Re-visioning the women's liberation movement's narrative: Early second wave African American feminists

Feminist Studies

Volumn 27, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 225-245

  Baxandall, Rosalyn ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0039191232     PISSN: 00463663     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3178460     Document Type: Article

References (74)

1. Two good historical studies are Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (New York: Knopf, 1979), which only goes up to 1968; and Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad, Radical Feminism in America, 3967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), which focuses on radical feminism in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Three books by Sheila Rowbotham are excellent but limited in coverage of the women's liberation movement in the U.S. A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States (New York: Viking, 1997), covers 1920 to 1990; The Past Is before US: Feminism in Action since the 1960s (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989) is about England; Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action (New York: Routledge, 1992) covers social movements worldwide from 1840 to present. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation, ed. Ann Snitow and Rachel Du Plessis (New York: Crown, 1998) is a collection of memoirs and falls between history and literature. In writing a grant with women from India, South Africa, Italy, and Latin America, Radha Kumar, Gina Vargas, and Luisa Passerini called to the attention of Linda Gordon and me the global significance of the U.S. women's movement. Since the writing of this article, two other works have been published: Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (New York: Viking, 2000), which collapses the history of NOW and the women's liberation movement, and Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (New York: Dial, 1999).
2. Two good historical studies are Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (New York: Knopf, 1979), which only goes up to 1968; and Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad, Radical Feminism in America, 3967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), which focuses on radical feminism in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Three books by Sheila Rowbotham are excellent but limited in coverage of the women's liberation movement in the U.S. A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States (New York: Viking, 1997), covers 1920 to 1990; The Past Is before US: Feminism in Action since the 1960s (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989) is about England; Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action (New York: Routledge, 1992) covers social movements worldwide from 1840 to present. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation, ed. Ann Snitow and Rachel Du Plessis (New York: Crown, 1998) is a collection of memoirs and falls between history and literature. In writing a grant with women from India, South Africa, Italy, and Latin America, Radha Kumar, Gina Vargas, and Luisa Passerini called to the attention of Linda Gordon and me the global significance of the U.S. women's movement. Since the writing of this article, two other works have been published: Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (New York: Viking, 2000), which collapses the history of NOW and the women's liberation movement, and Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (New York: Dial, 1999).
3. Two good historical studies are Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (New York: Knopf, 1979), which only goes up to 1968; and Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad, Radical Feminism in America, 3967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), which focuses on radical feminism in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Three books by Sheila Rowbotham are excellent but limited in coverage of the women's liberation movement in the U.S. A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States (New York: Viking, 1997), covers 1920 to 1990; The Past Is before US: Feminism in Action since the 1960s (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989) is about England; Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action (New York: Routledge, 1992) covers social movements worldwide from 1840 to present. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation, ed. Ann Snitow and Rachel Du Plessis (New York: Crown, 1998) is a collection of memoirs and falls between history and literature. In writing a grant with women from India, South Africa, Italy, and Latin America, Radha Kumar, Gina Vargas, and Luisa Passerini called to the attention of Linda Gordon and me the global significance of the U.S. women's movement. Since the writing of this article, two other works have been published: Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (New York: Viking, 2000), which collapses the history of NOW and the women's liberation movement, and Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (New York: Dial, 1999).
4. Two good historical studies are Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (New York: Knopf, 1979), which only goes up to 1968; and Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad, Radical Feminism in America, 3967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), which focuses on radical feminism in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Three books by Sheila Rowbotham are excellent but limited in coverage of the women's liberation movement in the U.S. A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States (New York: Viking, 1997), covers 1920 to 1990; The Past Is before US: Feminism in Action since the 1960s (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989) is about England; Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action (New York: Routledge, 1992) covers social movements worldwide from 1840 to present. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation, ed. Ann Snitow and Rachel Du Plessis (New York: Crown, 1998) is a collection of memoirs and falls between history and literature. In writing a grant with women from India, South Africa, Italy, and Latin America, Radha Kumar, Gina Vargas, and Luisa Passerini called to the attention of Linda Gordon and me the global significance of the U.S. women's movement. Since the writing of this article, two other works have been published: Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (New York: Viking, 2000), which collapses the history of NOW and the women's liberation movement, and Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (New York: Dial, 1999).
