“The Combahee River Collective Statement”

The Combahee River Collective Statement, published in 1977, was a text that advocated that society should be reorganized based on the collective needs of those who it most oppresses. The statement, written by a Black, lesbian, womanist organization, is considered one of the most foundational texts of contemporary Black feminism and influences Black liberation work today.

Buy How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, a book by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor that analyzes its legacy and influence today (Bookshop, $14.67).

About the Combahee River Collective

1974-1980

The Combahee River Collective was a black, lesbian, womanist organization in Boston from 1974-1980. The organization was co-founded by Barbara Smith, a Black lesbian scholar, writer, and activist who has shaped Black feminism throughout her lifetime. The collective asserted that the white feminist movement and Civil Rights Movement did not address Black and/or LGBTQ+ women's needs and committed themselves to the struggle against “racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression.” In 1977, the collective released their groundbreaking statement. The text was written for a book entitled “Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism,” a 1978 anthology about socialist feminism edited by Zillah R. Eisenstein.

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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 systems of oppression."

The statement also introduced the concept of “identity politics,” or how people of a particular religion, race, social background, class, or other parts of their identity organize politically based on the oppression they face. This, alongside their urging to consider the “interlocking oppressions” of multiple identities, was the predecessor to what we know today as “intersectionality.”

Intersectionality, coined by professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, analyzes how multiple marginalized identities tend to exacerbate the impact of systemic oppression, ie, the increased disparity of police brutality against the Black trans community v. the Black community. Learn more in her TED Talk.

Photo of the Combahee River Collective’s first “Black feminist retreat", which was held July 1977 in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Posted on Twitter by Black Women Radicals and sourced from https://forgotten.miriamneptune.com/blog/photos/. Back row (left to right): Margo Okazawa-Rey, Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, Chirlane McCray, Mercedes Tompkins. Front row (left to right): Demita Frazier, Helen Stewart. Identifications provided by Barbara Smith on Twitter.

This statement was particularly groundbreaking considering that, during this time, the Civil Rights Movement tended to center the leadership of Black men, not the voices and efforts of Black women, particularly Black LGBTQ+ women voices. There are repeated instances of Black women being sidelined during pivotal moments throughout Civil Rights History (The Root). In addition, the feminism movement celebrated during this timeframe was largely white, and the needs of white women were often prioritized over the needs of Black women and other women of color (Vox).

Black politics, male-defined, is not going to get it for us. A white, bourgeois politics isn’t going to get it for us. We need to have all the parts of who we are to be incorporated into our political agendas and our political work.

Barbara Smith, in conversation with Hannah Hodson, for Autostraddle

About Barbara Smith

Reflection Questions

• What other critical texts written by Black and LGBTQ+ leaders have shaped your work? Consider what source(s) you're learning from to support your professional or personal endeavors.
• The mainstream feminist movement has consistently been called out for its lack of intersectionality. If you consider yourself a feminist, reflect: what Black feminists are you learning from? How does your work elevate the voices of those most marginalized?

Learn More

• LISTEN: Barbara Smith in conversation with Eric Marcus on Season 6, Episode 3 of the Making Gay History podcast
• WATCH: Feminist Scholar Barbara Smith on Identity Politics & Why She Supports Bernie Sanders for President (YouTube) 16mins
• READ: Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (Alibris)
• READ: “Why I Left the Mainstream Queer Rights Movement” (NYTimes)