Person

Barbara Smith

Related Excerpts

Art piece of two black women and a motif of kente cloth and cowrie shells.

The Black Feminist Collective That Gave Us Identity Politics

The Combahee River Collective’s 1977 statement reshaped the politics of the Black left and beyond.
The women of the Combahee River Collective.

“If Black Women Were Free”: An Oral History of the Combahee River Collective

“Here we are, a group of Black lesbian feminist anti-imperialist anti-capitalists trying to do the right thing.”
An illustration of Barbara Smith.

Until Black Women Are Free, None of Us Will Be Free

Barbara Smith and the Black feminist visionaries of the Combahee River Collective.
Audre Lorde

I Do Not Have to Be You: Audre Lorde’s Legacy

Audre Lorde’s legacy shows how feminism can honor difference, as Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor argues in this review.
A man crying amidst the ruins of his house after a bombing.

Moving Towards Life

Exploring the correspondence of June Jordan and Audre Lorde, Marina Magloire assembles an archive of a Black feminist falling-out over Zionism.
‘View of Grave Creek Mound’; engraving by Ebenezer Mathers, 1839.

The Plunder and the Pity

Alicia Puglionesi explores the damage white supremacy did to Native Americans and their land.
Black and white photo of The National Negro Business League with founder Booker T. Washington.

Identity Politics and Elite Capture

The Combahee River Collective and E. Franklin Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie agree that the wealthy and powerful will hijack activist energies for their own ends.