walter Johnson, ‘Time and Revolution in African- America: Temporality and the History of Atlantic 4 opinion of the white South.12 Early racist others, undermined paternalist relations historians therefore portrayed theft as an constructed by slaveholders.16 Motherhood was essential characteristic of the African-American especially empowering for women in the face of race. Recent scholarship rejecting this racist patriarchal domination.17 However, such social perspective has moved toward more nuanced ties made life in bondage more bearable and analysis of internal plantation economics. created a sense of purpose. This created further Roderick McDonald demonstrated how considerations to slave resistors, not only ownership of clothes, livestock and shelter, personal survival and wellbeing, but their along with illicit consumption of tobacco and community as well. This limited more radical alcohol, and the trade in stolen goods, were resistance as collective punishments could be fundamental aspects of slave life. This ‘material severe and gave slaves incentives to work culture’ weakened the ‘bonds of servitude’, by harder for the benefit of others. both physically reducing reliance on Instances of psychological resistance show this slaveowners, and sharpening ideas of complex relationship between cooperation and freedom.13 Again, Baptist’s extractive thesis resistance. Solomon Northup, recalling his contextualises this material culture as only of knowledge to build a raft, ‘labored hard, being individual benefit. Momentary satiation or extremely anxious to succeed’, both from a luxury was achieved, but always within the ‘desire to please my master’, and to ‘triumph’ structure of a dynamic capitalist machine. over his racist overseer.18 Frederick Douglass Social bonds also frequently undermined struck a ‘bargain’ with his master, allowing slavery. Following John Blassingame and independence to find work as a caulker in Herbert Gutman, 1970s social historians began return for the profit, to experience a ‘step to systematically analyse slave culture, family towards freedom’.19 By resisting psychological and community.14 Christianity, and the way it restrictions of bondage, both increased their was adapted by African-Americans, is clear economic value to their masters. Similarly, evidence not of Gramscian cultural hegemony Harriet Jacobs acquiesced to her master’s but of an independent African-American sexual advances, but found empowerment in culture.15 Family, biological as well as ‘fictive kin’ experienced by Charles Ball and countless
12 William D. Valentine, ‘Valentine Diary: January 1st 17 Stephanie Li, ‘Motherhood as Resistance in Harriet 1851’, in Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll, p. 601. Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl’, Legacy, 13 Roderick McDonald, The Economy and Material 23:1 (2006), 14-15. Culture of Slaves: Goods and Chattels on the Sugar 18 Solomon Northup, Twelve Years A Slave: Narrative Plantations of Jamaica and Louisiana (London: of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New York, kidnapped Louisiana State University Press, 1993), p. 43. in Washington city in 1841, and rescued in 1853, from 14 John Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation a cotton plantation near the red river, in Louisiana Life in the Antebellum South (New York: Oxford (London: Sampson Low, Son & Company, 1853), p. 62. University Press, 1972), p. vii; Herbert Gutman, The 19 Frederick Douglass, ‘Narrative of the Life of Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (New Frederick Douglass’, in Narrative of the Life of York: Pantheon Books, 1976), p. 3. Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by 15 Scott, Weapons of the Weak, pp. 319-320. Himself: A Norton Critical Edition (New York: W. W. 16 Charles Ball, Slavery In The United States: A Norton and Company Ltd., 1997), p. 67. Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball (New York: John S. Taylor, 1837), pp. 192-194. 5 retaining her ‘determined will’.20 These the words of John Hope Franklin, a fundamental examples are not exceptional, but microcosms ‘part of the institution’, not just an unfortunate for the constant universal process of navigating consequence of it.23 between desires of survival and improvement A minority of enslaved African-Americans of circumstances. performed more radical acts of resistance. As Therefore, whilst Scott’s everyday resistance will be shown, the complex navigation between theory convincingly shows how dominant desires for improving personal circumstances, ideologies were not hegemonic, he offers a survival, and community wellbeing remained misleading conceptualisation for the way these central. All forms of resistance against slavery affected the institution. For Scott, everyday should therefore be seen on a continuum. resistance functioned as ‘millions of anthozoan Frederickson and Lasch separated everyday polyps’, which, over time, accumulated to ‘noncooperation’ and revolutionary ‘political create a vast ‘coral reef’ that eventually caused resistance’ into discrete analytical categories, the ‘ship of the state’ to run aground.21 This was whilst Genovese went further, arguing not the case for antebellum slavery, as he does ‘apolitical’ everyday resistance inhibited not account for the complex overlaps between revolution by sapping will to revolt.24 This resistance and cooperation, nor the dynamism dichotomy, however, should be viewed as an of the institution that could systematically artificial creation by historians which overlooks respond. But his model of accumulation is how all resistance is ‘dialectically inter- accurate for describing how such resistance related’.25 entered into the collective memory of Escaping was one of the boldest acts of slaveholders. The official slave codes of resistance performed by enslaved African- Southern states, and their ever-increasing Americans. Often seen as ‘everyday resistance’, severity, shows slavery was a dynamic this categorisation diminishes the magnitude of institution in constant dialogue with resistance, success or fatal danger of failure. Ellen and legislating against theft, gatherings, and William Craft’s escape, involving cross-gender movement. Similar uniformities can be seen in dressing as a white slaveowner, and William the private rules of slaveholders, especially ‘Box’ Brown’s success in mailing himself north regarding permission to leave the property, in a wooden box are among the most creative, curfews, trading with outsiders, and marriage indicating how difficult escape was.26 The restrictions. This demonstrates how Underground Railroad was crucial in sustaining slaveholders were constantly pre-empting and the constant exodus of slaves from the South. responding to the actions of their ‘troublesome But focussing too much on successful narratives property’.22 Everyday slave resistance was, in
20 Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 24 George M. Frederickson and Christopher Lasch, Written by Herself, ed. by Lydia Maria Child (Boston: ‘Resistance to Slavery’, Civil War History, 13:4 (1967), Lydia Maria Child, 1861), p. 86. 315-29; Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll, pp. 597-598. 25 Johnson, ‘On Agency’, p. 118. 21 Scott, Weapons of the Weak, p. xvii. 26 Ellen & William Craft, Running a Thousand Miles for 22 Stampp, The Peculiar Institution, pp. 91-92. Freedom; or, the Escape of William and Ellen Craft 23 John Hope Franklin, From Slavery To Freedom: A from Slavery (London: William Tweedie, 1860), pp. History of African Americans (New York: McGraw- 29-30; Henry Box Brown, Narrative of the Life of Hill/Connect Learn Succeed, 2011), pp. 208-209. Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself (Manchester: Lee & Glynn, 1851), pp. 51-57. 6 skews our perceptions of how many more were resistance was often prompted by a sudden recaptured with hounds or slave-catchers. As worsening in circumstances, a last resort well as the prospects of severe punishment, attempt to improve circumstances whatever breaking social ties was another psychological the cost. But antebellum escape and suicide barrier: Henry Bibb, forced to leave his wife and could not dent the self-sufficient slave birth children behind, described escape as ‘self- rate, illegal slave smuggling, or the ever- denying’, whilst Douglass lamented that increasing dynamism of the internal slave trade ‘thousands [more] would escape… but for the in the increasingly profitable Deep South. Whilst strong chords of affection’.27 Therefore, skilled inconvenient for individual slaveholders, it had young males or domestic slaves from the fringes negligible impact on the institution as a whole. of the South escaped disproportionately, as Some escapees from the Deep South, for whom women, unskilled workers, those from the deep the North was too far, used the tropical south, and older slaves had lower chances of topography and nearby sympathetic Indians to success or more to lose. form maroon communities. The Seminoles have Suicide may be seen as a different expression of attracted most scholarly attention, due to the the desire to escape. W. E. B. Du Bois analysed war waged against white Floridians between biblical metaphors in slave songs as profound 1835-1842. Traditionally, an ‘Indian war’ collective assurances of ‘boundless justice in discourse has obscured its importance, but some fair world beyond’.28 The geographical recent historiography has indicated it to be the and the spiritual were intertwined, the other nation’s largest sustained antebellum slave side of the metaphorical river bank rebellion.31 Both Indians and escapees were representing either an afterlife or Northern united against the encroachment of white soil.29 Although the frequency should not be slaveholders on what they perceived to be their overstated, suicide was not an uncommon home. The revolts onboard Amistad (1839) and occurrence. One slave, echoing many other Creole (1841) had clear parallels in their WPA interviewees, recalled how her Aunt ‘hung motivations. The rebels desired to return to herself to keep from getting a whooping’, and West Africa, only prevented from doing so by William Wells Brown recalled a woman who lack of supplies. Although many historians have jumped overboard a boat due to the ‘agony’ of analysed in depth the legal ramifications of both losing her family.30 These individual cases revolts on international slave law, these were represent a broader trend: more radical unintended consequences of uprisings intended
27 Henry Bibb, Narrative of the Life and Adventures of URL: Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Written by Himself. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/ema With an Introduction by Lucius C. Matlack (New York: ncipation/text2/suicide.pdf [Assessed on 24th 5 Spruce Street, 1849), p. 46; Douglass, Narrative of November 2019]; William Wells Brown, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, p. 91. the Life of William Wells Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Written By Himself (Boston: The Anti-Slavery Office, 28 W. E. B. DuBois, ‘The Sorrow Songs’, The Souls of 1847), p. 40. Black Folk (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Co., 1903), p. 31 Larry E. Rivers, Rebels and Runaways: Slave 157-159. Resistance in Nineteenth-Century Florida (Urbana: 29 Ibid. University of Illinois Press, 2012), pp. 131-133.
