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short bibliography of the feminist movement and politics in the USA.

The following are abstracts from the Black Woman's Manifesto, published in 19 and distributed in the form of a pamphlet by ÒThe Third World WomenÕs AllianceÓ.

African American Feminist Movement

Black Woman's Manifesto Introduction Racism and capitalism have trampled the potential of black people in this country and thwarted their self-determination. Initially the physical characteristics of those of African descent were used to fit blacks into the lowest niche in the capitalist hierarchy - that of maintenance. Therefore, black women and men of today do not encourage division by extending physical characteristics to serve as a criterion for a social hierarchy. If the potential of the black woman is seen mainly as a supportive role for the black man, then the black woman becomes an object to be utilized by another human being. Her potential stagnates and she cannot begin to think in terms of self-determination for herself and all black people. It is not right that her existence should be validated only by the existence of the black man. The black woman is demanding a new set of female definitions and a recognition of herself of a citizen, companion and confidant, not a matriarchal villian or a step stool baby-maker. Role integration advocates the complementary recognition of man and woman, not the competitive recognition of same. Role integration encourages a broader mental and emotional growth in black women and men as they share the responsibility of working towards liberation. Neither of them should be relegated to a narrow experience in life. Neither of them should have their potentiality for self-determination controlled and predetermined by the opposite sex. That is a type of slavery that will not deliver us as a people. That is a form of bondage which is an integral part of the racist and capitalist system which black women and black men must work to oppose and overthrow. (Gayle Lynch) *Linda La Rue, The Black Movement and WomenÕs Liberation, The Black Scholar, Vol. I. May, 1970. p.42

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Black Women and the Struggle for Liberation
BY MAXINE WILLIAMS

In the early part of the sixties, social scientists became more and more interested in the family structure of blacks. Unemployment and so called crime among Blacks was increasing and some of these "scientists" decided that the problems of the Black community were caused by the family pattern among Black people. Since Blacks were deviating from the "norm" more female heads of households, higher unemployment, more school "dropouts" these pseudoscientists claimed that the way to solve these problems was to build up a more stable Black family in accord with the American patriarchal pattern. In 1965, the U.S. government published a booklet entitled "The Negro Family The Case for National Action." The author (U.S. Dept. of Labor) stated, "In essence, the Negro community has been forced into a matriarcal structure which, because it is so out of line with the rest of American society, seriously retards the progress of the group as a whole." According to this theory, the institution of slavery led to a breakdown in the Black family and the development of a socalled matriarchy, in which the Black woman was "dominant." This "matriarchal" structure was held responsible, in turn, for contributing to the "emasculation" of the Black man. In other words, as these people would have it, the oppression of black people was partly caused by the chief victims of this oppression, Black Women! This myth of the Black Matriarchy has had wide spread influence, and is even widely believed in the Black community today. It is something we have to fight against and expose. To show just how wrong this theory is, let's look at the real condition and history of the socalled dominant Black woman. Under slavery, once arriving on American soil, the African social order of Black people was broken down. Tribes were separated and shipped to different plantations. Slaves underwent a process of de-socialization and had to adopt a new culture and language. Black men greatly outnumbered Black women. Sociologist E.F. Frazier indicates in his book The Negro Family In the U.S.,that this probably led to "numerous cases of sex relations between Negro slaves and indentured white women." The "marriage" rate between Black men and white women became so high that interracial marriages were banned. Prior to this time, Black men were encouraged to marry white women in order to enrich the slavemaster's plantation with more human labor. The Black man in some instances was able to select a mate of his choice. However in contrast, the Black woman had little choice in the selection of her mate. Living in a patriarchal society, she became a mere breeding instrument. Just as Black men were chained and branded under slavery, so were Black women. Lying nude on the slave ship, some women gave birth to children in the scorching hot sun. There were economic interests involved in the Black women having as many offspring as she could bear. After her child was born, she was allowed to nurse and fondle the infant only at the slavemaster's discretion. There are cases of Black women who greatly resisted being separated from their children and having them placed on the auction block even though they were subject to flogging. And in some cases, the Black woman took the life of her own children rather than subject them to the oppression of slavery.

The Black Movement and Women's Liberation
BY LINDA LA RUE

"Common oppression" is fine for rhetoric, but it does not reflect the actual distance between the oppression of the black man and woman who are unemployed, and the "oppression" of the American white woman who is "sick and tired" of Playboy fold-outs, or Christian Dior lowering hemlines or adding ruffles, or of Miss Clairol telling her that blondes have more fun. Is there any logical comparison between the oppression of the black woman on welfare who has difficulty feeding her children and the discontent of the suburban mother who has the luxury to protest the washing of the dishes on which her family's full meal was consumed? The surge of "common oppresion"rhetoric and propaganda may lure the unsuspecting into an intellectual alliance with the goals of women's liberation, but it is not a wise alliance. It is not that women ought not to be liberated from the shackles of their present unfulfillment, but the depth, the extent, the intensity, the importance - indeed, the suffering and depravity of the real oppression blacks have experiences - can only be minimized in an alliance with women who heretofore suffered little more than boredom, genteel repression, and dishpan hands. For all the similarities and analogies drawn between the liberation of blacks, the point remains that when white women received their voting rights, most blacks, male and female, were systematically disenfranchised and had been that way since Reconstruction. And even in 1970, when women's right of franchise is rarely questioned, it is still a less than common occurrence for blacks to vote in some areas of the South. Tasteless analogies like abortion for oppressed middle class and poor women idealistically assert that all women have the right to decide if and when they want children, and thus fail to catch the flavor of the actual circumstances. Actual circumstances boil down to middle class women deciding when it is convenient to have children, while poor women decide the prudence of bringing into a world of already scarce resources, another mouth to feed. Neither their motives nor their objectives are the same. But current literature leads one to lumping the decisions of these two women under one generalization, when in fact the difference between the plights of these two women is as clear as the difference between being hungry and out of work, and skipping lunch and taking a day off.

The Entire text can be found at www.scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/blkmanif/#black along with other important documents telling the history of the Feminist movement in the United States in the latter second half of our century.

A short bibliography concerning the feminist movement and politics in the USA.

Hirschmann, Nancy J. Rethinking Obligation : A Feminist Method for Political Theory. Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1992.
SUBJECT(S) :Political obligation, social contract, feminist theory -- political aspects.

Gunew, Sneja & Yeatman, Anna (Eds).Feminism and the Politics of Difference. St. Leonards, NSW, Australia : Allen & Unwin, 1993. SUBJECT(S) :Difference (Philosophy), identity (Philosophical concept), feminist theory -- Political aspects, feminist criticism.

Murphy, Cornelius F. Beyond Feminism : Towards a Dialogue on Difference. Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of America Press, c1995.
SUBJECT(S) :Feminist theory -- United States, femininity, masculinity, oppression (Psychology).

Gottfried, Heidi (Eds). Feminism and Social Change : Bridging Theory and Practice . Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1996.
SUBJECT(S) :Feminism -- Research -- United States, feminist theory -- United States, social change -- United States

Cuomo, Chris j. & Hall, Kim Q. (Eds). Whiteness : Feminist Philosophical Reflections . Lanham, [Md.] : Rowman & Littlefield, c1999.
SUBJECT(S) :Whites -- United States -- Race identity, racism -- United States, feminist theory -- United States, United States -- Race relations.