5. Two good historical studies are Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (New York: Knopf, 1979), which only goes up to 1968; and Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad, Radical Feminism in America, 3967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), which focuses on radical feminism in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Three books by Sheila Rowbotham are excellent but limited in coverage of the women's liberation movement in the U.S. A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States (New York: Viking, 1997), covers 1920 to 1990; The Past Is before US: Feminism in Action since the 1960s (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989) is about England; Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action (New York: Routledge, 1992) covers social movements worldwide from 1840 to present. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation, ed. Ann Snitow and Rachel Du Plessis (New York: Crown, 1998) is a collection of memoirs and falls between history and literature. In writing a grant with women from India, South Africa, Italy, and Latin America, Radha Kumar, Gina Vargas, and Luisa Passerini called to the attention of Linda Gordon and me the global significance of the U.S. women's movement. Since the writing of this article, two other works have been published: Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (New York: Viking, 2000), which collapses the history of NOW and the women's liberation movement, and Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (New York: Dial, 1999).
6. Two good historical studies are Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (New York: Knopf, 1979), which only goes up to 1968; and Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad, Radical Feminism in America, 3967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), which focuses on radical feminism in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Three books by Sheila Rowbotham are excellent but limited in coverage of the women's liberation movement in the U.S. A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States (New York: Viking, 1997), covers 1920 to 1990; The Past Is before US: Feminism in Action since the 1960s (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989) is about England; Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action (New York: Routledge, 1992) covers social movements worldwide from 1840 to present. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation, ed. Ann Snitow and Rachel Du Plessis (New York: Crown, 1998) is a collection of memoirs and falls between history and literature. In writing a grant with women from India, South Africa, Italy, and Latin America, Radha Kumar, Gina Vargas, and Luisa Passerini called to the attention of Linda Gordon and me the global significance of the U.S. women's movement. Since the writing of this article, two other works have been published: Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (New York: Viking, 2000), which collapses the history of NOW and the women's liberation movement, and Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (New York: Dial, 1999).
7. Two good historical studies are Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (New York: Knopf, 1979), which only goes up to 1968; and Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad, Radical Feminism in America, 3967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), which focuses on radical feminism in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Three books by Sheila Rowbotham are excellent but limited in coverage of the women's liberation movement in the U.S. A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States (New York: Viking, 1997), covers 1920 to 1990; The Past Is before US: Feminism in Action since the 1960s (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989) is about England; Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action (New York: Routledge, 1992) covers social movements worldwide from 1840 to present. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation, ed. Ann Snitow and Rachel Du Plessis (New York: Crown, 1998) is a collection of memoirs and falls between history and literature. In writing a grant with women from India, South Africa, Italy, and Latin America, Radha Kumar, Gina Vargas, and Luisa Passerini called to the attention of Linda Gordon and me the global significance of the U.S. women's movement. Since the writing of this article, two other works have been published: Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (New York: Viking, 2000), which collapses the history of NOW and the women's liberation movement, and Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (New York: Dial, 1999).
8. Two good historical studies are Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (New York: Knopf, 1979), which only goes up to 1968; and Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad, Radical Feminism in America, 3967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), which focuses on radical feminism in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Three books by Sheila Rowbotham are excellent but limited in coverage of the women's liberation movement in the U.S. A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States (New York: Viking, 1997), covers 1920 to 1990; The Past Is before US: Feminism in Action since the 1960s (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989) is about England; Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action (New York: Routledge, 1992) covers social movements worldwide from 1840 to present. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation, ed. Ann Snitow and Rachel Du Plessis (New York: Crown, 1998) is a collection of memoirs and falls between history and literature. In writing a grant with women from India, South Africa, Italy, and Latin America, Radha Kumar, Gina Vargas, and Luisa Passerini called to the attention of Linda Gordon and me the global significance of the U.S. women's movement. Since the writing of this article, two other works have been published: Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (New York: Viking, 2000), which collapses the history of NOW and the women's liberation movement, and Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (New York: Dial, 1999).
9. See Myra Marx Ferree and Patricia Yancey Martin, eds., Feminist Organizations: Harvest of the New Women's Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995) (sociology and political science);
10. Lise Vogel, Woman Questions, Essays for a Materialist Feminism (New York: Routledge, 1995) (philosophy, political science);
11. and Flora Davis, Moving the Mountain: The Women's Movement in America since 1960 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991) (journalism).
12. Ginette Castro's American Feminism: A Contemporary History (New York: New York University Press, 1990) is written by a French woman and mainly about NOW (culture and language).