30 T. W. Cotton, ‘WPA Interview, 1939’, in National Humanities Centre Resource Toolbox: Suicide Among Slaves: A “Very Last Resort”’, 7 to reverse the evils of the Middle Passage and whites, were executed. White militia violence, resume life back in African society. Both as recalled by Jacobs, against free and enslaved maroon communities and slave ships revolts African-Americans proliferated in the were contexts that provided a degree of immediate aftermath.33 Revolutionary aims and isolation from the rest of the slave institution. methods had proved counterproductive. But This made the prospect of either defending or the most profound effect was how it was returning to a home realistic, and violence remembered by Southern society. In an proved a useful method to achieve this. interview with Turner, Thomas Gray documented this memorialisation: ‘[Turner] will A very small minority of slave rebellions were long be remembered… Many a mother, as she more direct challenges to the institution in its presses her infant darling to her bosom, will entirety, motivated by factors beyond personal shudder at the recollection’.34 This metaphor of circumstances. Such rebels, in the words of Du infantile vulnerability highlights a paranoia of Bois, were ‘spiritually descended from Toussaint violent slave insurrection deeply ingrained in [L’Overture]’, leader of the 1791-1804 Haitian white Southern society, an emotion that violent revolution.32 This descent was most direct in rebellions heightened. Memories of such the case of Charles Deslondes, a fellow Haitian, violence weighed heavily on white Southern who led 500 rebel slaves in St John the Baptist minds, and the ‘Sambo’ narrative was Parish in 1811, and marched upon New Orleans. constructed to push this aside. Jacobs, like In other cases Gabriel Prosser’s 1800 revolution many slaves, noted this ‘strange’ contradiction in Richmond, Denmark Vesey’s 1822 Charleston between harsh punishment and the belief in conspiracy, Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion in slave docility.35 Southampton, and John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harper’s Ferry shared this revolutionary spirit. Similar reactions can be observed after every Similarities can be observed amongst these rebellion, often referred to as ‘insurrection leaders: all were from the fringes of slavery, panics’ by historians.36 Aptheker estimated 250 literate, skilled or urban, and all arose shortly slave rebellions occurred in the US.37 The after a crisis in the white slaveholding elite. The methodology behind this claim – mostly existence of such exceptional individuals does Southern newspapers, diaries, official records not disprove this argument; the fact that such and memoirs – perhaps relies too heavily on so few existed out of the millions in bondage is hysteria.38 But the very fact these sources were testament to the how powerfully the so widespread, and that rumour and truth were restrictions of slavery in the US shaped the so often indistinguishable, demonstrate actions of the majority. widespread fear of slave insurrection. Such fears shaped how slaveholders interacted with The aftermath of the 1831 Turner rebellion their slaves on a daily basis, as well as the indicated how suicidal violent revolution was. legislation introduced to control slaves. Even The fifty-six rebels, having murdered fifty-one
32 DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, p. 31. 36 Stampp, The Peculiar Institution, pp. 136-137. 37 Herbert Shapiro, ‘The Impact of the Aptheker 33 Jacobs, Incidents, pp. 97-99. Thesis: A Retrospective View of “American Negro 34 Thomas R. Gray, The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Slave Revolts”’, Science and Society, 48:1 (1984), 57. leader of the late insurrection in Southampton, VA. (Baltimore: Lucas & Deaver, 1831), p. 5. 38 Ibid., 59-60.
35 Jacobs, Incidents, p. 97. 8
Philips conceded that ‘much greater anxiety’ scouts, what may be termed as ‘everyday acts’. existed about rebellions than appeared on the Once the constraints of the institution began to surface, and these emotions profoundly shaped fracture, desires to improve circumstances, southern policy.39 Increasingly restrictive survival and community welfare could all be legislation, such as 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and satisfied through rebellion. the 1857 Dred Scott court ruling are indicative of this influence. Free African-Americans also resisted slavery. Such fears were not irrational, as eventually Being outside of the institution, they were mass insurrection culminated in the Civil War. neither as powerfully constrained by the DuBois referred to it as a ‘general strike’, and institution, nor able to shape the institution as despite some imprecision in his use of Marxist profoundly as resistance from within. However, terminology, he was instrumental in they played a crucial role in amplifying many of highlighting the crucial contributions of African- the major challenges enslaved African- Americans.40 More recently, Steven Hahn has Americans made onto a national stage, and argued it to be ‘the greatest slave rebellion in became of central importance in the lead up to modern history’.41 This was not the result of a emancipation. sudden change within the slave community; it was a continuation of past patterns of Traditionally, the Dunning school of resistance, but in a new political context that historiography distorted the role of black had fundamentally altered the power relations abolitionists, reducing them to mere pawns in a within slavery. Prior to 1861, prospects of game of white agents. Benjamin Quarles successful revolution of the institution were offered the first systematic study of black utterly hopeless. It is therefore unsurprising abolitionism, and the historiography since has that slaves waited until the North ‘struck the emphasised African-Americans centrality in the first blow’.42 The ‘arsenic’ of victory over movement.44 The testimonies of escaped slaves Mexico, poisoning politics through the Missouri were the ‘most effective anti-slavery weapon’ in Compromise, and Kansas-Nebraska Act, threw the abolitionist arsenal.45 Olaudah Equiano, antagonisms of slavery into federal debate, freed in 1766 and influential in British erupting into conflict.43 In this new context, abolitionism, set a precedent, but in the early- African-Americans were able to play a crucial mid nineteenth century many more proliferated role in victory, especially in non-combatant in the North. Endorsed by white abolitionists, roles as cooks, navigators, nurses, porters and they had a prominent voice in abolitionist
39 Ulrich B. Philips in Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll, p. 42 Ibid., p. 87. 595. 43 40 W. E. B. DuBois, ‘The General Strike’, Black The ‘arsenic’ metaphor was coined by Ralph Waldo Reconstruction: An Essay Toward A History Of The Emerson, Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson with Annotations, vol. II, ed. by E. W. Emerson and W. E. Part Which Black Folk Played In The Attempt To Forbes (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1912), p. Reconstruct Democracy In America, 1860-1880 (New 206. York: Routledge, 2017), p. 49. 44 Benjamin Quarles, Black Abolitionists (New York: 41 Steven Hahn, ‘Did We Miss The Greatest Slave Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 1-3. Rebellion in Modern History’, in The Political Worlds of Slavery and Freedom (Cambridge: Harvard 45 James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, In Hope of University Press, 2009), pp. 55-58. Liberty (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 225. 9 journals and societies. This encapsulates racial National Negro Convention, giving a narrative of cooperation at its most effective: white liberty from Moses to Turner and Vesey and abolitionists bought money, respectability and ending with: ‘Let your motto be resistance! influential networks, whilst African Americans Resistance! RESISTANCE!’.50 Although the brought personal experience, passion, and congress voted against his radicalism, Garnett commitment to those still enslaved.46 was given a stage on which he immortalised past rebels as ‘patriotic’ and ‘noble men’. But as Women, victims of both slavery and patriarchy, historians have observed three chronological played key roles. Harriet Tubman, the ‘Moses of periods of abolitionism, moral suasion, her people’ and a renowned Underground resistance, and insurrection, this should not be Railroad conductor, combined abolitionism and seen as a split, but a pre-emption of future women’s rights into a powerful message of developments.51 liberty. Risking her own freedom, she went back into the South nineteen times to liberate slaves. Just as memories of resistance influenced Sojourner Truth’s ‘Ain’t I A Woman’ verbalised slaveholders, so did abolitionist’s abstract this feminist abolitionary spirit.47 In literary representations of slavery influence Northern realm, some argue that ‘Linda’ in Jacobs’ politicians. The ‘Slave Power conspiracy’, which Incidents was more than a pseudonym; Linda grew from this soil and gathered its own was a deliberately constructed character, momentum, ultimately had the most profound whose challenge to patriarchal power relations effect on the institution. This caused a by basing her sense of identity in motherhood ‘revolution’ within the Republican party, was was part of the political project of feminist central to Lincoln’s presidential campaign and abolitionism.48 sparked war.52 In this new context, the radical rhetoric of Walker and Garnett became African-American abolitionists with more radical mainstream. Douglass’ ‘Men of color, to arms!’ approaches were initially side-lined. In 1829, is most indicative of this shift: ‘Action! Action! … David Walker’s Appeal shocked audiences by exposing slavery’s ‘evils’ and explicitly calling for violent rebellion.49 Henry Highland Garnett echoed Walker in his address to the 1843
46 Ibid., p. 236. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american- 47 Sojourner Truth, ‘Ain’t I A Woman’ Speech (Akron: history/1843-henry-highland-garnet-address-slaves- Ohio Women’s Convention, 1851), p. 1. URL: united-states/ [Accessed on 6th November 2019]. https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm 51 [Accessed on 17th October 2019]. James Brewer Stewart, ‘From Moral Suasion to Political Confrontation: American Abolitionists and 48 Li, ‘Motherhood as Resistance’, 14-15. the Problem of Resistance 1831-61’, in Passages To Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and 49 David Walker, Appeal, in four articles, together with Memory, ed. by David Blight (Washington: a preamble, to the colored citizens of the world, but in Smithsonian Books, 2004), p. 92. particular, and very expressly, to those in the United States of America. Third and last edition (Boston: 52 Don Fehrenbacher, Slaveholding Republic: An David Walker, 1830), pp. 3-8. Account of the United States Government's Relations to Slavery (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 50 Henry Highland Garnett, An Address to the Slaves of p. 295. the United States, (Buffalo, New York: The National Negro Convention, 1843), URL: 10 is the plain duty of this hour’.53 Using characteristically masculine language, Douglass invokes Turner, Brown, and Vesey, whom he celebrates the as ‘glorious martyrs’ to portray Civil War as a slave rebellion.54 This was not merely rhetoric, but active endorsement of the th 54 Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the Union’s first use of African-Americans in combat roles. In total 198,000 African-Americans were enrolled into the Union army, actively fighting against the Confederacy to bring unconditional surrender in 1865.
