The Long Struggle for Black Lives: Shades of Female Activism 1960-2015

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel will explore women’s activism against the backdrop of the Black Freedom Struggle from 1960 to the present. A review of the literature reveals black women worked within their communal, organizational, religious and political centers, often providing fundamental leadership and educational support. As such, the presenters will examine how black women developed various “shades” of resistance to hegemonies. Utilizing evidence from sites in the Atlanta metropolitan area, Asantewa Sunni-Ali will theorize “African-centered Black Nationalist mothering” as a replicable counter-performance and resistance strategy to dominant narratives about Black children (and thus Black communities) in the US. Christy Garrison-Harrison will reexamine the paradigm of male-centered leadership within the civil rights movement, including the narratives of three Atlanta women. She will describe how their roles as educators, organizers, and political workers exemplified indigenous models that ultimately led to meaningful social change at local and national levels. Nafeesa Muhammad will argue that women in the Nation of Islam were not solely mothers, wives, and teachers but they participated as captains, managers, and directors within its infrastructure. She will further contend that the NOI could not be sustained without their contributions. Kenja McCray will explore motivations for women’s cultural-nationalist activism in Kawaida-influenced groups. Expounding upon a recurring theme in their self-narratives, McCray will discuss how many came of age during the Black Campus and Black Studies Movements extending core tenets into various communities. Taken together, these varied tones of Black women’s activism exemplify dynamic resistive strategies within the Black Freedom Struggle.

Sub Unit

• ASALH Centennial Annual Meeting and Conference

Chair

• Linda Diane Tomlinson, Fayetteville State University

Individual Presentations

• "'How We Gon’ Make A Black Nation Rise?' Theorizing 'African-Centered Mothering' in New Afrika” - Asantewa Sunni-Ali, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

• “Transformative Politicized Activist Leadership in Atlanta, Georgia, 1964-1974: Dorothy Bolden, Ella Mae Brayboy and Pearlie Dove” - Christy Garrison-Harrison, Clark Atlanta University

• “'Education Didn't Mean a Degree, It Means How We Serve Our Race and All Humanity': Women’s Cultural Nationalist Activism and the Campus-Community Connection, 1967-1981” - Kenja R McCray, Atlanta Metropolitan State College

• "'Nothing without a Woman or a Girl:' Women in the Nation of Islam, 1960-1975" - Nafeesa Haniyah Muhammad, Georgia State University

Commentator

• Natanya Duncan, Lehigh University