Women coming together

​The founders of the Combahee River collective (CRC) first met at the National Black Feminist Organization’s (NBFO) regional conference in 1973. A year later the women began to have regular meetings in Boston, Massachusetts. At one of these meetings they chose their name based off of the Combahee River raid of 1863 led by Harriet Tubman. They chose the name not only because hundreds of slaves were able to escape but because this was the first military strategy designed by a woman. By the summer of 1974 the collective separated from the NBFO to become a separate black feminist group. The founders of the CRC felt that the NBFO didn’t convey the importance of black lesbianism and felt they were not radical enough to make the impact they felt was necessary for change. The goals of the collective were to make black feminism and lesbianism a part of the women’s movement because before this group the feminist movement was based solely on the heterosexual white middle class women. 

Genesis

Angela Davis wrote in Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the Community of Slaves:
"Black women have always embodied, if not only in their physical manifestation, an adversary stance to white male rule and have actively resisted its inroads upon them and their communities in both dramatic and subtle ways." Outside of this adversary there was another reason to further assimilate as Black Feminists. This reason was due in large part to the second wave of the American women's movement. There are "reactionary forces" due to forces of elitism and racism within the movement itself. A strong truth is to be understood that white born women are inherently different than black born women. It seems only natural that a Afrocentric Feminist movement stem from intersectionality.

"Black feminists often talk about their feelings of craziness before becoming conscious of the concepts of sexual politics, patriarchal rule, and most importantly feminism, the political analysis and practice that we women use to struggle against our oppression."
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What We Believe

The beliefs of the Collective were about equality, non lesbian seperatism, peace and togetherness along with the recognization of the intersectonality of both men and women of color. These beliefs showed how black feminism was powerful but was never about being on top of the heirarchy for power and control of another group of people. Intersectionality is important because it is the core root of why the Collective was fighting for their rights due to multiple kinds of oppression. It was clear that women of color experienced sexism, sexual oppression and racism all at the same time. However this was seen by society as the normality for women of color making it difficult for black feminism to be sucessfully understood by society. The Collective however still believed in the actions of sisterhood and equality of all people of color due to similar experience of black oppression. In the Combahee River Collective Statement it is quoted that "Although we are feminists and Lesbians, we feel solidarity with progressive Black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand. Our situation as Black people necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which white women of course do not need to have with white men, unless it is their negative solidarity as racial oppressors. We struggle together with Black men against racism, while we also struggle with Black men about sexism."

Problems in organizing Black Feminists

 Black feminists faced oppression on every front whether it was their sexual orientation or their race. They found it hard to announce they were feminists because they were forced to face all ranges of oppression unlike the white feminists who only had to face the fact that they were women. Black feminists threatened the black society which made it that much more difficult to come out as feminists. It called gender roles into question and gender roles were the basis of the black society. Black men felt threatened because in their eyes, your sex determined how you would live your life. "They realize that they might not only lose valuable and hardworking allies in their struggles but that they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing Black women" At this time Black feminists were invisible  and not welcome anywhere except with each other.
Black feminist issues and projects
"The inclusions of our politics makes us concerned with any situation that impinges upon the lives of women, third world, and working people." With the acknowledgement that race, sex, and class are all factors in oppression, Black feminists can further continue understanding the verbal or nonverbal divide and try to bridge these divides to equalize the systems. "We believe in collective process and a nonhierarchical distribution of power within our own group and in our vision of a revolutionary society. " To stand in their own right and exist visibly and equally among the systems placed before all humankind is a struggle worth continuing and celebrating. 

Coming to an End

After the coming out of the Combahee River Collective in 1977, the Collective ran seven feminism retreats from the year of 1977 to 1980. During these retreats, over thousands of women were attracted to the collective taking place on the east coast. During these retreats, the Collective would discuss more ideas of black feminism as well as create leaders to help spread the word of black feminism. The Collective disassembled in 1980 leaving behind a great legacy for other feminist of color to spread the word of feminism. The big question is why this topic is so important to history and the topic of feminism. The Combahee River Collective was an insight for society to see not only strong black women taking a stand for their rights but the oppression of black feminism that society had never seen before. The sisterhood between the women of the Combahee River collective was powerful but also showed the equality between all the women of the organization as well as a sisterhood that didn’t focus on race, hierarchy or control. The statement became important as well because of the target of black feminism vs. white feminism. In the statement, white feminism is targeted as racist and privileged on the topics of race, social class, sex and resources of power. It is stated that white women regardless if the white feminist movement was successful or not, would have resources to fall back on such as high social hierarchy among white men and the domestic idea of women hood. The Combahee River Collective not only exposed the racism of white feminism but the oppression that black women still faced in society. Finally, the Collective also brings the attention of the intersectional approach on the African American race. This approach explained the combination of many oppressions happening at the same time; for women of color this was evident but wasn’t recognized by society and the law as multiple oppressions. This made black women “legally invisible” and also known as second class citizens.
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