Resistance was therefore never ‘completely in vain’. Even though antebellum resistance itself had a negligible effect on the institution, the personal benefit to the individual, the primary motivation, cannot be overlooked.
Nevertheless, representations of everyday and more radical resistance accumulated in the collective memory of slaveholders, and these worries shaped the legislation and ideologies of the institution profoundly. The Civil War had seismic impact on the structure of slavery, altering power relations between master and slave. Where previous navigation of survival, personal and community wellbeing had meant subtle resistance was the most effective way at working the system to their minimum disadvantage, this new context made mass radical resistance more rewarding. Slavery collapsed with Southern defeat, and both enslaved and free African-Americans had played a central role.
53 Frederick Douglass, ‘Men of Color, to Arms!’, in Life 54 Ibid., pp. 415-416. and Times of Frederick Douglass Written By Himself (Boston: De Wolfe & Fisk Co., 1892), p. 414.
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Garnett, Henry Highland, An Address to the Slaves of the United States, (Buffalo, New York: The National Negro Convention, 1843). URL:https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1843-henry- highland-garnet-address-slaves-united-states/ [Accessed on 6th November 2019].
Gray, Thomas R., The Confessions of Nat Turner, the leader of the late insurrection in Southampton, VA. (Baltimore: Lucas & Deaver, 1831). URL: https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/turner/turner.html [Accessed on 29th October 2019].
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Jacobs, Harriet, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself, ed. by Lydia Maria Child (Boston: Lydia Maria Child, 1861). URL: https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html [Accessed on 9th November 2019].
Northup, Solomon, Twelve Years A Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New York, kidnapped in Washington city in 1841, and rescued in 1853, from a cotton plantation near the red river, in Louisiana (London: Sampson Low, Son & Company, 1853).
Sojourner Truth, ‘Ain’t I A Woman’ Speech (Akron: Ohio Women’s Convention, 1851). URL: https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm [Accessed on 17th October 2019].
Valentine, William D., ‘Valentine Diary: January 1st 1851’, in Roll, Jordan, Roll, by Eugene Genovese (New York: Pantheon Books, 1974).
Walker, David, Appeal, in four articles, together with a preamble, to the colored citizens of the world, but in particular, and very expressly, to those in the United States of America. Third and last edition (Boston: David Walker, 1830). URL: https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/walker/walker.html [Accessed on 19th November 2019].
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the UK government as part of the Slavery Exeter’s Forgotten Abolition Act of 1833. In total, 24 men and women listed as living in Exeter made claims for compensation for newly freed slaves across the Slave-Owners Caribbean, including Antigua, Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada, Tobago, Guyana and the - By Tommy Bahamas. Maddinson The Porter Family
As you walk through the grounds of Reed Hall Thirty minutes outside of Exeter lies Rockbeare one day, you decide you would like to go down Manor, an eighteenth century country house to the Quay. Cycling down Colleton Hill, you built for wool merchant and banker Sir John then make up your mind to head for the beach, Duntze that serves as an events and wedding travelling along Rolle Road and the Holy Trinity venue today.55 What the Manor’s history page Church in Exmouth, before stopping at the sea on their website whitewashes, however, is that wall to look out over the sea. Without realising this also used to be the home of the Porter it, all these places and names we pass by on a family who owned more than a thousand slaves day-to-day basis are directly rooted in the on the Enmore and Paradise plantations in history of British slavery. They remind us that Demerara, Guyana.56 The Porters likely also the legacy of Britons shipping and enslaving owned the Foulis and Porter’s Hope plantations, human beings across the Atlantic is something which do not appear in the compensation we still very much live with today and, as will be records but are listed next to Enmore and explored later, are yet to fully confront. This Paradise and may have been merged together article will explore the physical legacy of at some point.57 In the late eighteenth century, slaveowners across six different locations in Thomas Porter I moved to Demerara and Exeter and the surrounding area. Much of the purchased several cotton plantations, later evidence for this article has been sourced from switching them to more profitable sugar crop, the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of before returning to the UK in 1796 and buying British Slave-ownership database run by Rockbeare Manor. Upon his death in 1815, he University College London left the plantations to his three sons Thomas (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/), which lists the Porter II, Henry Porter and William Porter.58 individuals who received compensation from
55 ‘Rockbeare Manor History’, oog/page/n6/mode/2up> [accessed 22 October Contemporary accounts of the Demerera total, the Porters received over £50,000 in Rebellion of 1823, such as the artist Joshua compensation or the equivalent of roughly £7 Bryant’s Account of an insurrection of the negro million today. Their legacy extends beyond slaves in the colony of Demerara, give us a small Rockbeare Manor both in the UK and across the glimpse into the lives of those resisting their Atlantic. Winslade House and Park, where the bondage on the Porter plantations and the site of a new housing and office is in brutal and appalling repression they met from development, was also the home of Henry the plantocracy.59 According to Bryant’s Porter and his family in the nineteenth century. records, ‘Daniel’, ‘Philip’, and ‘Murphy’ of Foulis In Guyana too, there is a sugar factory at were all executed for their involvement in the Enmore still running today that was built by the rebellion, ‘Mercury’ of Enmore received 700 Porter family in the late nineteenth century.62 lashes, and George Morrison of Enmore, who was only 16 or 17 years of age at the time of the revolt, was sentenced to 500 lashes but John Colleton narrowly avoided this punishment on account of his illness. Horrifically, ‘France’ of Porter’s The blue plaque dedicated to Sir John Colleton, Hope and ‘Caleb’ of Paradise were decapitated 3rd Baronet on the walls of Exmouth library after their executions and had their heads makes no mention of the Colleton family’s deep affixed on poles to discourage further ties to slave-ownership, whose name also resistance.60 appears on roads such as Colleton Hill, Colleton Crescent and Colleton Mews near the Quay in When slavery was finally abolished in 1834, the Exeter. In the mid seventeenth century, Sir John Porters continued to enrich themselves off the Colleton, 1st Baronet, moved with his eldest son backs of human suffering by claiming Sir Peter Colleton to Barbados and soon became compensating for the loss of their slaves in owner of several plantations, starting with a 90 Guyana. In the UCL records, Henry Porter is acre plantation in St. Peter Parish before listed as claiming £35,960 14s 8d for the 709 acquiring more than 700 acres of land by enslaved on the Enmore plantation, while 1659.63 In the 1660s, having received a royal Thomas Porter II claimed £19,295 8s 0d in charter from King Charles II in 1663, Sir John compensation for the 385 enslaved on the Colleton organised the first waves of settlers Paradise plantation. The Enmore claim was the who brought their slaves with them to the fifth largest single claim made to the commission in terms of the number of slaves and the amount of compensation granted.61 In 59 Bryant, Account of an insurrection, Internet Carolinas.64 Like in Barbados, the Colletons whitewashes Rolle’s slave-ownership on the established several plantations and owned over island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas. In 1797, 18,000 acres of land in South Carolina by the Rolle inherited the Exuma plantation from his early eighteenth century. According to Simon father Denys Rolle, who settled on the island in Newman, Sir Peter Colleton also took a ‘leading 1784 to grow cotton and brought with him role in the creation of the Royal African roughly 150 slaves, managing it in absentia until Company’, which shipped thousands of slavery was abolished. In the 1822 Register of enslaved Africans to the Americas across the Returns of Slaves in the Bahamas, the total seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.65 slave population on Rolle’s plantation was listed as 254 and had grown to 357 by the year Peter’s son, Sir John Colleton, 3rd Baronet, to 1834.69 Michael Craton’s analysis of slave whom the Exmouth plaque is dedicated, owned conditions on the Rolle plantation also provides the Devil’s Elbow Barony and the Seignory of an excellent insight into the demographics of Fairlawn in present day South Carolina, but those held in bondage. Firstly, the ratio of males details are unfortunately scarce about how to females enslaved on Exuma was about 50-50, many slaves he owned on these two pieces of with 160 males to 163 females in 1831 and 175 land.66 The ruins of what was Exeter Plantation, males to 182 females in 1834.70 Furthermore, leased out by Colleton to a Hugh Butler, in out of the 254 enslaved on Great Exuma in Berkeley County are a good example of the 1822, 153 were aged between 0 and 19, while Exeter’s ties to slave-ownership in the 100 were aged 20 and over.71 Americas.67 In addition to the money he would have received from his Carolina plantations, Sir In the early nineteenth century, Exuma’s cotton John Colleton, 3rd Baronet, also received production began to decline and become £12,500 in income in 1717 from his share in the increasingly unprofitable at the same time as its Barbados plantations after resolving a dispute slave population was growing substantially. The with his cousin John Colleton of Barbados over combination of these two factors forced Rolle’s the family’s inheritance.68 agents to try to find other ways to maintain profits and, in the words of Craton, ‘drove Rolle … steadily towards a false emancipationism’.72 John Rolle This led to frequent efforts by Rolle to try to move the slaves to more profitable islands. One Like the Colleton blue plaque, the plaque to such attempt in 1830 to force 77 slaves to move John Rolle on the Exmouth sea wall to Cat Island set off a slave rebellion led by a 64 Richard S. Dunn, ‘The English Sugar Islands and the 69 Michael Craton, ‘Hobbesian or Panglossian? The Founding of South Carolina’, The South Carolina Two Extremes of Slave Conditions in the British Historical Magazine, 101, 2 (2000), 142-154 (p. 144). Caribbean, 1783 to 1834’, The William and Mary 65 Newman, A New World of Labour, p. 252. Quarterly, 35, 2 (1978), 324-356 (pp. 327-328, p. 66 J.E. Buchanan, ‘The Colleton Family and the Early 332). History of South Carolina and Barbados 1664-1775’, 70 Ibid., p. 332. (doctoral thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1989), p. 71 Ibid., p. 338. Note that when tallied Craton’s 242. figures do not add up to 254 as the total number of 67 ‘Exeter plantation’, South Carolina Plantations male slaves has been miscounted by 1. 