13. Others are Barbara Deckard, The Women's Movement: Political, Sociological, Socioeconomic, and Psychological Issues (New York: Harper & Row, 1975) (psychology);
14. Myra Marx Ferree and Beth Hess, Controversy and Coalition: The New Feminist Movement (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Twayne, 1985) (sociology);
15. Mary Fainsod Katzenstein and Carol McClurg Mueller, The Woman's Movements of the United States and Western Europe: Consciousness, Political Opportunity, and Public Policy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987) (government and sociology);
16. Barbara Ryan, Feminism and the Women's Movement: Dynamics of Change in Social Movements, Ideology, and Activism (New York: Routledge, 1992) (sociology);
17. Rita Simon and Gloria Danziger, Women's Movements in America: Their Successes, Disappointments, and Aspirations (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1991) (sociology and law);
18. Jo Freeman, The Politics of Women's Liberation (Reading, Mass.: Longman, 1975) (political science).
19. See Susan Hartmann, From Margin to Mainstream: American Women and Politics since the 1960s (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989); and Marcia Cohen, The Sisterhood: The True Story of the Women Who Changed the World (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), which focuses on Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Germaine Greer, and Kate Millett. Of the two biographies of Gloria Steinem, the best one is by Sydney Ladensohn Stern, Gloria Steinem, Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique (Secaucus, N.J.: Birch Lane Press, 1997); the other, by Carolyn Heilbrun, is The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem (New York: Dial, 1995).
20. See Susan Hartmann, From Margin to Mainstream: American Women and Politics since the 1960s (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989); and Marcia Cohen, The Sisterhood: The True Story of the Women Who Changed the World (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), which focuses on Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Germaine Greer, and Kate Millett. Of the two biographies of Gloria Steinem, the best one is by Sydney Ladensohn Stern, Gloria Steinem, Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique (Secaucus, N.J.: Birch Lane Press, 1997); the other, by Carolyn Heilbrun, is The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem (New York: Dial, 1995).
21. See Susan Hartmann, From Margin to Mainstream: American Women and Politics since the 1960s (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989); and Marcia Cohen, The Sisterhood: The True Story of the Women Who Changed the World (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), which focuses on Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Germaine Greer, and Kate Millett. Of the two biographies of Gloria Steinem, the best one is by Sydney Ladensohn Stern, Gloria Steinem, Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique (Secaucus, N.J.: Birch Lane Press, 1997); the other, by Carolyn Heilbrun, is The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem (New York: Dial, 1995).
22. See Susan Hartmann, From Margin to Mainstream: American Women and Politics since the 1960s (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989); and Marcia Cohen, The Sisterhood: The True Story of the Women Who Changed the World (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), which focuses on Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Germaine Greer, and Kate Millett. Of the two biographies of Gloria Steinem, the best one is by Sydney Ladensohn Stern, Gloria Steinem, Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique (Secaucus, N.J.: Birch Lane Press, 1997); the other, by Carolyn Heilbrun, is The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem (New York: Dial, 1995).
23. Many women did become stars, and many major theorists and activists have been pushed aside or fallen down the historical well. Some feminists' work has been ripped off. See, Shirley Boccacio, "The Housework Poster Rip-Off," in Feminist Revolution (New York: Redstockings, 1975). This book and a catalog of early women's liberation writings are available from the Redstockings Archive Distribution Project, P.O. Box 2625, Gainesville, Florida 32602. For a catalog, send two first-class stamps.
24. Unfortunately, Carlson, the publisher, went bankrupt and the project had to be transformed. We edited a popular collection, Dear Sisters: Dispatches from the Women's Liberation Movement (New York: Basic Books, 2000). We donated our massive files to the Tamiment Library, New York University. They are open to the public. The Tamiment will eventually put our collection on microfilm so that other libraries can use it.
25. Redstockings has collected many speeches, pamphlets, and papers from radical feminists in New York City and Gainesville, Florida. Their writings are available from the Redstockings Archive Distribution Project.
26. Evans, 100-101, 57.
27. Elizabeth Toledo, "Linking Arms in Dangerous Times: Summit Urges Dialogue, Action on Race," National NOW Times, 30 (January 1998).
28. To name just a few of the writers who view the early women's movement as primarily white, Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (New York: Random House, 1972); Echols; bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981); Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June Bundy Csida, Feminist Chronicles, 1953-1993 (Los Angeles: Women's Graphics, 1993); Davis; Rowbotham, The Past Is Before Us, and Century of Women; Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Watertown, Mass: Persephone Press, 1981); Paula Giddings, Where and When I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (New York: Bantam, 1985). Toni Cade and Rivka Polatnick are exceptions.
