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The Combahee River Collective (/kəmˈbiː/ kəm-BEE)[1] was a Black feminist lesbian organization active in Boston from 1974 to 1980.[2][3] The Collective was instrumental in highlighting that both the white feminist movement and the Civil Rights Movement were not addressing their particular needs as Black women and as Black lesbians, more specifically.[4] The mainstream feminist movement was racist, while much of the Civil Rights Movement had a sexist and homophobic reputation.[5][6] They are perhaps best known for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement,[7][8] a key document in the history of contemporary Black feminism and the development of the concepts of identity politics as used among political organizers and social theorists,[9][10] and for introducing the concept of interlocking systems of oppression, a key concept of intersectionality.[11]

National Black Feminist Organization

Author Barbara Smith and other delegates attending the first (1973) regional meeting of the National Black Feminist Organization in New York City provided the groundwork for the Combahee River Collective with their efforts to build an NBFO Chapter in Boston.[12][13] The NBFO was formed by Black feminists reacting to the failure of mainstream White feminist groups to respond to the racism that Black women faced in the United States.[11] In her 2001 essay "From the Kennedy Commission to the Combahee Collective", historian and African American Studies professor Duchess Harris stated that, in 1974 the Boston collective "observed that their vision for social change was more radical than the NBFO", and as a result, the group chose to strike out on their own as the Combahee River Collective.[14] Members of the CRC, notably Barbara Smith and Demita Frazier, felt it was critical that the organization addressed the needs of Black lesbians, in addition to organizing on behalf of Black feminists.[14]

Other political work

In the encyclopedia Lesbian Histories and Cultures, contributing editor Jaime M. Grant contextualizes the CRC's work in the political trends of the time.

The collective came together at a time when many of its members were struggling to define a liberating feminist practice alongside the ascendence of a predominantly white feminist movement, and a Black nationalist vision of women deferring to Black male leadership.[15]

Grant believes the CRC was most important in the "emergence of coalition politics in the late 1970s and early 1980s [...] which demonstrated the key roles that progressive feminists of color can play" in bridging gaps "between diverse constituencies, while also creating new possibilities for change within deeply divided communities..."[15] She notes that, in addition to penning the statement, "collective members were active in the struggle for desegregation of the Boston public schools, in community campaigns against police brutality in Black neighborhoods and on picket lines demanding construction jobs for Black workers."[15]

Further information on school desegregation in Boston: Boston busing desegregation

The collective was also politically active around issues of violence against women, in particular the murder of twelve Black women and one white woman in Boston in 1979.[16] According to Becky Thompson, associate professor at Simmons University in Boston and author of A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism, the Boston Police Department and the media "attempted to dismiss the murders [...] based on the notion that (the women) were alleged to be prostitutes and therefore not worthy of protection or investigation."[17] In a 1979 journal entry, Barbara Smith wrote:

That winter and spring were a time of great demoralization, anger, sadness and fear for many Black women in Boston, including myself. It was also for me a time of some of the most intensive and meaningful political organizing I have ever done. The Black feminist political analysis and practice the Combahee River Collective had developed since 1974 enabled us to grasp both the sexual-political and racial-political implications of the murders and positioned us to be the link between the various communities that were outraged: Black people, especially Black women; other women of color; and white feminists, many of whom were also lesbians.[18]

Smith developed these ideas into a pamphlet on the topic, articulating the need "to look at these murders as both racist and sexist crimes" and emphasizing the need to "talk about violence against women in the Black community."[16]

In a 1994 interview with Susan Goodwillie, Smith noted that this action moved the group out into the wider Boston community. She commented that "the pamphlet had the statement, the analysis, the political analysis, and it said that it had been prepared by the Combahee River Collective. That was a big risk for us, a big leap to identify ourselves in something that we knew was going to be widely distributed."[19]

