The Militant Negro Domestic, 1945–1965

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.

Introduction

As readers finished the July 1, 1972, edition of the Black Panther Party’s newspaper, they found a full-length, mixed-media image of a middle-aged black woman on the back page. The woman, dressed in hair rollers, a collared shirt, an apron, and no shoes, stares directly at the viewer, one hand on her hip; the other supports a bag of groceries from the Panthers’ free food program. The woman also prominently displays her button in support of Panther leader Bobby Seale’s mayoral campaign. The caption above contextualizes the woman’s politics and party support: “Yes, I’m against the war in Vietnam, I’m for African Liberation, voter registration and the people’s survival!”...

Epilogue

During the Black Power era, ordinary black women from all walks of life developed critical appraisals of the race, class, and gender constructs that governed their lives. They also advanced new ideas about what life might look like if they escaped the crushing weight of white supremacy. Black domestic workers, members of the Black Panther Party, and Black Power feminists all consistently and collectively imagined a new world and their role within it. Yet historical narratives continue to reinforce the idea that black men were the only ones capable of conjuring up new identities and idealized societies. Or, as scholar-activist Angela Davis put it in an October 2013 speech, we are still unable to “imagine and acknowledge what must have been, among these Black women domestic workers, this amazing collective imagination of a future world without racial and gender and economic oppression.”...

The Pan-African Woman, 1972–1976

Chapter 4 explores how black women activists extended these gendered debates beyond American borders. It contextualizes their interest in and identification with the African and Pan-African liberation struggles of the 1970s and explores their speeches and conference resolutions from the 1972 All-Africa Women’s Conference and the 1974 Sixth Pan-African Congress as examples of how they articulated their ideal of the “Pan-African Woman.” The chapter illustrates how black women activists theorized a political identity that advocated for African-centered politics and gender equality across ideological, geographical, and organizational lines. It also foregrounds how they repositioned black American women at the forefront of diasporic liberation struggles, challenging black men’s real and imagined positions as the leaders of global Black Power struggles.

The African Woman, 1965–1975

Chapter 3 explores women who were part of two cultural nationalist groups: the Us Organization and the Congress of African People. Both groups practiced the cultural nationalist philosophy of Kawaida, a doctrine based on an African-centered ideals and practices and that prescribed a marginal role for women in political organizing. Through an analysis of their handbooks, political tracts, and women’s columns, this chapter documents how female cultural nationalists redefined the ideal of the “African Woman” in order to reflect their expansive interpretations of the Kawaida doctrine and their organizing roles. In doing so, it illustrates how Kawaidist women caused leaders and organizers in this faction of the Black Power movement to adopt more equitable conceptualizations of gender roles and black liberation.

The Black Revolutionary Woman, 1966–1975

Chapter 2 turns to the political identity of the “Black Revolutionary Woman,” created by women in the Black Panther Party. The most widely recognized organization of the Black Power movement; the Panthers’ influence was pervasive, and shaped public perceptions of Black Power and empowerment both nationally and internationally. This chapter shows how Panther women used political artwork, speeches, and articles published in The Black Panther newspaper to create an evolving understanding of the female revolutionary and challenge male-centered interpretations of organizational ideology and black liberation. It also documents how Panther women’s intellectual production caused the Party to develop a more inclusive understanding of the black revolutionary activist.

The Third World Black Woman, 1970–1979

Chapter 5 examines the intersection of Black Power and black feminist politics by charting the development of the Third World Women’s Alliance (TWWA), a Black Power feminist group. It chronicles how members created the political identity of the “Third World Black Woman,” a radical, intersectional model of womanhood based on black women’s real and imagined commonalities with women in and from Third World countries. Using the TWWA’s construction of the Third World Black Woman through members’ editorials, articles, interviews, and artwork in their newspaper, Triple Jeopardy, this chapter reveals how they bolstered Black Power projects, popularized Black Power among black women and other women of color, and formalized black women activists’ long-standing commitment to intersectional theorizing and activism.