73 Ibid., p. 24, p. 26-7. 78 David Cornforth, ‘Reed Hall’, Exeter Memories 74 Ibid., p. 28. (October 2017) 75 House of Lords, 11th August 1834, Vol 25, Hansard, Robert Harvey, whose monuments are in the south quire aisle, and William Sloane, whose The physical legacy of the Porters, the monument is at the west end of the knave, Colletons, John Rolle and those at rest in Exeter were three major slave owners in Jamaica, Cathedral remind us that the history of slavery Grenada and Tobago respectively.80 Harvey, for is deeply ingrained in the city of Exeter and its instance, owned at least three plantations in surrounding area. Yet the individuals discussed Grenada, including Chambord, Mornefendue, in this article are only a snapshot of the and Plain, as well as the Cades Bay plantation in numerous slaveowners who lived or had links to Antigua. Upon his death in 1791, Harvey left Exeter. Further examples include William Praed these estates to his nephew Robert Farquhar, and the Royal Clarence Hotel, Samuel Parr and who claimed a total of £12,432 52s 14d for 481 Knowle House (now the home of Devon and slaves in Grenada and £5,498 14s 3d for 420 Somerset Fire and Rescue Services), Alexander slaves in Antigua in compensation.81 Hamilton and The Retreat in Topsham, and In addition to the two owners, there is also a Mary Elizabeth Alleyne, wife of Barbadian memorial to Saccharissa Hibbert in the south slaveowner James Holder Alleyne, and 32 East aisle of the nave. Although Saccharissa is not Southernhay.83 On a broader level, examining listed in the compensation records, the Hibbert Exeter’s connection to the history of slavery family was heavily invested in slave-ownership raises two important points. First, much of the and the efforts to resist the abolition of slavery. evidence we have only tells one half of the Her brothers Thomas Hibbert Jr and John story. More research remains to be done to Hubert Washington Hibbert received a total of uncover the stories of the enslaved men and £14,337 26s 12d in compensation for 799 slaves women, such as those on the Porter plantations across three plantations in St Mary, while in Guyana or the Rolle plantation in Exuma. George Hibbert, the leading proslavery Second, as the street names and blue plaques politician of the nineteenth century and show, Exeter and the towns around it still have Saccharissa’s first cousin once removed, not fully confronted the legacy of slavery received over £60,000 in compensation for his despite its abolition over two hundred years plantations in Jamaica.82 ago. In July this year, however, Exmouth 80 Peter Wingfield-Digby, ‘Visit to Exeter Cathedral’, 82 Entries for ‘Thomas Hibbert Jr’, ‘John Hubert Exeter 2015 Workshop (November 2015) Washington Hibbert’ and ‘George Hibbert’, Legacies 84 Claire Wright, ‘Devon County Councillors urged to urged-to-support-black-lives-matter-campaign/>, support Black Lives Matter campaign’, Claire Wright [accessed 22 October 2020]. BIBLIOGRAPHY UCL Legacies of British Slave-ownership database, ‘Exeter plantation’, South Carolina Plantations, ‘Rockbeare Manor History’, Buchanan, J.E., ‘The Colleton Family and the Early History of South Carolina and Barbados 1664-1775’, (doctoral thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1989) Bryant, Joshua, Account of an insurrection of the negro slaves in the colony of Demerara which broke out On the 18th of August, 1823, Internet Archive, Cornforth, David, ‘Reed Hall’, Exeter Memories (October 2017) Craton, Michael, ‘Hobbesian or Panglossian? The Two Extremes of Slave Conditions in the British Caribbean, 1783 to 1834’, The William and Mary Quarterly, 35, 2 (1978), 324-356 Craton, Michael, ‘We shall not be moved: Pompey’s Slave Revolt in Exuma Island, Bahamas, 1830’, Nieuwe West-Indische Gids/New West Indian Guide, 57, 1/2 (1983), 19-35 da Costa, Emilia Viotti, Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood: The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) Dunn, Richard S., ‘The English Sugar Islands and the Founding of South Carolina’, The South Carolina Historical Magazine, 101, 2 (2000) Newman, Simon P., A New World of Labor: The Development of Plantation Slavery in the British Atlantic (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013) Shaji, Neha, ‘Decolonise Exeter’, Exeposé (June 2020) Wingfield-Digby, Peter, ‘Visit to Exeter Cathedral’, UCL Exeter 2015 Workshop (November 2015) Wright, Claire, ‘Devon County Councillors urged to support Black Lives Matter campaign’, Claire Wright 21 focus on the intersectionality of racism, gender African American and class when discussing the treatment of African American women and why they had different roles with varying visibility. This essay Women and the will argue that African American women certainly played the crucial role of leader in the Civil Rights Civil Rights Movement and will dispute the definition of bridge leader as one that hugely Movement undermines the part played by women. For the purpose of this essay, the Civil Rights Movement will be defined as the period from - By Chloe 1954 to the early 1970s, encapsulating some of the key developments which women helped to Mabberley influence and a high point for female involvement. Rosa Parks, the “accidental matriarch of the Firstly, a large part of the historiography has Civil Rights Movement”, once stated in an focused on the simple idea that “men led, but interview; “I do recall asking someone if I women organised.”86 The most prominent should say anything and someone saying, ‘Why? scholar advocating this view is Charles Payne. You’ve said enough.’”85 This reaction to Parks’ Payne focused his work on the participation of desire to be both visible and vocal in the African American women in the Mississippi movement reflects a common experience for Delta and specifically the Student Nonviolent African American women in the movement Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Payne cites where their leadership capabilities were, and the church as being the main source of still are, severely undermined. Thankfully, the organising activity in which women were a historiography of the Civil Rights Movement has dominant part.87 As women had greater certainly moved on from the master narrative personal investment in familial and communal of great men such as Martin Luther King Jr. and networks, they were more heavily involved in Malcolm X. The impressive work of several the organising within these groups.88 Examples unsung female heroes and leaders has come to of this behind the scenes organising included; light and displayed the vital role they played in door-to-door canvassing, conveying information the movement and its outcome. However, their and coordinating activities.89 This idea of a role is highly debated between that of division of labour between men and women has organisers, grass-root activists and leaders. been useful for highlighting the previously Furthermore, recent scholarship has started to unnoticed work of women in the Civil Rights 85 Jeanne Theoharis, ‘A Life History of Being Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941-1965, ed. by Rebellious: The Radicalism of Rosa Parks’, in Want to Vicki Crawford (Bloomington: Indiana University Start a Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Press, 1993), p. 1. Freedom Struggle, ed. by Dayo Gore, Jeanne 87 Charles Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Theoharis and Komozi Woodard (New York: New Organising Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom York University Press, 2009), pp. 115-137 (p. 125). Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 86 Charles Payne, ‘Men Led, but Women Organized: 2007), p. 272. Movement Participation of Women in the Mississippi 88 Ibid., p. 275. Delta’, in Women in the Civil Rights Movement: 89 Ibid. 22 Movement but has shown ignorance towards Leadership Conference (SCLC), The Congress of those women who achieved far more than this Racial Equality (CORE), The National Association which will be discussed later. for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Urban League and the SNCC.94 The Disputing Payne’s idea that African American incredibly successful program was designed to women can be restricted to simply local teach illiterate rural adults to read and write, organising, Belinda Robnett coined the highly thus enabling them to overcome influential term bridge leader to describe their disenfranchisement policies and register to role.90 Robnett defines a bridge leader as a vote. Eleven states in the South had The SCLC grassroots leader who moved between rural Citizenship Education Program and in August communities, mobilising the masses into the 1965 alone, Clark and her fellow teachers movement and creating a bridge between them helped 7,002 persons write their own names and formal organisations.91 Specific bridge and register to vote.95 She was also able to build leader activities include: teaching literacy in a strong bond of trust by nursing the sick, order to improve voter registration numbers, sewing clothes for children and sacrificing her helping impoverished communities and time to help those in need of general care.96 educating locals about the movement to The humanity and care displayed by Clark and encourage involvement. Robnett suggests that other women involved in the program is being a bridge leader was the “primary level of certainly crucial for explaining the huge increase leadership available to women” and that this in the number of African Americans registered “intermediate layer of leadership” was key to to vote. This kind of trust and the relationships the success of the movement.92 As a result, formed between bridge leaders and the masses Robnett has created a separate role for women, displayed is largely unheard of when looking at one which illuminates their often unnoticed male figures in the movement. Women such as organisational skills but also their ability to lead Clark certainly fit into Robnett’s bridge leader people and the movement locally. concept and has proven incredibly useful for Septima Clark is a key example Robnett gives of highlighting the impact that women had on a bridge leader and grass roots mobiliser. Clark, small, impoverished communities who often “dedicated her life to the cause of universal found it difficult to relate to the goals of men literacy, voter registration, women’s rights and such as King. The needs and wants of African civil rights.”93 Clarke formed the Citizenship Americans in these poor communities were Schools Program which developed into the largely based on survival and making day-to-day Voter Education Project. This was then life easier for themselves and their families. launched in 1962 by The Southern Christian Women such as Clark were on the ground, 90 Mary Ellen Curtin, ‘Strong People and Strong 93 Bettye Collier-Thomas, and V.P. Franklin, Sisters in Leaders: African American Women and the Modern Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Black Freedom Struggle,’ in The Practice of Women’s Rights-Black Power Movement (New York: New York History, ed. by S. Jay Kleinberg, Eileen Boris and Vicki University Press, 2001), p. 95. L. Ruiz (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 94 Collier-Thomas, p. 96. 2007), p. 314. 