15 Black Nationalist Women Who You Should Know
Table of Contents
What is Black nationalism?
Keisha N. Blain, who has studied Black intellectual traditions for the past decade, describes this phenomenon in her book Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (2018):
...What has distinguished Black nationalist thought in the United States from other political ideologies is a militant response to White supremacy, a recognition of the distinctiveness of Black culture and history, and an emphasis on how people who represent a "nation within a nation" ought to create for themselves autonomous spaces in which to advance their own social, political, and economic goals.
At the heart of Black nationalism is a recognition that integration, were it ever to be realized, cannot fully address the persistent challenges of people of African descent in the United States and other parts of the [African] diaspora.
Malcolm X, one of the most influential pioneers of the idea, defined Black nationalism as follows:
The political philosophy of Black nationalism means that the Black man should be in control of the politics in his own community - that the politicians in the community should be Black men answerable only to the people of that Black community...
The economic philosophy of Black nationalism means that the Black man in the Black community should be permitted to be re-educated to the point where he can see how to establish his own businesses and factories and control the economy of his own community whereby he can employ himself, clothe himself, and house himself instead of having to be a welfare recipient or constantly begging the White man downtown.
And the social philosophy of Black nationalism is that the Black man should be proud of his own society, he should be ready and willing at all times to eliminate the ills and evils of his own society, and thereby not having to force himself into White society where he is not wanted.
(emphasis added)
Malcolm X speaks at a news conference in New York on his concept of Black nationalism, March 12, 1964
Black nationalism is circumscribed by four key tenets: pride in Black racial identity or in Black people (and often in what they have accomplished in history), the redemption of Africa for African people (from exploitation by foreign powers), Black economic self-sufficiency, and Black political self-determination. For the last two to work most efficiently, many people who identify with Black nationalism have also advocated for racial separatism.
But it is important that we understand Black nationalism through a broad historical lens. ‘Similar to other ideologies,’ says Blain, ‘Black nationalism is neither static nor monolithic.’ There are still certain boundaries to consider. For example, there have been Black radicals who identify themselves with communism, but in her research, Blain found that Black women who embraced Black nationalism usually subscribed to a community-oriented brand of capitalism and adopted this as a framework for Black liberation.
On the basis of these two perspectives – Malcolm’s and Blain’s – Black women have contributed much to the development of Black nationalist theory all over the world.
Malcolm, from the view of a man, emphasizes the role of the Black man in the process of nation-building. But what did Black women have to say about the role of the Black woman in that process and what Black people on a whole should be doing to make Black collective progress a reality?
Let’s take a look.