ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the following four major topics: the genesis of contemporary black feminism; what authors believe, i.e., the specific province of their politics; the problems in organizing black feminists, including a brief history of their collective; and black feminist issues and practice. A black feminist presence has evolved most obviously in connection with the second wave of the American women’s movement beginning in the late 1960s. Black feminist politics also have an obvious connection to movements for black liberation, particularly those of the 1960s and 1970s. Feminism is, nevertheless, very threatening to the majority of black people because it calls into question some of the most basic assumptions about our existence, i.e., that gender should be a determinant of power relationships. Many black women have a good understanding of both sexism and racism, but because of the everyday constrictions of their lives, cannot risk struggling against them both.
