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Women's roles during the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement and women
Civil rights movement and women
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Social justice organizing has the main goal of eliminating oppression; thus, the Black Panther Party aimed to challenge oppressions seen in the US during the 1960s and 1970s through gender, race, and class. However, their practices did not always follow through with their proposed theory. As a former female member of the Party explains, “[W]e could talk about this stuff [gender and sexism]. We could talk about it just as we talked about capitalism and imperialism. But I don’t know that we internalized it” (Matthews 248). Thus, she acknowledged that discussions between members surrounding gender and sexism occurred; yet, the contradictions between the theory and the practices of the BPP still remained throughout. This translated to women in …show more content…
Yet, as the movement begins to develop more of an organizational structure, women are seen to fade out of the picture and often do not reemerge until declining phases of the movement, when personal costs tend to be high” (Blumberg 134). A key example cited by Blumberg is of Ella Baker, an NAACP activist, who was asked to assume the administrative duties of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SNCC) until someone with qualified credentials could shoulder the position; however, as Blumberg notes, those credentials were “male” and “minister” although Baker possessed the experience and ability to retain the position (Blumberg 134). Likewise, despite the significant role that women activists such as Diane Nash, a Nashville sit-in leader, played in the SNCC as well as the crucial contributions that they made, “no woman was elected to the top leadership post in SNCC” (Blumberg
One of the most influential leaders of the African American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr., stated in a letter from Birmingham Jail: “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights.they were in reality standing up for what is best the American dream”(75). In the document written by Casey Hayden and Mary King, they discuss how there are many similarities between the way African Americans were being treated and the way women were being treated. These women go on to say that people aren’t discussing these issues enough socially to give them adequate importance. All of these advocates for both movements chose to voice their concerns and opinions through writing or speaking to groups rather than through violence. They were parallel in this sense because they thought this was the most effective way to get the message across to America.
Women in the Civil War and how they contributed to the war effort Women played an important role throughout American history. They were known in the Civil War to be doing various acts. Women had enlisted in the army as soldiers, spied and gathered information about the enemy, took care of wounded soldiers, traveled and helped within the military camps and even took over their husbands’ businesses. There were many things that they did to contribute to the war just as much as the men did. Even though it was dangerous they still helped whether it was on the battlefield, in a hospital, or at home, they still tried to help out the best they could.
In the weekly readings for week five we see two readings that talk about the connections between women’s suffrage and black women’s identities. In Rosalyn Terborg-Penn’s Discontented Black Feminists: Prelude and Postscript to the Passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, we see the ways that black women’s identities were marginalized either through their sex or by their race. These identities were oppressed through social groups, laws, and voting rights. Discontented Black Feminists talks about the journey black feminists took to combat the sexism as well as the racism such as forming independent social clubs, sororities, in addition to appealing to the government through courts and petitions. These women formed an independent branch of feminism in which began to prioritize not one identity over another, but to look at each identity as a whole. This paved the way for future feminists to introduce the concept of intersectionality.
Women, Race and Class is the prolific analysis of the women's rights movement in the United States as observed by celebrated author, scholar, academic and political activist. Angela Y. Davis, Ph.D. The book is written in the same spirit as Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. Davis does not merely recount the glorious deeds of history. traditional feminist icons, but rather tells the story of women's liberation from the perspective of former black slaves and wage laborers. Essential to this approach is the salient omnipresent concept known as intersectionality.
Susan B. Anthony was an equal rights activist and one of the founders of feminism. She was fined $100 for voting illegally in the 1872 election. She was outraged by this, and traveled the country speaking on women’s suffrage and equal rights. Though women weren’t given the right to vote until 14 years following her death, she delivered a powerful speech, now known as “Women’s Right to Suffrage” to express her anger with the lack of rights in this country. She argues that “we that people” isn’t just inclusive to white men, and that both men and women should be given equal opportunity. Today, Ms. Anthony’s words still echo into the hearts and minds of fourth wave feminists, like myself, and inspire them to continue fighting against inequality
The Party’s fight for redistribution of wealth and the establishment of social, political and social equality across gender and color barriers made it one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militantly struggle for working class liberation and ethnic minorities (Baggins, Brian). The Black Panther Party set up a ten-point program much like Malcolm X’s Nation of Islam that called for American society to realize political, economic and social equal opportunity based on the principles of socialism, all of which was summarized by the final point: "We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace" (Newton, Huey P). The Black Panther Party wanted to achieve these goals through militant force. In the words of Che Guevara, “Words are beautiful, but action is supre...
The civil rights movement saw one of it’s earliest achievements when The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) (founded in 1909), fought to end race separation in the case of Brown Vs. The Board of Education. The court thereby rejected the “separate but equal” doctrine and overturned the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson. Public schools were finally integrated in the Fall of 1955.
