# data[].attributes.body
Hello, my name is David Suggs, and I am a senior at the University of Texas at San Antonio. I major in Sociology and my minor is African-American Studies. Welcome to my Padlet about the Black Queer Feminism movement. After exploring a variety of themes and topics in African-American studies, I was inspired to discover more about the subject matter, and also celebrate the human beings who have been leaders and contributors in this community. I will post a variety of media, including art, visuals, and literature from figures involved with the movement.

# data[].attributes.body
Perhaps no organization was more influential in establishing Black feminist principles than the Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist lesbian organization active in Boston from 1974 to 1980. Named after a Civil War raid led by Harriet Tubman that freed over 700 enslaved people, the collective represented a new kind of political organizing.

The Combahee River Collective Statement, published in 1977, became one of the most important documents in Black feminist history. The statement articulated several groundbreaking ideas that would influence generations of activists and scholars.

First, it explicitly connected personal experiences to political analysis, arguing that Black women’s lived experiences were a valid source of knowledge about oppression and resistance. Second, it introduced the concept of “identity politics”—the idea that those who experience particular forms of oppression are best positioned to understand and fight against those oppressions.

The collective also emphasized the interconnectedness of various forms of oppression, arguing that racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism were interlocking systems that couldn’t be addressed in isolation. This systemic analysis would later influence academic disciplines, policy discussions, and activist strategies across many movements.

# data[].attributes.body
Alice Walker, the acclaimed author of “The Color Purple,” introduced the concept of “womanism” in the early 1980s as an alternative to feminism that better reflected Black women’s experiences. Walker defined a womanist as someone who loves other women sexually and/or nonsexually, appreciates women’s culture and strength, and is committed to the survival of entire communities, both male and female.

Walker’s womanism emphasized several key points that distinguished it from mainstream feminism. First, it celebrated Black women’s strength and resilience rather than focusing primarily on their victimization. Second, it recognized the importance of community and family ties, acknowledging that Black women couldn’t simply reject relationships with Black men who were also facing racial oppression. Third, it incorporated spirituality and connection to nature as important elements of women’s liberation.

Through her novels, essays, and activism, Walker demonstrated how literature could serve as a vehicle for Black feminist thought, showing how creative expression and political analysis could reinforce each other.

# data[].attributes.body
Audre Lorde was a self-described “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” whose work laid the foundation for Black queer feminism. Through her poetry, essays, and activism, Lorde spoke unapologetically about race, gender, sexuality, and power. Her groundbreaking works, such as Sister Outsider and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, articulated the necessity of recognizing intersecting identities and rejecting single-issue politics. She championed self-definition, the radical power of difference, and the use of poetry as a tool for resistance. Lorde’s voice remains a cornerstone of Black queer feminist thought, urging generations to see self-care as an act of political warfare.

# data[].attributes.body
hooks was an influential American author, feminist theorist, and cultural critic, known for her work exploring the intersections of race, gender, and class. She is important for her contributions to feminist theory, particularly her focus on the experiences of Black women and her concept of "imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" as a system of interlocking oppressions. Her work also emphasized the importance of love, community, and education in dismantling systems of domination. hooks‘ legacy lies in her groundbreaking work that challenged existing power structures, promoted inclusivity, and highlighted the transformative potential of love, community, and education.

# data[].attributes.body
Angela Davis is a revolutionary scholar, activist, and former Black Panther whose work has continuously evolved to include Black queer feminist perspectives. While initially known for her leadership in prison abolition and Marxist feminist analysis, Davis’s later work has explicitly acknowledged the role of Black queer women in social movements. She has written extensively on the importance of intersectionality in dismantling oppressive systems, as seen in her books Women, Race, & Class and Freedom Is a Constant Struggle. Davis also connected feminism to prison abolition, capitalism, and global struggles for liberation, arguing that mass incarceration is a feminist issue. She was instrumental in introducing abolitionist feminism, which critiques carceral systems as tools of racial and gendered oppression. Davis’s commitment to radical liberation has influenced countless activists and remains central to contemporary Black queer feminist thought.

# data[].attributes.body
Kimberlé Crenshaw teaches Civil Rights and other courses in critical race studies and constitutional law. Her primary scholarly interests center around race and the law, and she was a founder and has been a leader in the intellectual movement called Critical Race Theory. She was elected Professor of the Year by the 1991 and 1994 graduating classes. She now splits her time each year between UCLA and the Columbia School of Law.

At the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she received her LL.M., Professor Crenshaw was a William H. Hastie Fellow. She then clerked for Justice Shirley Abrahamson of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Professor Crenshaw's publications include Critical Race Theory (edited by Crenshaw, et al., 1995) and Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech and the First Amendment (with Matsuda, et al., 1993).

In 2007, Professor Crenshaw was awarded the Fulbright Chair for Latin America in Brazil.  In 2008, she was nominated an Alphonse Fletcher Fellow.  In the same year she joined the selective group of scholars awarded with an in-residence fellowship at the Center of Advanced Behavioral Studies at Stanford.

You can find out more about Professor Crenshaw's work through her think tank, The African American Policy Forum, at http://aapf.org/.

# data[].attributes.body
Rustin was an LGBTQ and civil rights activist best known for being a key adviser to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. He organized the 1963 March on Washington and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2013 for his activism. In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom pardoned Rustin for his arrest in 1953 when he was found having sex with two men in a parked car in Pasadena. Rustin served 50 days in Los Angeles County jail and had to register as a sex offender. In pardoning Rustin, Newsom noted how LGBTQ people were unjustly punished for their sexuality by U.S. law enforcement at the time Rustin's arrest.

# data[].attributes.body
A writer and social critic, Baldwin is perhaps best known for his 1955 collection of essays, "Notes of a Native Son," and his groundbreaking 1956 novel, "Giovanni's Room," which depicts themes of homosexuality and bisexuality. The novel stood out among literary critics because it features all white characters, unlike the civil rights activist's other novels which center the experiences of Black people. Baldwin spent a majority of his literary and activist career educating others about Black and queer identity, as he did during his famous lecture titled “Race, Racism, and the Gay Community” at a meeting of the New York chapter of Black and White Men Together (now known as Men of All Colors Together) in 1982.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Something is Missing From the Walls: Examining the Radical History of Black Feminist Art — Black Women Radicals

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Writer Karla Méndez examines the history of Black feminist art, as viewed through the work of its prominent artists.