Date of Award

2018

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Women's Studies and Gender Studies

Abstract

Black women experience multiple oppressions due to their gender and their race, and those oppressions are expounded when other social identities, such as class and sexual orientation, are considered. There have been many instances in history of social movements in which black women have fought against the many issues they face. For the purpose of this project, I am looking specifically at 1965 - 1985 to examine the ways in which black women organized against white supremacy and sexual violence. The two forms of oppression would have led black women activists into different organizations for black liberation and women's liberation-- two entities that often never overlapped. Looking at this specific period through the lives of Loretta Ross and Nkenge Touré, my research focuses on the ways in which black women reconciled tensions between the anti-rape and black liberation efforts? There are two parts to my inquiry that is focused on both anti-rape organizations and organizations for black liberation: if and how black liberation organizations addressed sexism, misogyny, and gender-based violence; if and how anti-rape organizations made room for addressing the racism and racialized sexism black women face. To that end, in what ways did black women organize each other during times they were told to remain silent?

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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