Historian Duchess Harris believes that "the Collective was most cohesive and active when the murders in Boston were occurring. Having an event to respond to and to collectively organize around gave them a cause to focus on..."[19] In addition to this work, the CRC was also active in Boston "campaigns against the sterilization of Black and Brown women, [and] the abortion rights movement."[11]

Importance of Black women's liberation

The CRC emphasized a fundamental and shared belief that "Black women are inherently valuable, that...(their) liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because of (their own) need as human persons for autonomy...."[20] and expressed a particularly commitment to "working on those struggles in which race, sex, and class are simultaneous factors in oppression...."[21][20] The CRC sought to "build a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression."[4]

The Importance of Black feminism

The group saw "Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face...."[20] and believed that "the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity."[21][20]

The statement describes "Contemporary Black feminism (as) the outgrowth of countless generations of personal sacrifice, militancy, and work by our mothers and sisters" such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper, Ida B. Wells Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, (as well as thousands upon thousands of unknown women)."[20] The work of these women has been obscured "by outside reactionary forces and racism and elitism within the (feminist) movement."[21][20]

Combahee River Collective Statement

The Combahee River Collective Statement was separated into four separate chapters: The Genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism; What We Believe; Problems in Organizing Black Feminist; and Black Feminist Issues and Projects.

Genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism

The Genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism chapter of the CRC statement traces the origin and trajectory of Black feminism. This chapter serves to situate the CRC within the larger Black feminist movement. The CRC presented themselves as rooted in the historical activism of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper, Ida B. Wells Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, as well as many unknown activists "who have a shared awareness of how their sexual identity combined with their racial identity to make their whole life situation and the focus of their political struggles unique."[11] The CRC framed contemporary Black feminism as a genesis built upon the work of these activists. The Black feminist presence in the larger second wave American feminist movement resulted in the formation of separate Black feminist groups such as the National Black Feminist Organization as the needs of Black feminists were not being met by mainstream organizations. The CRC also stated that it was the involvement of Black feminists in the Black Liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s which impacted CRC members' ideologies and led to disillusionment with those movements.

This chapter also introduced the CRC's belief that the oppression that Black women endured was rooted in interlocking oppressions. As Black women, the Collective argued that they experience oppression based on race, gender, and class. Further, because many of the women were lesbians, they also acknowledged oppression based on sexuality as well. The Collective states its basis and active goals as "committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual and class oppression" and describe their particular task as the "development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives."[21][20]

What We Believe

The What We Believe chapter of the CRC statement detailed their definition of Identity Politics and how it functions. What the CRC believed by the term Identity Politics, is that Black women had a right to formulate their own agenda based upon the material conditions they faced as a result of race, class, gender, and sexuality.[4]

This chapter also details the CRC's belief that the destruction of capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy is necessary for the liberation of oppressed peoples.[4] The CRC identified as socialists and believed that work must be organized for the collective benefit of all people, not for the benefit of profit.[4] To this end, the CRC was in agreement with Marx's theory as it was applied to the material economic relationships he analyzed.[4] The CRC did not advocate for lesbian separatism as they felt it left out others who were valuable to the movement.[4]

Problems in Organizing Black Feminists

The Problems in Organizing Black Feminists chapter traced the problems and failures surrounding organizing around Black feminism. The CRC believed that the fact that they were fighting to end multiple forms of oppression simultaneously rather than just one form of oppression was a major source of difficulty.[4] The CRC also believed that because of their position as Black lesbian women, they did not have access to racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely on.[4]

The CRC also believed that they experienced the psychological toll of their fight differently because of the "low value placed upon Black women's psyches in this society."[4] In this view, the members of the CRC saw themselves as being at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Because of this positioning, the CRC wrote that, "if Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression."[4] Their belief in this statement also relies on their previous contention that the liberation of all peoples will be delivered with the destruction of capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy.[4]

The CRC's focus on the liberation of Black women also led to negative reactions of Black men. The CRC believed that because of this focus, Black men felt that "they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing Black women."[4] This reaction of Black men also proved problematic in organizing Black feminists.

