History books and news headlines don't always focus on the stories of black women, but they've always been central to the struggle for freedom and equality. The 1970s was a defining decade for contemporary black feminism. African American women, across a diversity of fields, stepped forward to demand that attention be paid to the double burden of being black and female, a complex identity often overlooked. That's all it means to be a black feminist to me is that black women and girls get to be the centers of the story for once.
The only people who care enough about our liberation to fight for us is us. Influential writers from Angela Davis to Alice Walker and Toni Morrison wrote about gender within the context of race. Their sophisticated powerful stories centered upon the concerns of black women and gave readers throughout the world a window onto their experiences. Shaped by the work of this generation of feminists, legal scholar Kimberly Crenshaw introduced the term intersectionality in 1989. She asked us to think about different experiences of womanhood or different experiences of being black and then to try to build policies and movements that address all of those moving pieces.
In 2015, intersectionality was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Crenshaw's concept is spread in influence, inspiring political action from Black Lives Matter to the Me Too movement. Black feminists continue their important work, focusing attention on the intersections of race, gender, sexual orientation, and class.