The Combahee River Collective: The Black Feminist Movement

The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great growth for both the feminist movement and the civil rights movement. Although these movements were both important, they were not inclusive. Feminists were not willing to address racial issues and civil rights activists were not willing to address issues of gender, leaving black women with no political allies. On top of this, neither of these ideologies adequately took class into account. In the 1970’s, a group of women came together to form the black feminist movement and write the Combahee River Collective, a manifesto of their beliefs.
This document outlines the nature of racial, sexual class and heterosexual oppression and the overlap between racial, sexual, and class oppression. Oppression is an intersectional phenomenon that cannot be addressed well unless addressed in its entirety. The Combahee River Collective discusses the reasons that a Black …show more content…
In the late 1960’s, sexism began to play a role in feminism itself with the birth of the separatist movement. This was a radical white feminist movement that wanted to exclude men from feminism. The Combahee Women’s Collective asserts that this was not only “not a viable political” option, but it also would go against their standing on biological determinism (4). The Combahee River Collective argues against biological determinism, saying that being biologically female does not define a person. In the same way, biological maleness does not make men who they are. Excluding them from the movement would be assuming this. The Collective states that biological determinism is a “particularly dangerous and reactionary basis upon which to build a politic” (4). Essentially, the ends do not justify the means and even if they did, separatism leaves out far too many people to be a viable and effective feminist