Black Feminist Projects and Issues

The final chapter of the CRC statement, Black Feminist Projects and Issues demonstrated that they were committed to making the lives of all women, third world, and working people better.[4] The CRC stated, "We are of course particularly committed to working on those struggles in which race, sex, and class are simultaneous factors in oppression."[4] The chapter details how this may look in many types of application around the world.

This chapter also detailed how the CRC had started to publicly address the racism inherent in the white women's movement. The CRC believed that white women involved in the feminist movement had made little effort to combat or understand their own racism. Moreover, the CRC believed that these women must have "a more than superficial comprehension of race, color, and Black history and culture.[4] While the CRC acknowledged that this work was the responsibility of white women, they would work by demanding accountability of these white women toward this end.

  1. ^ Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Third Edition (Merriam-Webster, 1997; ISBN 0877795460, p. 272.
  2. ^ "Duchess Harris. Interview with Barbara Smith". Archived from the original on 2008-03-15. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  3. ^ Marable, Manning; Leith Mullings (eds), Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices of Resistance, Reform, and Renewal, Combahee River Collective Statement, Rowman and Littlefield, 2000, ISBN 0-8476-8346-X, p. 524.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p ""The Combahee River Collective Statement" (1977)", Available Means, University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 292–300, 2001, doi:10.2307/j.ctt5hjqnj.50, ISBN 9780822979753
  5. ^ Delaney, Paul (12 May 2010). "Dorothy Height and the Sexism of the Civil Rights Movement". The Root.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ Manditch-Prottas, Zachary (2019). "Meeting at the Watchtower: Eldridge Cleaver, James Baldwin's No Name in the Street, and Racializing Homophobic Vernacular". African American Review. 52 (2): 179–195. doi:10.1353/afa.2019.0027. ISSN 1945-6182.
  7. ^ The full text of the Combahee River Collective Statement is available here.
  8. ^ Smith, Barbara, ed. (1983). Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. New York, NY: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. pp. 272–282. ISBN 0-913175-02-1.
  9. ^ Hawkesworth, M. E.; Maurice Kogan. Encyclopedia of Government and Politics, 2nd edn Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-27623-3, p. 577.
  10. ^ Sigerman, Harriet. The Columbia Documentary History of American Women Since 1941, Columbia University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-231-11698-5, p. 316.
  11. ^ a b c d How we get free : Black feminism and the Combahee River Collective. Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta,. Chicago, Illinois. ISBN 978-1-64259-104-0. OCLC 975027867.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  12. ^ Bowen, Angela. Combahee River Collective, Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in America, October 2005 issue.
  13. ^ Collier-Thomas, Bettye; Vincent P. Franklin, Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, NYU Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8147-1603-2, p. 292.
  14. ^ a b Harris, Duchess. "From the Kennedy Commission to the Combahee Collective", in Sisters in the Struggle, Collier-Thomas et al. (eds), New York University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8147-1602-4, p. 294.
  15. ^ a b c Grant, Jaime M. (ed: Bonnie Zimmerman), Lesbian Histories and Cultures, Routledge, pp. 184–185.
  16. ^ a b Grant, Jamie. "Who Is Killing Us?" accessed in "All of Who I am in the Same Place": The Combahee River Collective, by Duchess Harris [1] Archived 2008-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Thompson, Becky. A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism, University of Minnesota Press, ISBN 978-0-8166-3634-1, p. 147.
  18. ^ Smith, Barbara. "The Boston Murders", in Patricia Bell-Scott (ed.), Life Notes: Personal Writing by Contemporary Black Women, Norton, 1993, p. 315.
  19. ^ a b Smith, Barbara. Interview with Susan Goodwillie Archived 2008-03-15 at the Wayback Machine. 1994.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g Combahee River Collective, "A Black Feminist Statement," in Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, ed. Zillah R. Eisenstein.
  21. ^ a b c d The full text of the Combahee River Collective Statement is available here.
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