29. To name just a few of the writers who view the early women's movement as primarily white, Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (New York: Random House, 1972); Echols; bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981); Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June Bundy Csida, Feminist Chronicles, 1953-1993 (Los Angeles: Women's Graphics, 1993); Davis; Rowbotham, The Past Is Before Us, and Century of Women; Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Watertown, Mass: Persephone Press, 1981); Paula Giddings, Where and When I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (New York: Bantam, 1985). Toni Cade and Rivka Polatnick are exceptions.
30. To name just a few of the writers who view the early women's movement as primarily white, Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (New York: Random House, 1972); Echols; bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981); Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June Bundy Csida, Feminist Chronicles, 1953-1993 (Los Angeles: Women's Graphics, 1993); Davis; Rowbotham, The Past Is Before Us, and Century of Women; Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Watertown, Mass: Persephone Press, 1981); Paula Giddings, Where and When I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (New York: Bantam, 1985). Toni Cade and Rivka Polatnick are exceptions.
31. To name just a few of the writers who view the early women's movement as primarily white, Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (New York: Random House, 1972); Echols; bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981); Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June Bundy Csida, Feminist Chronicles, 1953-1993 (Los Angeles: Women's Graphics, 1993); Davis; Rowbotham, The Past Is Before Us, and Century of Women; Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Watertown, Mass: Persephone Press, 1981); Paula Giddings, Where and When I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (New York: Bantam, 1985). Toni Cade and Rivka Polatnick are exceptions.
32. To name just a few of the writers who view the early women's movement as primarily white, Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (New York: Random House, 1972); Echols; bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981); Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June Bundy Csida, Feminist Chronicles, 1953-1993 (Los Angeles: Women's Graphics, 1993); Davis; Rowbotham, The Past Is Before Us, and Century of Women; Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Watertown, Mass: Persephone Press, 1981); Paula Giddings, Where and When I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (New York: Bantam, 1985). Toni Cade and Rivka Polatnick are exceptions.
33. To name just a few of the writers who view the early women's movement as primarily white, Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (New York: Random House, 1972); Echols; bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981); Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June Bundy Csida, Feminist Chronicles, 1953-1993 (Los Angeles: Women's Graphics, 1993); Davis; Rowbotham, The Past Is Before Us, and Century of Women; Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Watertown, Mass: Persephone Press, 1981); Paula Giddings, Where and When I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (New York: Bantam, 1985). Toni Cade and Rivka Polatnick are exceptions.
34. To name just a few of the writers who view the early women's movement as primarily white, Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (New York: Random House, 1972); Echols; bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981); Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June Bundy Csida, Feminist Chronicles, 1953-1993 (Los Angeles: Women's Graphics, 1993); Davis; Rowbotham, The Past Is Before Us, and Century of Women; Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Watertown, Mass: Persephone Press, 1981); Paula Giddings, Where and When I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (New York: Bantam, 1985). Toni Cade and Rivka Polatnick are exceptions.
35. To name just a few of the writers who view the early women's movement as primarily white, Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (New York: Random House, 1972); Echols; bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981); Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June Bundy Csida, Feminist Chronicles, 1953-1993 (Los Angeles: Women's Graphics, 1993); Davis; Rowbotham, The Past Is Before Us, and Century of Women; Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Watertown, Mass: Persephone Press, 1981); Paula Giddings, Where and When I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (New York: Bantam, 1985). Toni Cade and Rivka Polatnick are exceptions.
36. Barbara Smith, "Feisty Characters and Other People's Causes: Memories of White Racism and U.S. Feminism," in The Feminist Memoir Project, 476-81.
37. Patricia Romney, a Black feminist and member of the Central Committee of the Third World Alliance, an organization of African American, Latin American, and Asian Americans begun in 1968 as an outgrowth of the Black Women's Caucus of SNCC, is writing a book on the Third World Women's Alliance. Romney gave a paper, "Remembering the Third World Women's Alliance," on March 6, 1998, at the CUNY Graduate Center, and another paper called "Remembering the Black Sisters," on June 8, 1996, at the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
38. Patricia Romney, a Black feminist and member of the Central Committee of the Third World Alliance, an organization of African American, Latin American, and Asian Americans begun in 1968 as an outgrowth of the Black Women's Caucus of SNCC, is writing a book on the Third World Women's Alliance. Romney gave a paper, "Remembering the Third World Women's Alliance," on March 6, 1998, at the CUNY Graduate Center, and another paper called "Remembering the Black Sisters," on June 8, 1996, at the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
39. Cellestine Ware, Woman Power: The Movement for Women's Liberation (New York: Tower Publications, 1970), and Florynce Kennedy and Diane Schulder, Abortion Rap (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971). Frances Beale wrote "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female," in 1968, which was widely reprinted in leaflets and in The Black Woman, ed. Toni Cade (New York: New American Library, 1970), 90-100.
