Black Feminism and Womanism

This chapter focuses on Black feminist and womanist thought and practice beginning with the formation of the Combahee River Collective 40 years ago, the Women's Liberation Committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Third World Women's Alliance in the context of the Third World liberation struggles of the period. Moreover, the story is told back in time to the nineteenth century and forward to twenty-first century articulations of Black feminism and Womanism. The chapter focuses on four key considerations in discussing Black feminism and Womanism: (i) The historical context of Black feminist thought expressing the idea that gender is complexly intersectional. Race and class shape gender and operate in deep relationality, and that simultaneity underpins the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, race, nation and class. That is all of these systems are in play at the same time; (ii) The historical context of Womanism which centers Black culture located in the lived experiences of Black women and in self-determination. Indeed, culture and spirituality are core to Womanist thinking and are foundational to its conceptualization; (iii) Resistance, positionality, reflection, and theorization are at the core of Black feminism historically and today; (iv) This theory-practice fuels the Black feminist and the Womanist commitment to social justice.