What does “movement” mean? There are many definitions for the word. In this case, I am referring to a political meaning. Movement is a series of organized activities working toward an objective. There have been many groups in history to start up movements throughout the decades. One that stands out to me the most is the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Women’s movements are led by powerful, courageous women who push to better the lives’ of women or lives’ of others. Most familiar movements are those involved in politics, in efforts to change the roles and status of womanhood in society. Groups of women also attempt to improve lives of others with the help of religious and charitable activities. Either it was a political, religious, or charitable women’s movement, each woman of each group have made an impact on today’s view of women and achieved greater political involvement.
Baker, Ella. A. Developing Leadership among Other People in Civil Rights. The American Women's Movement, 1945-2000. A Brief History with Documents. Comp.
Women had been “denied basic rights, trapped in the home [their] entire life and discriminated against in the workplace”(http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/). Women wanted a political say and wanted people to look at them the way people would look at men. in 1968, many women even protested the Miss America Beauty Pageant because it made it look that women were only worth their physical beauty. A stereotyped image was not the only thing they fought, “Women also fought for the right to abortion or reproductive rights, as most people called it” (http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/). These were the reason why the Women started the Women’s Liberation. African Americans, however, had different causes. After almost a century after the Emancipation Proclamation, black men are still being treated unfairly. They were being oppresed by the so-called “Jim Crow” laws which “barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures” (http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/). They wanted equal rights, equal facilities and equal treatment as the whites. This unfairness sparked the African American Civil Right’s Movement. This unfairness was seen in the Women’s Liberation as well. Both were treated unfairly by the “superior”. Both wanted equal rights, from the men or whites oppressing them. They both wanted equal treatment and equal rights. During the actual movement
In the text, “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans,” the authors mention that the Black Panthers were more focused on black men then woman, who they saw as inferior and wanted men “who can control”. On the other hand in “ A Huey P. Newton Story”, the Black Panthers are described as a party based on a group or a whole not one gender over the other; however, it does emphasize that the leaders were male. No matter one’s observation of the attitudes of the party in “The Ten Point Plan”, there is no separation by gender when it explains the wants of the party but only a whole community. The message of sticking together is very clear throughout the plan as words such as, “We” and “people” are used in almost every point to exaggerate the idea that the plan will only work if everyone is
Nearly all of the problems the Black Panther Party attacked are the direct descendants of the system which enslaved Blacks for hundreds of years. Although they were given freedom roughly one hundred years before the arrival of the Party, Blacks remain victims of White racism in much the same way. They are still the target of White violence, regulated to indecent housing, remain highly uneducated and hold the lowest position of the economic ladder. The continuance of these problems has had a nearly catastrophic effect on Blacks and Black families. Brown remembers that she “had heard of Black men-men who were loving fathers and caring husbands and strong protectors.. but had not known any” until she was grown (105). The problems which disproportionatly affect Blacks were combatted by the Party in ways the White system had not. The Party “organized rallies around police brutality against Blacks, made speeches and circulated leaflets about every social and political issue affecting Black and poor people, locally, nationally, and internationally, organized support among Whites, opened a free clinic, started a busing-to prisons program which provided transport and expenses to Black families” (181). The Party’s goals were to strengthen Black communities through organization and education.
In Gender, Class, Race, and Reform in the Progressive Era, twelve scholars in separate essays examine the role of gender in Progressive era reform. More specifically, these scholars attempt to explain how gender was defined, used for reform efforts, and complicated and augmented by race and class during the Progressive era. In the view of the essays presented here, the key to gender during this period is the communities of women that organized around a particular set of issues to enact intentionally far-reaching reform. It becomes clear, however, that women Progressives were less successful in certain areas based on their inability to build consensus beyond a supposed common identity as women; that to be an African-American woman or a working-class
The focus of The Women’s Liberation Movement was idealized off The Civil Rights Movement; it was founded on the elimination of discriminary practices and sexist attitudes (Freeman, 1995). Although by the 1960s women were responsible for one-third of the work force, despite the propaganda surrounding the movement women were still urged to “go back home.” However the movement continued to burn on, and was redeveloping a new attitude by the 1970s. The movement was headed by a new generation that was younger and more educated in politics and social actions. These young women not only challenged the gender role expectations, but drove the feminist agenda that pursued to free women from oppression and male authority and redistribute power and social good among the sexes (Baumgardner and Richards, 2000).
Standley, Anne. "The Role of Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement." Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941-1965. By Vicki L. Crawford, Jacqueline Anne. Rouse, and Barbara Woods. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Pub., 1990. 183-202. Print.