InfoCoBuild

AFAM 162: African American History: From Emancipation to the Present

Lecture 21 - The Politics of Gender and Culture (continued). With Martin Luther King's assassination, the collapse of SNCC, and the self-destruction of the Black Panthers, one would think that all promise had faded in regards to the possibility of black political and social advancement. But in this lecture, Professor Holloway examines moments of hope for black political organization, including Carl Stokes's 1967 mayoral victory in Cleveland, the formation of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969, and the 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. Yet for all of the coalition building taking place, deeper problems revolved around gender. In this lecture, Professor Holloway focuses specifically on the difficulties that black women encountered as they confronted a racist and sexist political system, exemplified by Daniel Patrick Moynihan's concern over women-headed households in black America. When Shirley Chisholm declared her candidacy for the presidency, and when women on the ground, like Johnnie Tillman, fought for welfare rights or tried to join the modern feminist movement, they faced their "double jeopardy," that is a second-class status rooted in both racial and gender oppression. Although the early 1970s certainly was not the first time black women began to speak up about their oppression, Professor Holloway reveals that they finally began to be heard, and they formed groups, like the National Black Feminist Organization and the Combahee River Collective, to try to change the national conversation. (from oyc.yale.edu)

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