Want to Start a Revolution?

by Gore, Dayo

• ISBN13: 9780814783146
• ISBN10: 0814783147
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780814732304
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-01
• Publisher: Ingram Pub Services
• More Book Details

Summary

The story of the black freedom struggle in America has been overwhelmingly male-centric, starring leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Huey Newton. With few exceptions, black women have been perceived as supporting actresses; as behind-the-scenes or peripheral activists, or rank and file party members. But what about Vicki Garvin, a Brooklyn-born activist who became a leader of the National Negro Labour Council and guide to Malcolm X on his travels through Africa? What about Shirley Chisholm, the first black Congresswoman? From Rosa Parks and Esther Cooper Jackson, to Shirley Graham DuBois and Assata Shakur, a host of women demonstrated a lifelong commitment to radical change, embracing multiple roles to sustain the movement, founding numerous groups and mentoring younger activists. Helping to create the groundwork and continuity for the movement by operating as local organizers, international mobilizers, and charismatic leaders, the stories of the women profiled inWant to Start a Revolution?help shatter the pervasive and imbalanced image of women on the sidelines of the black freedom struggle. Contributors: Margo Natalie Crawford, Prudence Cumberbatch, Johanna Fernandez, Diane C. Fujino, Dayo F. Gore, Joshua Guild, Gerald Horne, Ericka Huggins, Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest, Joy James, Erik McDuffie, Premilla Nadasen, Sherie M. Randolph, James Smethurst, Margaret Stevens, and Jeanne Theoharis.

Author Biography

Dayo F. Gore is Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Jeanne Theoharis is Associate Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College and co-editor (with Komozi Woodard) of Groundwork: Local Black Freedom Movements in America (NYU Press, 2005).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
"No Small Amount of Change Could Do": Esther Cooper Jackson and the Making of a Black Left Feminist	p. 25
What "the Cause" Needs is a "Brainy and Energetic Woman": A Study of Female Charismatic Leadership in Baltimore	p. 47
From Communist Politics to Black Power: The Visionary Politics and Transnational Solidarities of Victoria "Vicki" Ama Garvin	p. 72
Shirley Graham Du Bois: Portrait of the Black Woman Artist as a Revolutionary	p. 95
"A Life History of Being Rebellious": The Radicalism of Rosa Parks	p. 115
Framing the Panther: Assata Shakur and Black Female Agency	p. 138
Revolutionary Women, Revolutionary Education: The Black Panther Party's Oakland Community School	p. 161
Must Revolution be a Family Affair? Revisiting the Black Woman	p. 185
Retraining the Heartworks: Women in Atlanta's Black Arts Movement	p. 205
"Women's Liberation or ... Black Liberation, You're Fighting the Same Enemies": Florynce Kennedy, Black Power, and Feminism	p. 223
To Make That Someday Come: Shirley Chisholm's Radical Politics of Possibility	p. 248
Denise Oliver and the Young Lords Party: Stretching the Political Boundaries of Struggle	p. 271
Grassroots Leadership and Afro-Asian Solidarities: Yuri Kochiyama's Humanizing Radicalism	p. 294
"We Do Whatever Becomes Necessary": Johnnie Tillmon, Welfare Rights, and Black Power	p. 317
About the Contributors	p. 339
Index	p. 343
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