Black Women

Why This Temple Student Is Organizing A March For Black Women: ‘They Matter’

August 21, 2017 Sofiya Ballin, www.philly.com Organize! Black Women, Higher Education, March, Philadelphia, Student Activism

By Sofiya Ballin for Philly.com The message is fitting. It was Malcolm who said: “The most disrespected woman in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” Those words replay in Fenner’s head as she plans her first march, “A March for Black Women,” scheduled to take place Friday. Demonstrators will set out at 1 p.m. from City Hall to Cecil B. Moore Avenue to celebrate and highlight the diversity of black women and honor black women who were victims of police brutality. Fenner is spreading word of the march through social media and hopes to have a large turnout of women — and men. The 19-year-old Temple University sophomore and Philadelphia native said it’s to “celebrate black women for who they are and not what the media wants them to be.” “I’ve been to plenty of marches for black men who have been harassed or killed by police,” she said. “But when I went to one for Sandra Bland, it was very small.” In 2015, Bland, a 28-year-old black woman, died in police custody after being arrested during a traffic stop in Texas. Fenner also recalled that in 2016, Korryn Gaines, 23, was shot by police in her Baltimore home with her 5-year-old son close by. But, she said, “nobody was marching.”

The Combahee River Collective Statement

July 21, 2017 Staff, www.libcom.org Educate! Black Women, Feminism

By Staff of Lib Com - A 1977 statement by a black feminist group which is widely considered a foundational text of the 'intersectional' approach to identity politics, which emphasises multiple, simultaneous forms of oppression. We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974.1 During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and movements. The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives. As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face. We will discuss four major topics in the paper that follows: (1) the genesis of contemporary Black feminism; (2) what we believe, i.e., the specific province of our politics; (3) the problems in organizing Black feminists, including a brief herstory of our collective; and (4) Black feminist issues and practice.

‘Ain’t I A Woman’ March Highlights The Need For Black Women’s Voices Now

July 20, 2017 Taryn Finley, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Black Women, March, Women

By Taryn Finley for The Huffington Post - Organizers created the event to fill a void they felt was left by January’s Women’s March. More than 1,500 people gathered on Saturday to participate in a black women’s rights march in Sacramento. The march was organized by Black Women United, a non-profit organization “dedicated to the education, protection, and advancement of Black women.” BWU, founded in February, came up with the “Ain’t I A Woman” march as a way to include black women more in today’s women’s rights movement. The event was intended to uplift and empower black women while highlighting the multitude of issues affecting them. Imani Mitchell, one of the organizers, told HuffPost that the overwhelming whiteness of the Women’s March in January left many black women feeling as though the event wasn’t for them. “This event we had is kind of a response to the Women’s March back in January. More so, though, we just wanted to continue the conversation but with a focus on black women and black women’s issues,” Mitchell said.

Unsung Black Heroines Launched Modern Domestic Workers Movement

June 17, 2017 Premilla Nadasen, www.yesmagazine.org Organize! Black History, Black Women, History, Labor

By Premilla Nadasen for Yes! Magazine - In the late 1990s, household workers around the country began to organize to address the exploitation and abuse in their occupation. These domestic workers, immigrant nannies, housecleaners, and elder-care workers from all over the world—the Philippines, Barbados, Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, Indonesia, and Nepal—used public shaming strategies to draw attention to particularly egregious employers, sued for back pay, developed support groups, organized training and certificate programs, and lobbied for statewide domestic workers’ bills of rights. In building a movement, domestic workers used storytelling to connect workers with one another. Barbara Young, for example, a former nanny and an organizer with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, joined Domestic Workers United in New York City in the early 2000s. Young was in a park one day with the child she cared for when another household worker, Erline Brown, invited her to a DWU meeting in Brooklyn. “People were telling the stories about the work that they were doing, not getting vacation, not getting paid for holidays.,” she explained. “It was the first time I was hearing stories from workers coming together.”

Two Years After Sandra Bland, Justice For Wakiesha Wilson

April 10, 2017 Sikivu Hutchinson, www.thefeministwire.com Resist! Black Women, police brutality, Sandra Bland

By Sikivu Hutchinson for The Feminist Wire - In July 2015, African American activist Sandra Bland died in police custody after challenging a white officer who stopped her for an alleged lane change violation. Bland’s death generated national exposure for the high rate of suspicious police custody deaths among African Americans (Bland was one of five black female policy custody deaths that July). Like Bland, the majority of black women who die in police custody have been detained for minor, non-violent offenses. Nationwide, one in nineteen black women will be incarcerated during their lifetimes for nonviolent offenses—four times the rate of white women—placing them at even greater risk of being re-victimized in prison.

Why Are Police So Afraid Of Bold, Black Women Like Korryn Gaines?

August 10, 2016 Sonali Kolhatkar, www.truthdig.com Resist! Black Women, Korryn Gaines, Police

By Sonali Kolhatkar for Truth Dig - The brutal death of a 23-year-old African-American woman named Korryn Gaines has sparked yet another much-needed conversation in the United States about the use of lethal force by police and its disproportionate impact on blacks. Gaines was killed in her Maryland home by Baltimore County police, who had issued a warrant for her arrest over charges stemming from a traffic violation and her failure to appear in court. The young mother was armed with a shotgun that she apparently pointed at police, although they fired first.