40. Cellestine Ware, Woman Power: The Movement for Women's Liberation (New York: Tower Publications, 1970), and Florynce Kennedy and Diane Schulder, Abortion Rap (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971). Frances Beale wrote "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female," in 1968, which was widely reprinted in leaflets and in The Black Woman, ed. Toni Cade (New York: New American Library, 1970), 90-100.
41. Cellestine Ware, Woman Power: The Movement for Women's Liberation (New York: Tower Publications, 1970), and Florynce Kennedy and Diane Schulder, Abortion Rap (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971). Frances Beale wrote "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female," in 1968, which was widely reprinted in leaflets and in The Black Woman, ed. Toni Cade (New York: New American Library, 1970), 90-100.
42. Cellestine Ware, Woman Power: The Movement for Women's Liberation (New York: Tower Publications, 1970), and Florynce Kennedy and Diane Schulder, Abortion Rap (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971). Frances Beale wrote "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female," in 1968, which was widely reprinted in leaflets and in The Black Woman, ed. Toni Cade (New York: New American Library, 1970), 90-100.
43. Barbara Omolade, "Sisterhood in Black and White," in The Feminist Memoir Project, 393-94.
44. The Benston letter is in the Joan Jordan papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society, and in Baxandall and Gordon, Tamiment Library, New York University. Benston is deceased.
45. Ibid.
46. Patricia Robinson, "Malcolm X, Our Revolutionary Son and Brother," in Malcolm X: The Man and His Times, ed. John Henrik Clarke (New York: Macmillan, 1969), 56-63.
47. Material from the Mount Vernon/New Rochelle group is based on a draft chapter of an unpublished manuscript by M. Rivka Polatnick, "Diversity in Women's Liberation Ideology: How a Black and White Group of the 1960s Viewed Motherhood" (San Jose State University), and Rivka Polatnick, article by the same name in Signs 21 (spring 1996): 679-706.
48. Material from the Mount Vernon/New Rochelle group is based on a draft chapter of an unpublished manuscript by M. Rivka Polatnick, "Diversity in Women's Liberation Ideology: How a Black and White Group of the 1960s Viewed Motherhood" (San Jose State University), and Rivka Polatnick, article by the same name in Signs 21 (spring 1996): 679-706.
49. Black Unity Party, Peekskill, New York, 1968, "Birth Control Pills and Black Children," published in the Seattle feminist magazine, Lilith (fall 1968): 7. Lilith can be obtained through Redstockings Archive Distribution Project.
50. This reply is anthologized as "Statement on Birth Control," in Sisterhood Is Powerful An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement, ed. Robin Morgan (New York: Random House, 1970), 360-61.
51. This letter was also published in Lilith (Seattle) (fall 1968): 9-11.
52. "Statement on Birth Control," 361.
53. This article had several titles, for example, in Toni Cade's anthology The Black Woman it is called, "On the Position of Poor Black Women in This Country," 194-96. In Lilith (Seattle) (fall 1968), it is called "Poor Black Women."
54. This article had several titles, for example, in Toni Cade's anthology The Black Woman it is called, "On the Position of Poor Black Women in This Country," 194-96. In Lilith (Seattle) (fall 1968), it is called "Poor Black Women."
55. Ibid., 196.
56. Pat Robinson and Group, "A Historical and Critical Essay for Black Women in the Cities, June 1969" (199-210), and "Letter to a Vietnamese Sister from an Afro-American Woman-September 1968" (189-94), both in The Black Woman.
57. Pat Robinson and Group, "A Historical and Critical Essay for Black Women in the Cities, June 1969" (199-210), and "Letter to a Vietnamese Sister from an Afro-American Woman-September 1968" (189-94), both in The Black Woman.
58. "Letter to a Vietnamese Sister," 192.
59. Patricia Hayden, Donna Middleton, and Patricia Robinson, "A Historical and Critical Essay for Black Women," in Voices from Women's Liberation, ed. Leslie Tanner (New York: Signet, 1971), 316, 324.
