Combahee River Collective

The Combahee River Collective is an organization founded by African-American feminist lesbians that was active from 1974-1980. The Collective's main purpose was calling attention to how the second wave of feminists movement was not addressing the needs of black women. They are best known for the Combahee River Collective Statement. This document was one of the earliest explorations of the intersection of multipe oppressions, including racism and heterosexism. For the first time in history, black women openly and unapologetically communicated their sexiual orientations in the midst of their social justice work, no longer trading their silence for permission to engage in political struggle.

## Combahee River Collective

### Created

1974

Boston, Massachusetts

## Contents [hide]

1. Background of Combahee River
2. Naming the Collective
3. Developing the Statement
4. Combahee River Collective Statement
	1. Genesis of Contemoporary Black Feminism
	2. What We Believe
	3. Problems in Organizing Black Feminists
	4. Black Feminists Projects and Issues
5. Disbandment
6. References

## Background of Combahee River Edit

The Combahee river is a short river in South Carolina, named for the Combahee tribe of Native Americans who preceded the Europeans in the area. The Combahee River area was the site of battles between the Native Americans and Europeans in 1715 to 1717. During the period before the Civil War, the river provided irrigation for rice fields of local plantations. The Union Army occupied a nearby territory, and Harriet Tubman was asked to organize a raid to free slaves to strike at the local economy. She led the armed raid, which led to 750 escaping enslavement and becoming "contraband," freed by the Union Army. It was, until recent times, the only military campaign in American history planned and headed by a woman.

## Naming the Collective Edit

The Collective's name was suggested by Barbara Smith. She stated that she "wanted to name the collective after a historical event that was meaningful to African American women. It was a way of talking about ourselves being on a continuum of Black struggle, of Black women's struggle." The name commemorated an action at the Combahee River planned and led by Harriet Tubman on June 2, 1863, in the Port Royal region of South Carolina. The action freed more than 750 slaves.

## History Edit

The Combahee River Collective first met in 1974. During “second-wave” feminism, many black feminists felt that the Women’s Liberation Movement was defined by and paid exclusive attention to white, middle-class women. The Combahee River Collective held meetings and retreats throughout the 1970s. They attempted to develop a black feminist ideology and explore the shortcomings of “mainstream” feminism’s focus on sex and gender oppression above all other types of discrimination, while also examining sexism in the black community. They also looked at lesbian analysis, particularly that of black lesbians. Their approach looked at a "simultaneity of oppressions" rather than ranking and separating the oppressions at work, and in their work is rooted much of later work on intersectionality. The term "identity politics" came out of the Combahee River Collective's work.

## Combahee River Collective Statement Edit

### Genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism Edit

As black women, the Collective argued that they experience oppression based on race, gender, and class. Also, because many of the woman were lesbians, the Collective also argued for rights on sexuality. The Collective emphasized the belief that Black women are valuable, and that their freedom and liberation is needed because of their needs for autonomy. "Black feminists often talk about their feelings of craziness before becoming conscious of the concepts of sexual politics, patriarchal rule, and most importantly feminism, the political analysis and practice that we women use to struggle against our oppression."

### What We Believe Edit

The beliefs of the Collective were about equality, non lesbian separatism, peace and togetherness along with the recognization of the intersectonality of both men and women of color. These beliefs showed how black feminism was powerful but was never about being on top of the hierarchy for power and control of another group of people. Intersectionality is important because it is the core root of why the Collective was fighting for their rights due to multiple kinds of oppression. "Our situation as Black people necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which white women of course do not need to have with white men, unless it is their negative solidarity as racial oppressors. We struggle together with Black men against racism, while we also struggle with Black men about sexism."

### Problems in Organizing Black Feminists Edit

Black feminists faced oppression on every front whether it was their sexual orientation or their race. They found it hard to announce they were feminists because they were forced to face all ranges of oppression unlike the white feminists who only had to face the fact that they were women. Black feminists threatened the black society which made it that much more difficult to come out as feminists. "They realize that they might not only lose valuable and hardworking allies in their struggles but that they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing Black women."

### Black Feminists Projects and Issues Edit

With the acknowledgement that race, sex, and class are all factors in oppression, Black feminists can further continue understanding the verbal or nonverbal divide and try to bridge these divides to equalize the systems. "We believe in collective process and a non-hierarchical distribution of power within our own group and in our vision of a revolutionary society. " To stand in their own right and exist visibly and equally among the systems placed before all humankind is a struggle worth continuing and celebrating.

## Quotes by Collective Members Edit

“We were all intelligent probative minds with a base foundation of we really know we have to speak truth to power and address it, and we’re going to actively do it. We’re not waiting for anyone. We’re not looking for a road map. We were making a map.”- Demita Frazier

“We cannot underestimate the impact of homophobia, specifically anti-lesbian homophobia on the history of our organizing. We were not just dismissed because we were black feminists. We were dismissed because we were traitors to the race. We were outcasts. We were out black lesbians a few years after Stonewall.”- Barbara Smith

"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."-Barbara Smith

## Disbandment Edit

After the coming out of the Combahee River Collective in 1977, the Collective ran seven feminism retreats from the year of 1977 to 1980. During these retreats, over thousands of women were attracted to the collective taking place on the east coast. The Collective disassembled in 1980 leaving behind a great legacy for other feminist of color to spread the word of feminism. The big question is why this topic is so important to history and the topic of feminism. The Combahee River Collective was an insight for society to see not only strong black women taking a stand for their rights but the oppression of black feminism that society had never seen before.In the statement, white feminism is targeted as racist and privileged on the topics of race, social class, sex and resources of power. It is stated that white women regardless if the white feminist movement was successful or not, would have resources to fall back on such as high social hierarchy among white men and the domestic idea of women hood. The Combahee River Collective not only exposed the racism of white feminism but the oppression that black women still faced in society. This made black women “legally invisible” and also known as second class citizens.

## References Edit

Anders, T. (n.d.). Combahee River Collective (1974-1980). Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://www.blackpast.org/aah/combahee-river-collective-1974-1980

Black, Feminist, Revolutionary Remembering the Combahee River Collective. (2014, April 21). Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://www.ebony.com/news-views/the-combahee-river-collective-405#axzz4tYLKYIo9

Combahee River Collective. (2017, September 18). Retrieved September 27, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combahee\_River\_Collective

Gosztola, K. (2017, July 10). Why The Combahee River Statement Matters 40 Years Later. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from https://shadowproof.com/2017/07/10/authors-combahee-river-statement-profoundly-influenced-black-feminism-mark-40th-anniversary/

History. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://combaheerivercollective.weebly.com/history.html

Moraga, C., & Anzalduá, G. (2015). This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Albany: SUNY Press.

Napikoski, L. (2016, April 30). The Combahee River Collective: Black Women's Liberation. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from https://www.thoughtco.com/combahee-river-collective-information-3530569