95 Jacquelyn Dowd-Hall, Eugene Walker, Katherine 91 Belinda Robnett, How Long How Long: African- Charron, and David Cline, ‘”I train the people to do American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights their own talking”: Septima Clark and Women in the (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 191. Civil Rights Movement’, Southern Cultures, 16 92 Ibid. (2010), 31-52 (p. 44). 96 Ibid., 99. 23 painstakingly helping them to achieve this with presence, and male. These defining qualities are few great male leaders in sight. too narrow and tend to ignore arguably more important ones which helped to influence the Another prominent example used by Robnett is movement and achieve its goals of equality. In Jo Anne Robinson. She was a key leadership order to broaden the definition of leader, it is figure in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and crucial to analyse what contemporary African headed the Women’s Political Council (WPC) Americans themselves believed was a Civil which organised the boycott and mobilised Rights leader. Christina Greene highlights one those involved. The Montgomery Bus Boycott student’s definition of a leader; someone who was not a spontaneous act but one which had “took the bull by the horns and was there every been planned months in advance largely by day and made the sacrifices”.100 Interestingly, women.97 Robinson, along with the WPC, the student’s definition of a leader does not distributed 35,000 leaflets after Parks’ arrest mention one who delivers powerful speeches or and helped ensure the continuation of the leads public marches, but one who is involved in boycott which lasted 381 days.98 However, the day to day aspects of the movement which using refined definitions of the term leader women took responsibility for. which will soon be discussed, her role and influence should not be reduced to that of The redefining of leadership is also developed bridge leader simply because of Martin Luther by Bernice Barnett, who has created a list of King’s public leadership of the boycott. thirteen leadership roles and the association of Robinson helped to sustain the momentum of women to these. These were then placed in the boycott and it was certainly a catalyst for order of importance by different civil rights the next decade of fighting against racial activists. The top aspects of leadership that inequality. As Evelyn Simien and Danielle were chosen are as followed; express the McGuire have rightly highlighted, to deem concerns and needs of followers, define and set women like Robinson “helpmates” or bridge goals, raising money, formulating tactics and leaders is “a disservice to the history they initiating action.101 Barnett convincingly made.”99 provides examples of how African American women effectively took on these vital roles at The definition of leader in the Civil Rights different points in the movement. One Movement certainly needs to be re-evaluated interesting example is that of Georgia Gilmore, to gain a better understanding of the African who organised the Club From Nowhere. The American female role and show how women Club went door to door selling food and other were more than bridge leaders. Typically, goods in order to raise money in support of the perceived leaders in the movement shared the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Gilmore was a cook same qualities; excellent orator, a large public 97 Stewart Burns, Daybreak of Freedom: The 100 Christina Greene, Our Separate Ways: Women Montgomery Bus Boycott (Chapel Hill: University of and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North North Carolina Press, 1997), p. 6. Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), p. 97. 98 Teresa Nance, ‘Hearing the Missing Voice’ Journal 101 Bernice Barnett, ‘Invisible Southern Black Women of Black Studies, 26, (1996), 168. Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The Triple 99 Evelyn Simien and Danielle McGuire, ‘A Tribute to Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class’, Gender and the Women: Rewriting History, Retelling Herstory in Society, 7, (June 1993), 162-182 (p. 167). Civil Rights’ Politics and Gender, 10, (2014), 413-431 (p. 418). 24 and domestic worker and was fired as a result activism to Africa in order to help fight for black of her actions. To those interviewed by Barnett, liberation and create a link between African activities like those displayed by Gilmore were Americans and the rest of the world.105 Women what they viewed as leadership, providing more such as these do not fit neatly into the evidence that the definition of leadership lacks domineering framework of grassroots leaders, accuracy. instead they display a vast amount of bravery and power in moving to Africa which would Moreover, Robnett and Payne’s approach usually be primarily associated with men. ignores several activities and achievements made by black female activists throughout the Adding to this, Daisy Bates is another example time period which cannot be defined as one which appears to break the boundaries of achieved by a local bridge leader or organiser. simply bridge leadership and organiser. She By attempting to fit these women into a played a central role in the 1957 Little Rock constricting singular framework, Dayo Gore, school integration crisis, which saw huge Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard state backlash towards the nine black students who that these studies often focus too much on the were enrolled into Little Rock Central High Southern Civil Rights Movement and the image School, after Brown V Board of Education of women as the “backbone of the proclaimed segregated schools movement”.102 As a result, their roles as unconstitutional. Robnett deems Bates a bridge “central leaders and strategists” and their leader but this certainly seems to downplay and radical politics are neglected, and those who disregard many of her actions.106 Bates are acknowledged are seen as an exception to displayed impressive perseverance despite the rule.103 One effective way they dispute the immense, life-threatening backlash including idea of bridge leaders is highlighting how bombings on her home and drive-by women often took on the role of charismatic shootings.107 Furthermore, a parent of one of leader, defined as a masculine role throughout the nine black students undertaking the task of the master narrative of the period. Shirley desegregating Central High School agreed that Chisholm is just one of these women who is “[Bates] is the only leader who has stood up for often overlooked by the dominant history and these children. She has been more helpful than so is forgotten from public knowledge. anybody.”108 The parent also made comments Chisholm was the first black woman elected to about other black leaders in the city, stating the United States Congress and then ran for “We have a shortage of leaders…There are a lot president, building her own female run national of would-be leaders, but the problem is that organisation to aid her campaign and lead the when the trouble starts they won’t stand up way for future political campaigns.104 and be counted.”109 This gives an insight into Furthermore, their analysis of the efforts of the views of contemporary African Americans black female activists overseas also deems the and their dissatisfaction with the more bridge-leader argument futile. Women such as prominent leaders who, in their eyes, were Vicki Garvin and Denise Oliver moved their failing to aid the movement. To them, women 102 Gore, Theoharis and Woodard, Want to Start a 107 John Kirk, Beyond Little Rock: The Origins and Revolution? p. 9. Legacies of the Central High Crisis (Fayetteville: 103 Ibid. University of Arkansas Press, 2007), p. 87. 104 Ibid., p. 13. 108 Ibid., p. 89. 105 Ibid. 109 Ibid. 106 Robnett, p. 78. 25 like Bates were leading the way and providing ‘typical’ black women enabled other African members of the community with a figure head Americans to carry out their activism and to inspire them and actually achieve their goals. instilled a greater sense of togetherness in By referring to Bates as a bridge leader it fighting the oppression they faced. disregards the superior support and influence It is important to analyse why African American she had in the community, insinuating that women had these roles and what prohibited Bates was simply following orders from another them from others. The intersectionality of the leader. She heavily impacted the outcome of “triple constraints of gender, race and class” the Crisis and created a dissatisfaction for “pre- that black women faced is crucial for analysing Bates” leadership after the community this.114 The added constraint of gender experienced her style of leadership.110 Bates prohibited black women making it onto the was clearly a formidable leadership force and national stage and provides an explanation as to was able to break away from the larger Civil why they have previously been hidden in both Rights organisations and still lead effectively on the historiography and public knowledge until her own. recent years. Theoharis has highlighted the In addition, the average African American manipulation of female figures, stating that women who were mobilised into the movement “the public celebration and heroification of should not be forgotten. Evidence shows that certain women activists help to obscure the women constituted the majority of those actual political work they did”.115 Rosa Parks’ involved in civil rights activism and had many fame actually caused her other achievements to different roles to support the everyday be overlooked and a public character was momentum of the movement. These women created for her which was far from the truth. It are described by LaVerne Gyant as “militant, appears that when certain female figures were outspoken and understanding”, who “prepared put into the public spotlight, most of their a feast for a dozen or more folks and sat on the achievements were morphed to fit the desired front porch with a shotgun” in order to protect public image of the movement and this other activists resting at her house.111 Teresa diminished their role in the Civil Rights Nance furthers this by sorting the black female Movement further. role into three overlapping categories; mama, Interestingly, some scholars have argued that activist and friend.112 The “mama” would African American women did not possess the provide volunteers with food and a safe roof to desire to be visible in the movement and did stay under, the activist helped the community not view sexism as a prevalent problem. Nance tackle issues of social injustice and the friend has argued that some of the women either supported others by helping with domestic ignored the treatment they faced from men in duties which took away time from activism.113 the movement or did not actually interpret the The importance of these seemingly menial tasks behaviour as sexist at all.116 Nance suggests this should not be underestimated. The courage, was in order to present a “united front in the generosity and defiance shown by these 110 Ibid., p. 90. 114 Barnett, ‘Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders 111 LaVerne Gyant, ‘Passing the Torch: African in the Civil Rights Movement’, 162. American Women in the Civil Rights Movement’ 115Theoharis, ‘A Life History of Being Rebellious’, p. Journal of Black Studies, 26, (1996), 629-647 (p. 632). 118. 112 Nance, ‘Hearing the Missing Voice’, 544. 116 Nance, 551. 