African-American women, then and now, have buried their talents, gifts, and ideas under the bias judgments and opinions of those who racially profile them. As narrated by Patricia Collins, “Reclaiming Black women’s ideas involves discovering, reinterpreting, and, in many cases, analyzing for the first time the works of individual U.S. Black women thinkers who were so extraordinary that they did manage to have their ideas preserved.” Thus, we can find our identity, uniqueness, hidden in the extraordinary works of these women; in fact, Maria Stewart was one of those women. A domestic servant who became a journalist, lecturer, educator, evangelist, and a women's rights activist. The first African-American woman to make public speeches for and
against women, injustice, and anti-slavery. Amazingly, despite the time difference, we both have keen similarities. In the same way, Maria Stewart was an evangelist, women activist, and educator; I, also, walk in those same leadership roles. As this essay opens, I will shine a light on the similarities we both share, and I will also cover the hardships of her lifetime. At the age of five, Stewart lost both of her parents; she was sent to live with a minister and his family, bound to serve without receiving any formal education. Just as Stewart was an orphan, in my adolescent years, I felt the same way. My father passed when I was fifteen, and my mother, soon after, never paid me any attention. In my home, I felt abandoned. Not to mention, I had to play the second mother to my little brother. There was no love or support. My mother completely left me hanging, forced to search for love in other places. Nevertheless, as for Stewart, she didn't give up. In the time of her youth, she attended Sabbath school which resulted in a lifelong affinity for religious work.
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
As both Tracey Reynolds and Audre Lorde have emphasized, Black women are not perpetually passive victims, but active agents. It is totally possible for Black women to seize a form of empowerment, whether that be alternative education, or the creation of organizations that weren’t situated in either the Civil Rights movement or Women’s
Malcolm X stated that the most disrespected, unprotected and neglected person in America is the black woman. Black women have long suffered from racism in American history and also from sexism in the broader aspect of American society and even within the black community; black women are victims of intersection between anti-blackness and misogyny sometimes denoted to as "misogynoir". Often when the civil rights movement is being retold, the black woman is forgotten or reduced to a lesser role within the movement and represented as absent in the struggle, McGuire 's At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power does not make this same mistake.
This piece of auto biographical works is one of the greatest pieces of literature and will continue to inspire young and old black Americans to this day be cause of her hard and racially tense background is what produced an eloquent piece of work that feels at times more fiction than non fiction
The Author of this book (On our own terms: race, class, and gender in the lives of African American Women) Leith Mullings seeks to explore the modern and historical lives of African American women on the issues of race, class and gender. Mullings does this in a very analytical way using a collection of essays written and collected over a twenty five year period. The author’s systematic format best explains her point of view. The book explores issues such as family, work and health comparing and contrasting between white and black women as well as between men and women of both races.
After many years of battling for equality among the sexes, people today have no idea of the trails that women went through so that women of future generations could have the same privileges and treatment as men. Several generations have come since the women’s rights movement and the women of these generations have different opportunities in family life, religion, government, employment, and education that women fought for. The Women’s Rights Movement began with a small group of people that questioned why human lives, especially those of women, were unfairly confined. Many women, like Sojourner Truth and Fanny Fern, worked consciously to create a better world by bringing awareness to these inequalities. Sojourner Truth, prominent slave and advocate
Beale, Frances. "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female." An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. New York: New, 1995. 146. Print.
The life of Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) affords rich opportunities for studying the developments in African-American and Ameri can life during the century following emancipation. Like W.E.B. DuBois, Cooper's life is framed by especially momentous years in U.S. history: the final years of slavery and the climactic years of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. Cooper's eclect ic and influential career mirrored the times. Although her life was privileged in relation to those of the majority of African-Americans, Cooper shared in the experiences of wrenching change, elevating promise, and heart-breaking disappointment. She was accordingly able to be an organic and committed intellectual whose eloquent speech was ensnarled in her concern for the future of African-Americans.
Anna Julia Cooper’s, Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress, an excerpt from A Voice from the South, discusses the state of race and gender in America with an emphasis on African American women of the south. She contributes a number of things to the destitute state African American woman became accustom to and believe education and elevation of the black woman would change not only the state of the African American community but the nation as well. Cooper’s analysis is based around three concepts, the merging of the Barbaric with Christianity, the Feudal system, and the regeneration of the black woman.
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
From the earlier forms of fetishizing over Saartjie Baartman in Europe, the dehumanization of black women as “mammies,” to Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s controversial Moynihan Report in 1965, African and African American female identity has been under the direct possession of white people. White Americans have continued to define the black female’s position within society by creating her narrative based on inequitable economic and societal conditions as well as gender norms that have outlined what it means to be a “true” black woman. Her behavior and body has been examined [and understood] through her direct contrast to white women, her role in supporting the white race
Maria W. Stewart was best known for being one of her era’s most effective anti-slavery activists. She was the earliest known American women to publicly lecture on political issues. She spoke out against victimization, tyranny, and injustice by delivering speeches and publishing essays. Although she only delivered few speeches, she is most famous for heroically doing so at Boston in the early 1830’s. This was a time when no women, regardless, of race dared to publicly address a crowd. Stewart can also be seen as a villain by her urge for blacks to exercise character and virtue equal to white standards, which may cause some controversy, and for struggling with sin before she fully committed herself to God. Through her works, “Stewart produced
African American women are perhaps the most vital and dynamic piece of American history. Both the free and enslaved were the mothers of generations of excellence who left a legacy of perseverance and power despite being objectified, degraded, and exploited for centuries. The Black woman has been discriminated against, her image destroyed yet she stands resilient. The right to choose when, where, and whom to share her body with meant to have control of her most valuable asset.
The author reflects about the lack of representation of black women in literature. And when they are mentioned, it is often as a way to reinforce false stereotypes and labels that have been associated with black women in general. The author aims to unearth the rationale behind this cliched image and hopes to redeem black women from these false allegations and return her to a position of respect that she deserves. The author argues that the cause of this ill representation dates back to the times when blacks were enslaved in America by white slaveholders.
In her seminal text, Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins codifies a vast literature on Black feminist thought to develop a coherent social theory. Collins draws from not only social scientific research, but literature, poetry, music and oral history. She highlights the existing exclusion and denial of intersection social identities and intersecting/overlapping systems and forms of domination experienced by sub-populations like Black women in America. Bringing together White myopia and Male myopia, the perspective of the Black feminist highlights that Black women are “set undeniably apart because of race and sex with a unique set of challenges” (Cleage 1993 as cited in Collins 2008).