By Black Feminists, For Black Feminists
In an old building in downtown Los Angeles, California on February 21, 2020 members of the PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation) gathered together and chattered before the beginning of the black history workshop. There are pictures set up around the room of iconic black figures: Assata Shakur, Claudia Jones, Nina Simone, Audrey Lorde, and Malcolm X.
Suddenly, the room is silenced by the loud banging of drums. Nina Simone's voice bleeds over the quiet with her "Strange Fruit". The attention of the room is now on the assembly. “Do you know who this is?” A voice from behind the room shouts. This was the first time the question was asked that evening, but it wasn't the last. As a picture of each woman fills a projection screen the room is left in a short reflection of the description of each activist, and the audience is left on the edge of their seats.
The night continued with a timeline of the impact of black feminism in the United States and internationally. Kayla Hewitt, keynote speaker of the evening, educated audiences on abolitionist Sojourner Truth and her journey as she fought for freedom, women’s rights and black liberation.
Working her way through the timeline, Hewitt also discussed the disconnect of black women from their bodies throughout time as they were often used as "factories" to make labor and reproduce more free labor. The timeline also touched on the intersectionality that affects black women in their search of their identity and place in society. For example, in the late 1800’s, white women fought to work outside of the home as black women fought to work less for more, since they had already been working hard for nothing.
Hewitt closed with a little-known fact about Rosa Parks' fight for liberation: Claudette Colvin, who was 15 years old and 9-months pregnant in 1955 when refused to give up her seat to a white person, performed her act of civil disobedience before Parks. Her story remained untold because the NAACP didn’t feel as though an unwed teenage mother would be suitable for their part of the movement.
Hewitt also broke down the broadness of the phrase black feminism. "Black feminism has encompassed a variety of perspectives. A large number of them utilize class consciousness and socialist threads to analyze the place of black feminism both as identity and as workers, and while this specific intersection of class, race, and gender shape and affect the lives of black women and their place in society." Though it is a term that casts a wide net, many historical figures fall under it.
This includes Claudia Jones, a Tranidadian activist who was the leading member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and whose core values were the liberation of black people and women alike. Civil rights activist and legendary pianist Nina Simone, who used her music to create a legacy of black empowerment, liberation and passion serves as her own branch of black female liberation. Lorde, the self-proclaimed feminist, poet, socialist and mother who fought tirelessly through her teaching and organizing of oppressed peoples is her own definition of feminism for black women. These women show the civil work that has been done in the past and inspire the work for feminist leaders ahead.
PSL will be concluding their black history workshops with Black Radical History: Liberation is a Global Struggle on February 28 at 2936 W. 8th St, Los Angeles, CA. The workshop is free to the public.
A speaker discussing about the historical roots of capitalism, feminism and racial discrimination and how it affects us in contemporary times. Held in downtown Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. Feb. 21, 2020. (Vashti Carrion/ The Corsair)