113 Ibid. 26 struggle against racism” and women sacrificed Rosa Parks represented the perfect ‘poster-girl’ their desire for leadership visibility to achieve for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.122 The WPC it.117 Furthermore, racism clearly took chose Parks over Claudette Colvin, a fifteen year precedence over sexism due to knowledge of old who made the same act of defiance as Parks the social climate in mid-twentieth century nine months earlier. However, they soon America.118 It is possible that even more labelled Colvin as an inappropriate example as backlash from whites would have ensued had she was found to be pregnant.123 As the most any females been given a bigger platform due famous female figure in the Civil Rights to the double-burden of being female and Movement it is clear that her social class played black. For example, during the March on a vital part in the creation, and arguably the Washington in 1963, African American women manipulation, of her public role. Other leaders were “relegated to the background as musical in the movement ensured her desired qualities entertainers” and Daisy Bates was given just of the respectable and peaceful woman on the one minute to speak despite having a huge bus were emphasised and her extensive radical influence on the event.119 involvement in the Civil Rights Movement was ignored. However, Nance’s argument is far too simplistic and diminishes the efforts of several African In contrast, Fannie Lou Hamer lived in extreme American women who actively fought and poverty. Dropping out of school at twelve, she struggled for visibility and involvement in worked as a full-time sharecropper in formal leadership positions. One particular Mississippi, lived in a house without running example is that of Ella Baker. Baker broke off water, and even suffered forced sterilisation.124 from King to form the SNCC as a result of her The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party disapproval of his leadership skills and their (MFDP) was formed in 1964 in order to reluctance to award her with a formal title in separate themselves from regular Democrats the SCLC.120 Fellow activist Septima Clark stated who were strongly against black voters. Hamer that “[Baker] had brains, and because of the was a cofounder and was appointed as cochair brain power that she had, they didn’t like the of the delegation due to attend the national things that she said to them”.121 This kind of convention. Her speech on behalf of the MFDP action displays how not all women were in 1964, has been deemed one of the most satisfied with the secondary leadership roles important speeches of the Civil Rights they were allocated and wanted more visible Movement and launched Hamer into the involvement in achieving the goals of the forefront of the movement. Hamer’s speech movement. forced Americans to face the horrific violence and hypocrisy displayed against herself and As well as gender, class is also a factor that other blacks, causing President Johnson to controlled the visibility of African American purposefully call a news conference to ensure women in the movement. Rosa Parks and that no national television networks covered Fannie Lou Hamer are demonstrative examples of this. “Quiet,” “humble,” and “soft-spoken” 117 Ibid. 122Theoharis, ‘A Life History of Being Rebellious’ p. 118 Ibid. 115. 119 Simien and McGuire, 420. 123 Burns, p. 6. 120 Ibid., 424. 124 Simien and McGuire, 425. 121Dowd-Hall, 45. 27 her speech live.125 Perhaps differences of class women, especially lower class women, in order explains why Hamer was often seen as more to achieve its goals. Despite the discrimination threatening and radical in comparison to faced, black women were still able to fulfil women such as Parks. Johnson’s decision to call public leadership positions as well as organising a pointless news conference displays the fear at a local level to help gain political, social and whites had of allowing lower class black women economic equality and freedom for African who had been treated horrifically to speak out Americans. about their experiences. By using examples such as Hamer and Parks it is clear to see that in order to fully observe the African American female role in the Civil Rights Movement, intersectionality is vital. In conclusion, African American women certainly played important leadership roles in the Civil Rights Movement and these had a profound effect on its outcome. Women also had the vital role of organisers and the masses of women got involved in tasks such as boycotting and strikes. However, the term bridge-leader and the phrase ‘men led but women organised’, that has dominated in the historiography does undermine the impressive range of skills displayed by many women. Charismatic leaders and radical, strategic thinkers helped progress the movement and voice the needs of the ordinary African American. Furthermore, the most effective and convincing way of analysing the role of women in the Civil Rights Movement is by studying the facets of class, gender and racism collectively. This intersectional approach allows for a more fruitful analysis of how women were involved and aids understanding of why they had this role, highlighting the differences that class stratification, race and gender impacted women. Using these tools to analyse the differing experiences of women such as Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer, it becomes apparent that the movement had many prejudices and publicly discriminated against 125 Amanda Vickery and Cinthia Salinas, ‘“I question Rights Movement Through an Intersectional Lens’, America…is this America?” Learning to View the Civil Curriculum Inquiry, 49, (2019), 260-283 (p. 271). 28 BIBLIOGRAPHY Barnett, Bernice, ‘Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class’, Gender and Society, 7, (June 1993), 162-182. Burns, Stewart, Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997). Collier-Thomas, Bettye, and V.P. Franklin, Sisters in Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2001). Crawford, Vicki, Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941-1965 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993). Curtin, Mary, ‘Strong People and Strong Leaders: African American Women and the Modern Black Freedom Struggle,’ The Practice of Women’s History ed. by in S. Jay Kleinberg, Eileen Boris and Vicki L. Ruiz (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007), 308-328. Dowd-Hall, Jacquelyn, Eugene Walker, Katherine Charron, David Cline, ‘”I train the people to do their own talking”: Septima Clark and Women in the Civil Rights Movement, Southern Cultures, 16 (2010), 31- 52. Gore, Dayo, Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard, Want to Start a Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle (New York: New York University Press, 2009). Greene, Christina, Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004). Gyant, LaVerne, ‘Passing the Torch: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement’ Journal of Black Studies, 26, (1996), 629-647. Kirk, John, Beyond Little Rock: The Origins and Legacies of the Central High Crisis (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2007). Nance, Teresa, ‘Hearing the Missing Voice’ Journal of Black Studies, 26, (1996), 543-559. Payne, Charles, ‘Men Led, but Women Organized: Movement Participation of Women in the Mississippi Delta’ in Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941-1965 ed. by Vicki Crawford (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), pp. 1-10. Payne, Charles, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organising Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007). Robnett, Belinda, How Long How Long: African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). Simien, Evelyn, and Danielle McGuire, ‘A Tribute to the Women: Rewriting History, Retelling Herstory in Civil Rights’ Politics and Gender, 10, (2014), 413-431. Vickery, Amanda and Cinthia Salinas, ‘“I question America…is this America?” Learning to View the Civil Rights Movement Through an Intersectional Lens’ Curriculum Inquiry, 49, (2019) 260-283. 29 to expanding the political, social, and economic Black Women and reach of the Black Power Movement. Scholarship of the Black Power Movement the Black Power continues to be dominated by a focus on the hyper-masculine contributions of the ‘leading Movement men’ of the era such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. This has resulted in the erasure of women’s political presence and consigned them - By Kate Brown to largely ‘supportive’ roles, thus producing a one-dimensional account of the period. However, this top down approach is beginning To Stokely Carmichael, the architect of the to expand to the study of leading women in ‘Black Power’ slogan, the concept rested on a national and local organisations. One such study fundamental premise: ‘before a group can enter has addressed the complex role of women in the open society, it must first close ranks’.126 the Black Panther Party (BPP). Previous This outcry for racial solidarity marked the historiography of the party has bypassed the emergence of a hyper masculinist era, in which agency of women and their accompanying the reinstatement of ‘black manhood’ gender discourse in favour of reiterating the dominated political and domestic culture. For violent origins of the party, in which gun-toting many historians, this male-centred framework men, organised in response to brutal and has become synonymous with the oppression of violent conditions in Oakland’s ghettoes, the black woman: for example, Bettye Collier- became ‘the most visible face of radicalism in Thomas and V.P Franklin argue that ‘in a the 1960s’.129 In a bid to make women equally movement full of contradictions about ‘proper’ as visible in this history, Trayce Matthews has gender roles, the talents of women were produced a significant scholarship that alludes underutilized and unappreciated’.127 This to the nuanced role of women alongside ‘leading man’ and ‘submissive woman’ narrative chauvinist politics in the party: black women have consistently defined and obscured African carved out ‘a space for their own American women‘s contributions to the empowerment… often in the face of extreme movement.128 In reality, black women’s male chauvinism’. Expanding on this, Matthews experience of multifaceted oppression fuelled states that the ‘increasing numbers of women the creation of a legitimate agency and political in the Party as rank-and-file members and as power that stood strong against relentless leaders and the severity of state repression pressures. By establishing national and grass directed at all Panthers provided the pressure roots groups and forming and expanding the cooker setting for testing out their ideas about black feminist movement, black women enacted gendered activism that proved crucial 126 Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton, 128 Jeanne Theoharis, Dayo Gore, and Komozi eds., Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in Woodard, eds., Want to Start a Revolution? Radical America (New York: Random House, 1967), p. 44. Women in the Black Freedom Struggle, (New York: 127 Bettye Collier-Thomas and V. P. Franklin, New York University Press, 2009), p. 2. eds., Sisters in the Struggle: African American 129 Peniel E. Joseph ‘The Black Power Movement: A Women in the Civil Rights – Black Power State of the Field’, The Journal of American Movement (New York: New York University Press, History, 96, 3 (2009), pp. 751-776. 