African American Women And The Civil Rights Movement

Females across the nation started speaking out against gender inequality. Discrimination in areas such as the workplace, marriage, and government had become overwhelmingly obvious and women started fighting back (Banks 207). This uprising coincided with the Civil Rights Movement. During the same time, African-Americans were standing up against segregation and for racial equality. These two movements went hand-in-hand, as they both had similar motives. Both women and blacks were fighting against oppression in their own country, and they benefitted from each other’s successes. But it wasn’t strictly these two minority groups standing up for themselves during this time, as Mexicans and Native Americans joined the cause too. They also spoke out against inequality by hosting similar protests and demonstrations as the black and women’s rallies. This showed how the 1960’s were a popular time for minority groups to take a stand and make their voices heard, and women were only one of the many groups of people who rallied for change during that time.

Following the Civil War in the 1860s, African Americans were freed and given suffrage. However, following events such as Plessy v. Ferguson and the end of Reconstruction, much of what they gained was taken from them. African American leaders tried to earn them back in a number of different ways, but with similar goals in mind. Although African American leaders from the 1890s to the 1920s and from the 1950s to the 1960s had different strategies such as the Talented Tenth compared the March on Washington, both time period’s leader sought the same goals, namely suffrage and the end of segregation therefore, they are significantly different in strategy and majorly similar in goals.

Often times, women are excluded from history books and historical primary document sources. Women have just as much to say, if not more than men, especially during times where they were denied basic rights. Sojourner Truth, Amy Garvey, and Ella Baker were all African American activists for human rights; Truth and Garvey for women’s rights and Baker for African American rights. Each woman brings a new perspective to the movements and has great reasoning. During a time when women weren’t allowed to say much, they had a great amount to say.

Hull and Barbra Smith provided four issues that seem important for a consideration of the politics of Black women’s studies: “(1) the general political situation of Afro-American women and the bearing this has had upon the implementation of Black women’s studies; (2) the relationship of Black women’s studies to Black feminist politics and the Black feminist movement; (3) the necessity for Black women’s studies to be feminist, radical and analytical; and (4) the need for teachers of Black women’s studies to be aware or our problematic political positions in the academy and of the potentially conditions under which we must work” (Hull, Smith 187). These concepts are stepping stones to developing a better image for African American females. If society applied these, women would have a more even-chance to pursue what they believe in.

African-American women have often been an overlooked group with the larger context of American Society. Historically, oppression has been meted out to the African-American woman in two ways. Historically, everything afforded to African-American, from educational and employment opportunities to health care have been sub-par. As women they have been relegated even further in a patriarchal society that has always, invariably, held men in higher regard.

Across cultures and throughout history, women have experienced ongoing systemic oppression; and they have responded with progressive movements of protest and creative alternatives. Harriet Tubman in the fight against slavery: Fannie Lou Hamer for voting rights: Ella Baker and Mary White Ovington in the civil rights movement: Rosa Luxemburg in the German socialist movement: Winnie Mandela in the anti-apartheid movement: Puerto Rican independence leader and poet Lolita Lebron: and American Indian movement activists Anna Mae Aquash, Ingrid Washinawatok, and Winona LaDuke (Mink and Navarro). Women have pioneered in movements for labor rights, prison reform, reproductive rights and health, education, affordable housing, affirmative action and equal rights, human rights, and environmental safety. These women’s leadership styles span a range from soft to harsh, from wielding individual, hierarchical power to possessing a commitment to collectivism, and from identifying as “woman as caretaker of life” to woman as requiring and utilizing equal power to man. There is no one characteristic that applies to all women as social change leaders (Hurtado).

Women history is something that has had a vast amount of changes throughout the decades. Feminist have fought hard for women equal rights. As a collective we know that women aren’t valued as much as men, but it goes deeper than the idea of gender roles. It’s affected by the race of a women as well. In this case the African American women voice. These women weren’t only affected by equal rights for women but equal rights for blacks as well, so it was harder for them to speak out to get their voices heard. Most black women were silenced by society historically. One example of a black women voice being heard was Rosa Parks when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Rosa Parks didn’t conform to social norms of sitting in the back

At the height of the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968), women played a big part in not only keeping the crusade alive, but also played a big part in energizing the masses to continue the long and arduous struggle against the seemingly impenetrable institutions of power which disenfranchised African-Americans and regarded their humanity as nothing more than mere pieces of property owned by others. Women like Coretta Scott King, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Septima Clark and countless mothers, sisters, and daughters proved to be important

African American women advocate for social change in the Progressive Era by forming and participating in an organization that advocates for women suffrage, racial violence, and improvement of social conditions.

The civil rights movement broadened the definition of leadership to include women, and left an impression of women as powerful and determined activists. Jo An Robinson and Ella Baker are just two of the many women who were able to take charge and make an impact on the movement. Robinson led the Women’s Political Council, which plotted strategy for a one-day bus boycott in Montgomery following Rosa Parks’ arrest. The Council was able to recruit clergy to lend their churches for mass meetings and was able to tap into a new minister in town, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association, which would coordinate the larger Montgomery Bus Boycotts . It was the women that organized this key moment in the civil rights movement – which was, in fact, spurred by a woman, Rosa Parks, refusing to take her seat in the back of the bus. Ella Baker was similarly key in the Civil Rights movement. She was instrumental in organizing a conference of student sit-in activists in 1960, forming the beginning of what would become the SNCC. By educating and fostering leadership, Baker helped members to see themselves as potential leaders – regardless of race or gender. That does not mean that leadership in the

The gender bias found in relation to leadership in the civil rights movement often excludes African-American women’s contributions as being of less importance and prominence; however, in hindsight informal leaders were on equal level with formal leaders and bridge leaders served an important function resulting from exclusion.

The issue necessitating this empirical study I the low representation of African American women in Philadelphia in positions of power and leadership. Within the private and public sector of organizations within city agencies and businesses, there is still little representation of women-owned or led agencies within the City even though special consideration is given to women-led organizations. There are two African

Numerous groups throughout history have wrestled for equal rights and engaged in combat against oppressors. Both the American women’s suffrage movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s and the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s were examples of an oppressed group grappling with those above them for equality. Each group had to press for legislation that would protect them against inequality. Although the time periods of the women’s suffragette struggle and the African American Civil Rights endeavor were separate in history, the goals and methods of each were immensely similar.

The women’s movement began in the nineteenth century when groups of women began to speak out against the feeling of separation, inequality, and limits that seemed to be placed on women because of their sex (Debois 18). By combining two aspects of the past, ante-bellum reform politics and the anti-slavery movement, women were able to gain knowledge of leadership on how to deal with the Women’s Right Movement and with this knowledge led the way to transform women’s social standing (Dubois 23). Similarly, the movement that made the largest impact on American societies of the 1960’s and 1970’s was the Civil Right Movement, which in turn affected the women’s movement (Freeman 513). According to

In history, women have always struggled to gain equality, respect, and the same rights as men. Women had had to endure years of sexism and struggle to get to where we are today. The struggle was even more difficult for women of color because not only were they dealing with issues of sexism, but also racism. Many movements have helped black women during the past centuries to overcome sexism, racism, and adversities that were set against them. History tells us that movements such as the Feminist Movement helped empower all women, but this fact is not totally true. In this paper, I will discuss feminism, the movements, and its "minimal" affects on black women.