Black Feminism and Womanism

BLACK FEMINISM & WOMANISM

Black women have contributed to the fight for liberation and justice since the advent of slavery. History reveals that many a Black mammy’s bosom supplied more than hugs; if Makandal provided the poison, mammies delivered the doses. Women like Mary Elizabeth Bowser have been fearless in their dedication to freedom, using their marginalised positions as a tool of subterfuge and intelligence gathering. In the British context, women like Dido Elizabeth Belle influenced important figures while others like Mary Prince provided shocking testimony against slavery. In more recent history, women like Margaret Busby and Olive Morris were pioneering in making a space for Black voices and championing Civil Rights. On this page you'll find a selection of some of the works of Black women who have fought for social justice and theorised methods of collective resistance and survival. The sources listed here are merely an introduction to a rich area of study.

Bartlett, Katherine. Feminist Legal Theory: Readings in Law and Gender. New York: Routledge, 1991.

Also available via Internet Archive.

Brooks, Kinitra D. Searching for Sycorax: Black Women's Hauntings of Contemporary Horror. Rutgers University Press: 2017.

Brooks, Kinitra D. and Martin, Kameelah L. (eds). The Lemonade Reader: Beyoncé, Black Feminism and Spirituality. Routledge: 2001.

Bryan, Brian, Dadzie, Stella, and Scafe, Suzanne. Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain. London/New York: Verso, 2018.

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé. On Intersectionality: Essential Writings. The New Press: 2022.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé and African American Policy Forum. #SayHerName: Black Women’s Stories of State Violence and Public Silence. Haymarket Books: 2023.

Davis, Angela. Women, Race and Class. Penguin Books: 1981.

Gafney, Wilda C. Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne. Westminster John Knox Press. 2017.

Hobson, Janell. “Viewing in the Dark: Toward a Black Feminist Approach to Film.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 30. 1/2 (2002): 45–59.

hooks, bell. Ain't I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism. Pluto Press: 1981.

hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Pluto Press: 1984.

hooks, bell. Reel to Real: Race, Class, and Sex at the Movies. New York: Routledge, 1996.

James, Joy, and Sharpley-Whiting, T.D. (eds). The Black Feminist Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.

Lorde, Audre. Zami; Sister Outsider; Undersong. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993.

McCutcheon, Priscilla. “‘When and Where I Enter,’: The National Council of Negro Women, Black Women’s Organizing Power, and the Fight to End Hunger.” Annals of the American Association of Geographer 112. 8, (2022): 2486–2500.

McInnis, Jarvis C. “Black Women’s Geographies and the Afterlives of the Sugar Plantation.” American Literary History 31. 4 (2019): 741–74.

Mirza, Heidi S. Black British Feminism: A Reader. London: Routledge, 1997.

Mirza, Heidi S. "'A Vindication of the Rights of Black Women’: Black British Feminism Then and Now" in The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Race and Gender, Eds. Shirley A. Tate and Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.

Thomlinson, Natalie. Race, Ethnicity and the Women's Movement in England, 1968-1993. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose. Harcourt Brace, 1983.

Walker, Malea. "Sojourner Truth's Most Famous Speech". Library of Congress Blogs. 7 April 2021.

Wane, Njoki N. and Massaquoi, Notisha (eds). Theorizing Empowerment: Canadian Perspectives on Black Feminist Thought. Toronto: Inanna Publications and Education, 2007.

Waters, Kristin, and Conaway, Carol B. (eds). Black Women's Intellectual Traditions: Speaking Their Minds. Burlington: University of Vermont Press, 2007.

"Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet."

John Lewis