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Review of "Want to Start a Revolution?" (NYU Press, 2009)
Monday, August 23, 2010
By: Caneisha Mills
For centuries, history was taught as the history of great, powerful,
elite men. While historical writing has become far more diverse in
recent yearsentire fields focus on cultural and social
transformations, as well as the history of women and oppressed
communitieson certain subjects the "Great Man" theory stubbornly
remains. One such arena is the Black Freedom Movement of the 1950s
and 1960s, which in schools across the country is either still
reduced to the tactics of a single individualMartin Luther King,
Jr.or at most a few other men.
The durability of this myth is not because of an absence of
literature. In fact, a considerable body of literature exists that
shatters the old myths of women as docile, provincial and
uninterested in politics. Charles Payne's 1995 "I've Got the Light of
Freedom" on the organizing of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee in the Mississippi Delta region proved just the opposite:
that women were "frequently the dominant force in the movement."
Belinda Robnett's "How Long? How Long? African-American Women in the
Struggle for Civil Rights" developed a theory that women functioned
as the unofficial "bridge leaders" in the southern movement,
providing the vital connection between the community and the official
organizational leadership.
These works helped promote a whole trendusually led by Black women
scholarson the experiences of women in the Black liberation,
feminist, and gay liberation movements. In addition, biographies and
autobiographies of key Black women activists have come out in recent
years, revealing a cast of new heroines and causing re-evaluation of
old ones. Anyone paying attention now knows that Rosa Parks was, for
instance, an experienced activist and organizer, not an apolitical
old woman who was just too physically tired to move to the back of the bus.
A recently published essay collection"Want to Start a Revolution:
Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle"continues this trend,
and expands it in several significant ways. For one, it challenges
the notion that the post-WWII Black liberation struggle can be
separated out into neat phases, which women experienced in completely
distinct ways. This runs counter to Payne and Robnett, who both
identified a certain southern community-based "organizing tradition"
that facilitated women's participation, particularly in SNCC. For
them, the turn towards Black Powerwhich appeared more masculinist
and hierarchicaltook such leadership and organizing opportunities
away from women.
Secondly, "Want to Start a Revolution" arguesthrough several
examples, including that of Rosa Parksthat women were not always
behind-the-scenes "bridge leaders," but often strategists, mentors,
theoreticians, and formal leaders. While it is critical to discuss
how sexism limited women's possibilities in the movement, the editors
argue that such an emphasis has actually obscured the leading
positions women were able to achieve. While few people today
recognize the names of Esther Cooper Jackson, Gloria Richardson,
Victoria "Vicki" Garvin, Shirley Graham DuBois, Florynce Kennedy,
Yuri Kochiyama, or Johnnie Tillmon, in their day many activists
sought their advice and assistance. They have rarely been mentioned
in the official history books.
Thirdly, the collection challenges the conception of Black feminism
that identifies it strictly with the creation of separate
organizations. While Black feminism is typically associated with the
Third World Women's Alliance and the Combahee River Collective, which
formed largely in reaction to racism and sexism within social justice
movements, "Want to Start a Revolution" highlights the critical roles
Black women played in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s within civil rights,
labor, left-wing and women's organizationsincluding majority-white
ones. In such history we can also discover the predecessors of what
was later called "Black feminism."
The collection covers 14 separate women leadersand admittedly leaves
out dozens of others. We offer below three examples of the activists included.
Not just 'Black Politics' (Vicki Garvin)
Contrary to popular belief, it fought against "machismo" and sexism
from within by the promotion of female leadership. Victoria "Vicki"
Ama Garvin destroys traditional views of Black women's participation
in the social justice movement. Garvin refused to be confined to any
particular issue. She participated actively in a range of justice
movements, believing all forms of oppression are integrally linked
and must be fought equally.
Garvin's political career began in the labor movement as a union
organizer. Even during the McCarthy era, she remained strong in her
struggle for equality and opportunity for female and Black workers.
In 1947, she joined the Communist Party and in 1951 became Executive
Secretary of the New York City chapter of the National Negro Labor Council.
As the anti-communist witchhunt gained momentum throughout the United
States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, it took a severe toll on
Garvin politically and personally. The growing anti-colonial
movements across Africa inspired many Black activists in the United
States and many decided to relocate to the continent during the 1950s
and 1960s. In the late 1950s, Garvin traveled through Africa, where
she witnessed first-hand the struggle against neocolonialism.
