Fragmented Movements, Unified Resistance: Black Women at the Intersection of Race and Gender in Black Power and Women’s Liberation Open Access
Black, Kennedie (Spring 2026)
Abstract
This thesis examines how Black women activists navigated, experienced, and responded to the Black Power and Women’s Liberation movements, both of which prioritized a single axis of identity while often overlooking the intersection of race and gender. Addressing the question of how Black women engaged in social justice spaces that were not built to represent the entirety of their dual identity, this project argues that Black women confronted identity-based fragmentation and, in doing so, relied on distinct forms of activism grounded in unity, community, and self-determination. Historical narratives have largely overlooked the emotional, psychological, and political costs to Black women’s activism; subsequently, failing to recognize their refusal to capitulate to the fragmentation of both their identities and their inclusion within liberation initiatives. My research is rooted in an interdisciplinary methodology supplemented with Black feminist theory and the memoirs, oral histories, essays, and speeches from Black women activists during these liberation movements, allowing for a close analysis of firsthand accounts interpreted by theory from an intersectional experience. The results of this thesis finds that Black women were simultaneously essential to liberation initiatives while being overwhelmingly marginalized within them. Ultimately, this thesis reframes Black women as not merely contributors to activism but as complex individuals whose experiences reshaped the very meaning and appearance of political resistance, foregrounding Black women’s activism as one that evolved to center unification: developing innovative forms of resistance that emphasized community care, self-determination, and independence all rooted in the refusal to choose between race and gender.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1
Methodology..............................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 1: “A SLAVE OF A SLAVE”
The Role of Black Women in Black Power..................................................................................9
“a black, ugly, evil you-know-what”....................................................................................... 11
“the original sin”......................................................................................................................20
“at best, irrelevant”.................................................................................................................. 25
“race traitors”...........................................................................................................................29
In Conclusion….......................................................................................................................33
CHAPTER 2: “LIMITED SISTERHOOD”
Black Women, Marginalization, and the Limits of Women’s Liberation...............................35
“no exact parallel”....................................................................................................................39
“a white girl thing”...................................................................................................................42
“nothing to fall back on”..........................................................................................................47
Economic Concerns........................................................................................................... 49
Family Structure.................................................................................................................52
Female Separatism.............................................................................................................55
In Conclusion….......................................................................................................................59
CHAPTER 3: “WHEN ONE HAS TO DO SOMETHING, ONE DOES IT”
Black Women Beyond the Margins of Feminism and Activism.............................................. 62
“who I should be”.................................................................................................................... 64
“Black female spheres of influence”........................................................................................70
“smart bitches”: Elaine Brown and Institutional Transformation......................................73
“they're going to grow up different from us”: Dorothy Pittman Hughes and Group
Survival..............................................................................................................................86
In Conclusion….......................................................................................................................95
CONCLUSION
“ask not what Black women can do for you, but what you can do for them”........................96
BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................................100
About this Honors Thesis
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