Black Lives Matter Activists March For Safety Of Women

June 1, 2016 Alex Garland, www.thedignityvirus.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Girls, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Black Women, Safety

By Alex Garland for The Dignity Virus - Weeks after a lawsuit was filed against Jared Williams, a Tacoma police officer, by 17 year old Monique Tillman, approximately 100 activists marched in protest of police violence. The “Black Girls Matter” rally and march was was attended by a spectrum of races and cultures. Security was provided by armed and unarmed members of the New Black Panthers. Family members of Jacqueline Salyers, a Puyallup Tribal member who was shot and killed by Tacoma Police in January were also in attendance

Women Farmers & Land Grabs In Haiti: An Interview

February 19, 2016 Beverly Bell, www.otherworldsarepossible.org Resist! Black Women, Farming, Haiti, Land Rights

By Beverly Bell for Other Worlds - In Haiti, the majority of the people working the land are women. Not only are they there during planting, weeding and harvesting, but they also play a role in transforming and marketing food products. They’re involved in the entire agricultural production process. This is why we call women the poto mitan, central pillar, of the country. When a family is dispossessed of its land, women are victims. Rural women are the first to feel the pain.

Why Are Black Girls And Women Dying In Police Custody?

February 9, 2016 Tasasha Henderson, www.truth-out.org Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Girls, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Black Women, police brutality

By Tasasha Henderson for Truthout - Gynna McMillen was brought into the Lincoln Village Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, on January 10, 2016, after police were called to her mother's house about a "domestic incident." The next morning she was found unresponsive in a cell. What happened to her? Why is she dead after less than 24 hours in the detention facility? These are questions being asked by Gynna's family and others concerned about the deaths of Black people in police custody.

BYP100 Agenda To Build Black Futures, Economic Justice Plan

January 17, 2016 Staff, www.byp100.org Strategize! Black Trans People, Black Trans Women, Black Women, Divestment, New Economy, Prisons, Racism, Reparations

By Staff for BYP100. As people across the world celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and take action to reclaim his legacy of radicalism, the Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) announces its upcoming release of the Agenda to Build Black Futures. The Agenda to Build Black Futures, the organization’s second public policy agenda, is a platform for young activists seeking to create a new economy where young Black people can thrive. “For Black people living in America, there is no economic justice without racial justice. We live in a country that tells us that not all of us deserve to breathe, eat well or have access to water,” says BYP100 National Director Charlene Carruthers. We understand that Dr. King’s personal revolution sparked his commitment to economic justice. In doing so, a wider target was placed on his back. His last days were spent among street sanitation workers demanding dignity and fair pay for their work.

National Black Women’s Economic Plan Would Better All Workers’ Rights

November 26, 2015 Chaumtoli Huq, www.lawatthemargins.com Educate! Black Women, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Chaumtoli Huq for Law At The Margins - In all measures, including health, education, and economic security, black women in the United States fare worse than other women, as detailed by the Center for American Progress. Black women earn 63 cents on the dollar in comparison to the 79 cents for white women as revealed by a study by the American Association of University Women. Linda Burnham, National Research Director of National Domestic Workers Alliance, in Gender and Black Jobs Crisis, has written that this pay gap can be attributed to the over representation of black women in low wage jobs such a health care, fast food and retail sales: often concentrated at double or triple the rate of their share of the workforce.

We Are The Solution: African Women Organize Land & Seed Sovereignty

November 7, 2015 Simone Adler and Beverly Bell, www.otherworldsarepossible.org Create! Black Women, Food and Agriculture

By Simone Adler and Beverly Bell for Another World, In the agricultural sphere, development rests in the hands of the women, and their role is being proven repeatedly. We Are the Solution raises awareness and consciousness, key to changing the mentality of the people, on the importance of women in family farming and agricultural production. Women are the primary workers of the land and the majority of the workforce in agriculture, involved in every step of agricultural production: in the fields, 70% of African agriculture is done by women; in conservation, women are the ones making efforts to conserve the native seeds; in animal husbandry; in food processing; in marketing; in selling food at the local level; and as consumers.

Black Lives Matter Takes Back The Night & Shuts Down Toronto

September 30, 2015 Al Donato, www.huffingtonpost.ca Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Black Women, Canada

By Al Donato in The Huffington Post - Black lives were the focus at Take Back The Night on Saturday, an event that shut down Toronto streets and highlighted sexual violence. Hundreds rallied against police brutality and in solidarity with marginalized black lives, with particular attention to the lives of black individuals who are cis women, trans, queer, on the gender spectrum, with disabilities, and are sex workers. Take Back The Night, an international feminist event since 1976, has featured protests, marches and vigils against sexual violence. For this year’s 35th annual protest, the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre (TRCC)/Multicultural Women Against Rape partnered with Black Lives Matter Toronto Coalition for the theme “All Black Lives Matter: Black Communities Take Back the Night.”

Centering Black Women’s Experiences Of Police Violence

September 21, 2015 Andrea J. Ritchie, www.truth-out.org Educate! #SayHerName, Black Women, police brutality

By Andrea J. Ritchie in Truth Out - While what happened to Sandra Bland was extraordinary in some respects, it was commonplace in many. A day after Bland's death, another Black woman, 18-year-old Kindra Chapman, was found dead in police custody. A total of five cases of Black women dying in police custody, including Bland and Chapman, surfaced the same month. They were preceded by many more, including Sheneque Proctor, Kyam Livingston and Natasha McKenna. The cause of death varies - apparent suicide, failure to provide necessary medical attention, violence at the hands of police officers - but ultimately, no matter the circumstances, these women's deaths are also a product of the policing practices that landed them in police custody in the first place: racial profiling, policing of poverty, and police responses to mental illness and domestic violence that frame Black women as deserving of punishment rather than protection, of neglect rather than nurturing.

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