Settling in Ghana in 1961, Garvin drew upon her activist experience
to provide camaraderie and mentorship to other Black radicals.
With Malcolm X, who Garvin had known from Harlem, she referred to
herself as his "mother hen"marking her role "as knowledgeable elder
(a role long gendered male) within the [B]lack liberation movement,
mentoring a younger generation just as she had been mentored." (85)
Garvin actively participated in organizations garnering support for
China. During her visits to the country, she like many African
American activists felt a strong sense of solidarity to the
revolution there. Not only had China overthrown centuries of
colonialism and put the oppressed people in power, it explicitly
identified with and supported the Black liberation struggle in the
United States.
Upon her return to the United States in the 1970s, Garvin functioned
as an organizer and mentor for scores of activists in a whole variety
of social justice causes up until her death in 2007. As Dayo F. Gore
comments, "her distinct political legacy rests not in official titles
but in revolutionary experience and solidarity efforts that always
combined local organizing with a global vision." (73)
Black Power and the feminist movement (Florynce Kennedy)
Female Black leadership is often reduced to participation in one of
two struggles: Black liberation or the feminist movement. While both
are expressions of the same desire for equality, they are often
separated as two independent or even opposing struggles. The case of
Florynce Kennedy demonstrates otherwise. Although the most prominent
Black feminist of the 1960s and 1970sstruggling inside the National
Organization of Women and famous for dramatic in-your-face street
theater tacticsKennedy is virtually unknown today.
Rather than be trapped by the rigid theoretical labels that kept
various social movements divided, Kennedy promoted unity in action
between different groups, often inviting members of one to join the other.
Sherie M. Randolph explains that her gender never interfered with
participation in the Black Power movement. She writes, "Despite her
critiques of Black Power [for the political appeals to Black
masculinity] and her close relationship to the feminist struggle,
Kennedy continued to work inside the Black Power movement as a lawyer
for Black Power leaders H. Rap Brown and Assata Shakur, as a
fund-raiser for numerous Black Panther Party political campaigns, and
as an organizer and delegate of the Black Power Conferences." (225)
Kennedy used her experience within the Black liberation movement to
train and educate female leadership, particularly leaders of NOW. Now
leader Ti-Grace Atkinson, a white woman, reflected, "[Kennedy] had a
profound…influence…on some of us…we were observing and we copied
[Black leadership]" (236). Kennedy also fought tooth-and-nail against
the expressions of racism within the burgeoning feminist movement.
When Kennedy and Atkinson organized a "Black Power and Women" panel
for the New York NOW chapter, they found NOW leaders ignoring, and
even mocking, the statements and contributions by Black women. (239)
Kennedy and Atkinson's open identification with Black Power and their
desire to move NOW in a radical direction led to a split in the New
York Chapter's 1968 election. The proposals of Florynce Kennedy and
Ti-Grace Atkinson to radicalize the organization were overwhelmingly
defeated. Atkinson, who had become the chapter president, resigned
from the organization and was joined by Kennedy.
While Kennedy understood the need to work within varying movements,
she would not tolerate an organization that compromised or minimized
the oppression of Black people. As she explained, "Racism will always
be worse than sexism until we find feminists shot in bed like [Black
Panthers] Mark Clark and Fred Hampton" (229). This does not mean
Kennedy was in the business of weighing oppressionsshe actively
fought for gay rights, Black liberation, and women's equality.
Rather, she understood the historic and pivotal role of the Black struggle.
Upon leaving NOW, Kennedy remained an ardent fighteras she would be
for the rest of her life. She, Atkinson and others formed the October
17th Movement, which "reflected Kennedy's concern that the feminist
movement concentrate on the connections between sexism, imperialism
and racism" (242). She passed away in December 2000.
Asserting women's leadership (Denise Oliver)
The Young Lords Party was an organization formed in the late 1960s by
Puerto Rican youth who modeled their party on the principles and
structure of the Black Panther Party. Like the Panthers, they
advocated the self-defense and empowerment of the cities' most
oppressed urban communities, and put forward revolutionary socialism
as the path to liberation.
Although centered in the Puerto Rican community, the YLP membership
crossed ethnic and cultural lines, including non-Puerto Rican Latinos
and African Americans. Denise Oliver was one such African-American
woman, who joined the YLP after growing up in New York City's Puerto
Rican communities and after already been an activist briefly with SNCC.