2001), p. 171. 30 gender and revolution’.130 Indeed, by the late central to the story of the organisations 1970s, Panther women were increasingly filling discourse and consequently the transformation leadership positions and were making of their own identities intentionally redirected reproduction, parenting, and sexuality crucial the ideology of the BPP and so the practice and parts of the organizational theory of Black Power thought. dialogue.131 However, Wini Breines argues that Often feeling unrepresented and even this narrative is problematic as ‘a number of demonised in both Black Power and Women’s factors, particularly the attrition of male Liberation Movement organisations, smaller leadership due to incarceration, murder, and factions of black women formed collective exile, contributed to women’s more prominent groups with a specifically feminist agenda. place in the organization’.132 However, this However, these groups have been frequently unnecessarily diminishes significant marginalised within the study of the Black contributions made by ‘Pantherettes’ during Power and Second Wave Feminism as a result this period. Even if structural reorganization and of growing scholarly emphasis on chauvinistic new political priorities during the 1970s male leadership, as shown by repeated provided new opportunities for women, as references to the 1965 Moynihan Report’s argued by Robyn Spencer, the internal popularisation of the ‘black matriarchy’ thesis, discourse surrounding sexuality and the which has resulted in a ‘what women couldn’t creation of programs that responded do’ master narrative.134 In actuality, the specifically to the needs of women and children relationship between black feminism and Black was an ‘innovative response to the realties that Power was not naturally antagonistic or Panther women faced’.133 Although the dichotomous; indeed, black feminism had a relationship between the BPPs gender ideology profound influence within the movement and its female members was often overtly through the work of their formal organisations misogynistic, it also frequently presented these and social movements. A key example of women with progressive conditions in which notable contributions by feminist groups is they could lead. During a constant uphill made apparent through the study of the Third struggle against the emergence of contradictory World Woman’s Alliance (TWWA), which and oppressive gender roles, black women emerged during the summer of 1970 as a frequently stood as strong and often militarised rebranding of the Black Woman’s Alliance icons of Black Power resistance in the BPP. (BWA). Panther women made their daily experiences of sexuality, reproduction, and motherhood 130 Trayce A. Matthews, ‘No One Ever Asks What a 132 Wini Breines, The Trouble Between Us: An Uneasy Man’s Role in the Revolution Is’, Gender Politics and History of White and Black Women in the Feminist Leadership of the Black Panther Party, 1966-71’, in Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, Collier-Thomas and Franklin, eds., Sisters in the 2006), p. 75. Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights 133 Spencer, ‘Engendering the Black Freedom – Black Power Movement, p. 247. Struggle: Revolutionary Black Womanhood and the 131 Robyn C. Spencer, ‘Engendering the Black Black Panther Party in the Bay Area, California’, pp. Freedom Struggle: Revolutionary Black Womanhood 90-113. and the Black Panther Party in the Bay Area, 134 Daniel Patrick Moynihan, The Negro Family: The California’, Journal of Women’s History, 20, 1 (2008), Case for National Action (Washington D.C., Office of pp. 90-113. Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor, 1965), p. 30. 31 Despite being concerned with both racism and represented an important legacy of the BWA in sexism, the TWWA’s ideology was rooted in an which the journey towards black, Asian, and economic critique of the United States Latina women’s political legitimisation also government, capitalism and imperialism.135 This contributed directly to the wider aims of the ideological focus actively contributed to the Black Power Movement. Additionally, in 1973, a international expansion of the Black Power larger black feminist group the National Black Movement, a major goal of many black power Feminist Organisation (NBFO) was founded in advocates within the radical wing of the New York. The NBFO aimed at challenging the movement that was influenced and inspired by belief that the concept of the feminist was the Chinese Revolution, by Castro’s Cuban irrelevant to the black power struggle through Revolution, and by the pan-African socialist educational forums devoted to a broad range of experiments in Ghana.136 This ideology was subjects, from forced sterilization and female frequently expressed through the TWWA’s sexuality to child-care and newspaper ‘Triple Jeopardy’. Published unemployment.138 Carole Joyce Davies suggests between 1971 and 1975, the newspapers that the efforts of the NBFO certainly bought permanent sub-heading: ‘racism, imperialism, black feminist discourse to the foreground of sexism’ illustrates the organisations the black struggle: citing that at the NBFOs first multifaceted discussion of feminism alongside Eastern Regional Conference in New York in wider issues of the black struggle. On a double 1973, ‘more than 500 black feminist women page spread within the issue ‘Our History, our from around the world gathered together to Ideology, our Goals’, captioned ‘The Woman form independent chapters of the NBFO’.139 The Struggle’, the TWWA simultaneously addressed study of these groups dismantles the view that sexism within the BMP: ‘a true revolutionary black feminism was developing outside of Black movement must enhance the status of women’ Power thought and that many black feminist alongside the place of the group in the national groups were ‘unwilling to engage with men Black Power effort: ‘an independent third world whose politics offended them’.140 Where groups women’s organization, rather than divide the such as the NBFO put an emphasis on the national liberation struggle would actually teaching of feminism to black women on a enhance that struggle’.137 Although the TWWA personal level through ‘consciousness raising’, only operated for five short years and never in many of these organisations, women were reached the status of a national organisation, it looking to bring the discourse of the 135 Kimberly Springer, Still Lifting, Still Climbing, 138 Duchess Harris, ‘From the Kennedy Commission African American Women’s Contemporary to the Combahee Collective: Black Feminist Activism (New York: New York University Press, Organizing, 1960’80’, in Collier-Thomas and Franklin, 1999), p. 60. eds., Sisters in the Struggle: African American 136 Komozi Woodard, ‘Rethinking the Black Power Women in the Civil Rights – Black Power Movement, Movement’, Africana Age p. 289. (2011) 141 Benita Roth, Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, 143 Christina Greene, Our Separate Ways, Women Chicanca, and White Feminist Movements in and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North America’s Second Wave (Cambridge: Cambridge Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina University Press, 2004), p. 93. Press, 2005), pp. 292-321. 142 Lori Latrice Martin, Hayward Derrick Horton, and 144 Ibid, p.305. Teresa A. Booker, eds., Lessons from the Black 145 Matthew J. Countryman, Up South: Civil Rights Working Class: Foreshadowing America’s Economic and Black Power in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Health (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2015), p.73. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), p. 273. 146 Greene, Our Separate Ways, p. 299. 33 Black Power that have been labelled as white working class.151 This ideology dismantles mutually exclusive, such as Black Nationalism, the racial solidarity master narrative expressed racial integration, masculinism and women’s by historians such as Cynthia Griggs Flemming leadership. Benita Roth proposes that ‘since who argues that ‘race loyalty undoubtedly black women were at the intersection of overshadowed gender issues in the minds of oppressive structures’ black feminists reasoned most African American civil rights activists of that ‘their liberation would mean the liberation this era’ – on the contrary, it is clear that the of all people’.147 Rhonda Williams supports this, multi-dimensional oppression experienced by suggesting that many aspects of black women’s low-income black women was instrumental in grass roots activism, feminist or not, indicate forging interracial alliances during a period of that everyday socio-economic adversities were heightened racial tension.152 Through perceived as ‘human rights’ rather than organisations like the MRP, black women exclusively black issues.148 For example, actively participated in national agendas of Baltimore’s Mother Rescuers from Poverty black power, such as Stokely Carmichael and (MRP) and their leader Margaret McCarty saw Charles Hamilton’s vision that blacks would the expansion of government programs for the garner a ‘position of strength in a pluralistic poor as essential to securing self-determination society’, whilst expanding the margins of the for single mothers and low-wage movement to include representation for workers.149 Drawing strength from the struggle women and the working classes.153 This ‘bottom of both white and black recipients of welfare, up’ reimagining of academically entrenched the MRP led an interracial march of three black power motifs can also be applied to the hundred people to protest cuts to welfare study of the BPP, and can elude to a more budgets in 1967 and later took part in a ‘sleep- complex role of women’s contributions within in’ at the city’s Depart of Social Services to the organization. Indeed, Trayce Matthews has protest against dire living analysed the BPP survival programs such as the situations.150 McCarty’s calls for ‘mothers on free breakfast club, liberation schools, and welfare’ to ‘stand together’ and her self- medical clinics as the ‘lifeblood of the identification as a ‘citizen who has a job to do, organization’: due to the context of state instead of a poor forgotten colored woman’ repression, ‘these activities took on explicitly demonstrates the convergence of race and class political and public functions that were often as a means to legitimise the plight of black and sites of intense struggle with state 147 Roth, Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, 151 Margaret McCarty, ‘Mother Rescuers Fight for Chicanca, and White Feminist Movements in More Welfare Help’ Baltimore Afro-American, July America’s Second Wave, p. 77. 2nd, 1966’ in Williams, ‘We’re Tired of Being Treated 148 Rhonda Y. Williams, ‘Black Women, Urban Like Dogs: Poor Women and Power Politics in Black Politics, and Engendering Black Power’ in Peniel E. Baltimore’, pp. 31-41. Joseph, ed., The Black Power Movement: Rethinking 152 Cynthia Griggs Flemming ‘Black Women and Black the Civil Rights – Black Power Era (London: Power, The Case of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson and Routledge, 2006), p.100. the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’, in 149 Joshua D. Farrington, Black Republicans and the Collier-Thomas and Franklin, eds., Sisters in the Transformation of the GOP (Philadelphia: University Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), p. 177 – Black Power Movement, p. 207. 