60. Wini Breines, Young, White, and Miserable: Growing Up in the Fifties (Boston: Beacon Press, 1992).
61. Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (New York: William Morrow, 1970), 196-97, 200.
62. At the twenty-fifth anniversary of the speak-out on abortion, many of the women who had spoken at the original event were now childless and some were longing for children but not strongly enough to adopt them or raise them on their own.
63. See, for instance, Linda Gordon, Pitied but Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare (New York: Free Press, 1994);
64. and Deborah Gray White, Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994 (New York: Norton, 1999).
65. As Omolade writes in "Sisterhood in Black and White," "Even Black feminists have written African-American nationalist women like me out of their feminist discourses because they view us as simplistic and deluded baby makers for even more deluded Black men" (379).
66. Jessie M. Rodrique, "The Black Community and the Birth-Control Movement," in Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History, ed. Ellen Carol Dubois and Vicki L. Ruiz (New York: Routledge, 1990), 333-44; and Loretta Ross "AfricanAmerican Women and Abortion," in Abortion Wars, ed. Rickie Solinger (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 161-207.
67. Jessie M. Rodrique, "The Black Community and the Birth-Control Movement," in Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History, ed. Ellen Carol Dubois and Vicki L. Ruiz (New York: Routledge, 1990), 333-44; and Loretta Ross "AfricanAmerican Women and Abortion," in Abortion Wars, ed. Rickie Solinger (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 161-207.
68. There were undoubtedly many other Black women's groups that are invisible. The nationalist group JOMO (Junta of Militant Organizations) in St. Petersburg, Florida, had connections with the Gainesville women's liberation movement. Judy Brown (now deceased), Carol Giardina, and Carol Hanisch visited in 1969. Brown and Giardina met with the African American women of JOMO and helped them draft a feminist plank in 1969. Brown and Giardina, "ended up in CR with them and out of that grew their demand to be in the armed defense teams of JOMO, which up until then had been male" (Carol Giardina, email 4 Jan. 2001). JOMO is still in existence, now called African People's Socialist party (Carol Hanisch also verified the information in email 14 Jan. 2001).
69. Obviously it is hard to estimate because women kept this a secret. The FBI, on the other hand, overestimated party membership so that communists would seem more threatening and the FBI budget would remain more grandiose for ferreting out communists. Anne Forer, Naomi Weisstein, Linda Gordon, Amy Kesselman, Norma Allen, Jane Lazarre, Anne Froines, Dinkey Romilly, and Sheli Wortis were among this group; many didn't want to be named. In NOW, Betty Friedan, Gerda Lerner, and Eleanor Flexner had all been in the Communist Party and hid their connections. A Ph.D. dissertation, by Kate Weigand, "Vanguards of Women's Liberation: The Old Left and the Continuity of the Women's Movement in the U.S., 1945-1967" (Ohio State University, 1995), documents these connections. Joan Meyers is also writing a thesis at San Francisco State University on the links between the Old Left and the women's liberation movement.
70. Weigand. The thesis, slightly changed, has been published as Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women's Liberation (Reconfiguring American Political History) (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 139-58.
71. See Rivka Polatnick, "Strategies for Women's Liberation: A Study of a Black and White Group in the 1960s" (Ph.D. diss., San Jose State University, 1985). Her thesis compares the two groups especially around their ideas of mothering. See also her Signs article, "Diversity in Women's Liberation Ideology" (679-706), and her article, "Poor Black Sisters Decided for Themselves," in Black Women in America, ed. Kim Marie Vaz (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1995), 110-30.
72. See Rivka Polatnick, "Strategies for Women's Liberation: A Study of a Black and White Group in the 1960s" (Ph.D. diss., San Jose State University, 1985). Her thesis compares the two groups especially around their ideas of mothering. See also her Signs article, "Diversity in Women's Liberation Ideology" (679-706), and her article, "Poor Black Sisters Decided for Themselves," in Black Women in America, ed. Kim Marie Vaz (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1995), 110-30.
73. See Rivka Polatnick, "Strategies for Women's Liberation: A Study of a Black and White Group in the 1960s" (Ph.D. diss., San Jose State University, 1985). Her thesis compares the two groups especially around their ideas of mothering. See also her Signs article, "Diversity in Women's Liberation Ideology" (679-706), and her article, "Poor Black Sisters Decided for Themselves," in Black Women in America, ed. Kim Marie Vaz (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1995), 110-30.
74. Echols, 291.