Chapter 1 begins in the late 1940s, and documents how postwar black women radicals collectively constructed the political identity of the “Militant Black Domestic.” Using their political tracts, satire, and pamphlets, this chapter shows how black women used this trope to reimagine black working-class women as grassroots political actors who critiqued American imperialism, promoted black self-determination, forged international radical alliances, and advocated for women’s equality. The chapter also reveals how, through their writings about the Militant Black Domestic, black women radicals sustained and further developed early twentieth-century black nationalist expressions, laying the groundwork for future gender-specific expressions of Black Power.
American Realism Versus American Imperialism