150 Rhonda Y. Williams, ‘We’re Tired of Being Treated 153 Carmichael and Hamilton, eds., Black Power: The Like Dogs: Poor Women and Power Politics in Black Politics of Liberation in America, pp. 46-120. Baltimore’, Journal of Black Studies and Research, 31, 3/4 (2001), pp. 31-41. 34 authorities’.154 This expands the concepts of victims of chauvinism, demonization and leadership and radicalism performed by ostracism, in reality, they were carving out their ‘Pantherettes’ beyond the militarised poster own political agency so that they could girls such as Joan Bird and Afeni Shakur towards participate in the struggle for liberation the significance of peaceful campaigns on the alongside black men. ground, which by the 1970s, were all that remained of the party’s activities.155 Indeed, contrary to popular conceptions of the shift from civil rights to black power, as constituting an evolution from peaceful protest to violent politics, at the local level, the era was shaped by both impulses – and women were central to each.156 Overall, by studying the Black Power Movement through a social lens, the complex contributions of women to the movement are brought into clearer light. Black women’s framing of problems that affected their everyday lives as community concerns explains that the black power era was not only directed by the rhetoric of leaders, but also by the local culture of low-income women. African American women experienced a unique form of oppression that encompassed sexism, racism, imperialism and classism. The adversities, that they experienced every day of their lives, informed a powerful gendered activism that they contributed to all arenas of the Black Power Movement. Black women were central to the expansion of Black Power thought in national organisations, at the grass roots, and in the emerging feminist movement. Where historiographical trends have consistently presented black women during the period as 154 Matthews, ‘”No One Ever Asks What a Man’s Role 155 Breines, The Trouble Between Us: An Uneasy in the Revolution Is’’: Gender Politics and Leadership History of White and Black Women in the Feminist in the Black Panther Party, 1966-71’, in Collier- Movement, p. 73. Thomas and Franklin, eds., Sisters in the Struggle: 156 Joseph, ‘The Black Power Movement: A State of African American Women in the Civil Rights – Black the Field’, pp. 751-776. Power Movement, p. 246. 35 BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Sources Beal, Frances, ‘Triple Jeopardy: Third World Women’s Alliance: our History, our Ideology, our Goals’, box 4, folder 29, Beal Series on Flickr, Carmichael, Stokely, and Hamilton, Charles V., eds., Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America (New York: Random House, 1967) Moynihan, Daniel P., The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (Washington D.C.: Office of Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor, 1965) Secondary Sources Breines, Wini. The Trouble Between Us: An Uneasy History of White and Black Women in the Feminist Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) Collier-Thomas, Bettye and V. P. Franklin, eds., Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights – Black Power Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2001) Countryman, J. Matthew, Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006) Davies, Carole J., ed.), Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture, Vol. 1 (California: ABL-CLIO, 2008) Farrington, Joshua D., Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016) Greene, Christina, Our Separate Ways, Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005) Joseph, Peniel E., The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights – Black Power Era (London: Routledge, 2006) Joseph, Peniel E., ‘The Black Power Movement: A State of the Field’, The Journal of American History, 96, 3 (2009), pp. 751-776 Kleinberg, Jay S., Boris, Eileen and Ruiz, Vicki L., eds., The Practice of U.S. Women’s History: Narratives, Intersections, and Dialogues (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2007) Martin, Latrice L., Horton, Hayward D., and Booker, Teresa A., eds., Lessons from the Black Working Class: Foreshadowing America’s Economic Health (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2015) Roth, Benita. Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicanca, and White Feminist Movements in Americas Second Wave (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) Spencer, Robyn C., ‘Engendering the Black Freedom Struggle: Revolutionary Black Womanhood and the Black Panther Party in the Bay Area, California’, Journal of Women’s History, 20, 1 (2008), pp. 90-113 36 Springer, Kimberly, Still Lifting, Still Climbing: African American Women’s Contemporary Activism (New York: New York University Press, 1999) Theoharis, Jeanne, Gore, Dayo, and Woodard, Komozi, eds. Want to Start a Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle (New York: New York University Press, 2009) Williams, Rhonda Y., ‘Black Women and Black Power’, OAH Magazine of History 22 (2008). Williams, Rhonda Y., ‘We’re Tired of Being Treated Like Dogs: Poor Women and Power Politics in Black Baltimore’, Journal of Black Studies and Research, 31, 3/4 (2001) pp. 31-41 Woodard, Komozi, ‘Rethinking the Black Power Movement’, Africana Age (2011) 37 - Diane Abbott, Twitter response to Racism in Twentieth complaints about the laziness inherent in the lumping of many people into the Century Britain and ‘black community’ (2012). Because of a twenty-first century tendency in Midwestern Britain to focus on the USA when studying black history, a comparison between the two countries is a pertinent topic not just because of America: what a huge part racism has in fact played in our island story, but also because of the Comparisons, dangerous potential of this absence to make Britons think that racism doesn’t exist in their country. As a white half-Brit I hear other white Legacies and Steps Brits say this all the time- ‘Oh yes, maybe the US has a racism problem, but there’s nothing like Forward that here- or at least it’s ‘Nowhere near as bad’. But if anything, the problem here could be - By William Mirza arguably worse because of this misconception, making people less inclined than ever to study it or confront it- the proof is perhaps how Britain When you tell white people that something is didn’t get a Black History Month until 1987, racist, they hold it up to the light and try to seventeen years after the American one was discern if you are telling the truth. As if they can born, or the fact that the BBC’s 2002 100 tell by the grain whether something is racist or Greatest Britons poll didn’t include a single not, and they always trust their own judgement. black person.159 The ‘American-centric’ It’s unfair because white people have a vested approach perhaps contributes to this.160 To interest in underestimating racism, its amount, pretend that Britain doesn’t also have this its intensity, its shape, its effects. They are the history is ‘not just untrue, it does a disservice’ fox in the henhouse.157 to progress.161 At a time when tributes are being paid to the incredible legacy of progress - Brandon Taylor, the novel Real Life, towards gender equality by US Supreme Court when the protagonist experiences Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it’s also an racism in the American Midwest (2020). appropriate time to reflect on these White people love playing ‘divide and rule’. We connections, because the USA and the UK are should not play their game.158 also similar in that both have never had a black 157 Brandon Taylor, Real Life (London: Daunt Books ‘100 Greatest Britons (BBC Poll, 2002)’, Geni.com Originals, 2020), p.97. 162 Ian Millhiser, ‘Biden says he’ll name a black 163 ‘Caribbean Participants in the First World War’, woman to the Supreme Court. Here are five names Memorial Gates Trust (Publication date unavailable) he could pick’, Vox (March 15 2020) 167 Kehinde Andrews, ‘Raising the bar: the man who 172 Eddo-Lodge, p.19, p.20. launched the Bristol bus boycott’, Week Magazine 173 Ibid, p.24. (12 September 2020) 174 Ibid, p.20. 168 Eddo-Lodge, pp. 17-18. 175 Ibid, pp.23-24. 169 Ibid, p.18. 176 Nigel Farage, ‘The ITV Leaders’ Debate Live - UK 170 Ibid, p.19. Election 2015 - ITV News’, online video recording, 171 Laci Green, Is Racism Over Yet?, online video YouTube, 2 April 2015 recording, YouTube, 8 May 2015, 177 Andrews, Hackett, p.53. 180 Amanda E. Doyle and Melanie A. Adams, Standing 178 Zadie Smith, Intimations: Six Essays (Postscript: Up for Civil Rights in St Louis (St Louis: Missouri Contempt as a Virus) (London: Random House History Museum Press, 2017), p.51. Penguin, 2020), p.66. 181 Eddo-Lodge, pp.26-27. 179 C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, dir. by 182 Smith, p.68. Kevin Willmott (IFC Films, 2004). 183 Eddo-Lodge, pp.16-17. 184 Ibid, p.16. 41 that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can ago) when in fact they are just the result of this do that’. history.187 The idea that ‘the past has no bearing on how we live today’ must itself be made Another joint legacy is the realisation that history if our society is to take action against racism is about not just discrimination but structural racism.188 ‘discrimination plus power’; not just ‘personal prejudice… (but also) being in the position to negatively affect other people’s life chances’.185 ‘Racial capitalism’ is Walter Johnson’s phrase, which sums it up well as economic, political and social segregation is founded on a system where ‘white supremacy justified the terms of imperial dispossession and capitalist exploitation’- the idea of the difference between ‘real Americans’ and the undeserving poor.186 And most of all, perhaps the most important legacy of these events for present-day citizens, is the simple reminder of the age-old fact that, as in the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘we cannot escape history’. This is the overarching argument, which includes all the above legacies of ignorance, apathy, provocation, and tyranny, because they all have the commonality of being relevant today, as shown by the fact that examples of each cover all parts of twentieth- century history as well as the present. Being anti-racist means opposing the past as well as the present, as the world we live in today is one profoundly shaped by centuries of systematic slavery, mass incarceration, inequality, and countless other forms of brutality, prejudice and discrimination by white people against people of colour. The legacies are plain to see here at Exeter today and they can be found in all other regions of the UK, the USA and indeed the rest of the world, where racism and racial inequalities persist in infinite other forms. All this didn’t happen automatically. Far too often, these legacies have been seen as a 'character flaw’ or a moral failing (‘individual characters and attitudes’, as Oliver Letwin put it five years 185 Ibid, p.10. 187 Eddo-Lodge, p.30. 186 Johnson, pp.6-7. 188 Ibid, p.11. 42 BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary sources Farage, Nigel, ‘The ITV Leaders’ Debate Live - UK Election 2015 - ITV News’, online video recording, YouTube, 2 April 2015 Millhiser, Ian, ‘Biden says he’ll name a black woman to the Supreme Court. 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