Combahee river collective5/19/2023 The Combahee River Collective Statement by the Combahee River Collective. It effectively relates societal problems specific to women and Black people, such as sexual and racial discrimination, and homophobia, offering a multifaceted lens on reality. The document remains one of the most compelling written works produced by Black feminists to date, highlighting an existence of intersectionality that other texts before it scarcely broached. In 1977, the collective released The Combahee River Collective Statement. Together, the group composed a powerful statement, facilitated by regular meetings and numerous retreats. Members of the group, including Smith and Demita Frazier, felt it was critical that the organisation address the needs of queer Black women, alongside Black feminists at large. In her 2001 essay, “From the Kennedy Commission to the Combahee Collective,” historian and African American studies professor Duchess Harris states, in 1974 the Boston collective “observed that their vision for social change was more radical than the NBFO,” and as a result, the group opted to branch out independently as the Combahee River Collective. Smith and her cofounders, who attended the inaugural regional meeting of the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) in New York in 1973, became the foundation for the Combahee River Collective with their efforts to build an NBFO chapter in Boston - the NBFO was formed by Black feminists reacting to the failure of mainstream feminist groups to respond to the racism that Black women faced in the US. At an event in late April, 1979, Barbara Smith, with megaphone, protests nine murders of women of color that took place in the first months of the year. Wanting to name the collective after a historical event that was significant to Black women, she took inspiration from an action on the Combahee River that was organised by Harriet Tubman on 2 June 1863, freeing more than 750 slaves. Their name came from founding member Barbara Smith, an author who played a significant role in building Black feminism in the United States. The collective joined together in the early 70s, seminally publishing The Combahee River Collective Statement, a key document in developing contemporary Black feminism. Active between 19, the Combahee River Collective was born from a sense of dissatisfaction that both the feminist movement and civil rights movement did not address the needs of Black women and queer people.
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