From an early age, the importance of a unified revolutionary
movement was instilled in Oliver by her radical parents, who were
part of the Communist Party mileu. "A number of white leftists who
are red babies… had that kind of upbringing," she recalled. "I'm one
of the black red babies. And there were a few of us." (274)
The struggle to integrate New York City public schools in the 1950s
quickened young Oliver's political development. The North was often
categorized as a place of escape the treacherous racism of the
southern United States, but this was not the reality. New York City's
efforts to bus Black and Latino students to predominantly white areas
in Queens, for instance, sparked a massive racist response that
Oliver experienced first-hand. Oliver recalled getting off the bus to
see students fighting in the yard: "you could feel the hostility
immediately." (275)
As a young activist, Oliver sought out organizations that were
directly involved in the struggle against racism and exploitation.
While her parents were around the Communist Party, Oliver yearned for
more direct action. Her search for participatory politics led her to
various organizations, including SNCC and CORE. During an education
program in New York, Oliver joined the Sociedad de Albizu Campos.
This reading circle, named after the father of the Puerto Rican
national independence movement, Don Pedro Albizu Campos, would become
the New York chapter of the Young Lords Party.
Author Johanna Fernandez suggests that African-Americans, Panamanians
and other non-Puerto Rican members were not merely members of the YLP
"but were integral to its lifeblood." (282) Oliver was in fact the
first woman elected to its Central Committee. Her membership and
leadership within the organization reflected the organization's
belief that oppressed people of color in the United States had a
common struggle. While the capitalist class and its media like to
promote divisions between nationalities, groups like the YLP pointed
to common exploitation to advocate solidarity and mutual understanding.
In its beginnings, the YLP advocated "revolutionary machismo" in its
political program and women held no top leadership roles, but over
time the women members were able to challenge these shortcomings.
Oliver herself had not confined to a purely administrative role
within the Young Lords Party. This was in no small part due to her
upbringing. She recalled, "I didn't want to learn how to type because
I didn't want to be typecast." (285). She did not want to become
another secretary. She quickly gained knowledge of the organization
on the national level and learned the skills required for leadership
from other cadre within the Party. These attributes propelled her to
the Central Committee after women demanded representation in the
leading body of their organization.
Oliver's leadership within the Young Lord's Party did not eradicate
the problems of sexism within the organization; instead her role
opened the door for an open debate around female oppression in
society and within the party. Following Oliver's election, a women's
caucus was formed within the party to address these issues directly.
Oliver explained the complex problems of trying to overcome sexism:
"Part of the problem wasn't just that men automatically took the sort
of macho role, but [that] women were used to submissive behavior…and
weren't opening their mouths." (286) This orientation sparked the
publication of "La Luchadora," marked with the task of speaking to
women's issues within the organization and the oppression facing
women in the community as a whole.
Denise Oliver was one example of how the Black liberation movement
directly engaged with and helped nurture the movements of other
oppressed people. As an African American woman worker who helped lead
an organization focused in Puerto Rican communities, she proves what
is a central point of the overall book: that many revolutionary
activists and organizations defy the simple boxes that many
historians try to put them in.
How can we correct the history books?
Clearly, the history of the Black Freedom Struggle can only be
accurately told if it includes the leadership roles played by women.
Want to Start a Revolution joins an ever-growing body of literature
that disproves the "Great Man" descriptions of this era.
But if the information is out there and published, one must ask: Why
do such descriptionsin fact, mythscontinue to dominate? At a
certain point, the problem is not principally one of lacking
historical research. The way history is told is in fact a political problem.
Most high school textbooks will flatten the Black liberation struggle
to this or that leader, usually Martin Luther King, Jr. This leader's
more radical ideas will be stripped away and hefor it is always a
"he"will thus be converted into a safe, memorable icon. Malcolm X is
raisedif he is raised at allas the yin to Martin's yang, the
embittered and violent radical versus the "turn the other cheek" good
pacifist. This is a false history, and yet it still prevails.
It is the same problem with the history of women in the Black
liberation struggle (and many other struggles). The examples of
strong, leading, revolutionary womenespecially Black womensimply do
not conform to society's patriarchal and racist norms. As such, we
must carry out a political struggle today to demand our true history
be taughtand ultimately fight for a new system that puts workers and
oppressed people in control of educational institutions.
Setting the record straight will require something more than writing
history; it will require us to make it.
--
"Want to Start a Revolution: Radical Women in the Black Freedom
Struggle" (NYU Press, 2009) is edited by Dayo F. Gore, Jeanne
Theoharis, and Komozi Woodard.
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