CFP: Black Women’s Activism in the Diaspora

Black Perspectives, the award-winning blog of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), invites blog posts for an online forum on the topic of Black women’s activism in the African Diaspora. Black women in the United States and the globe have implemented an array of strategies to challenge their marginalization and exclusion from national and global politics. The works of Ula Y. Taylor, Erik S. McDuffie, Keisha N. Blain, Ashley D. Farmer, Tiffany Florvil and others historicize the transnational activism of Black women in various locales across the diaspora. These works shed new light on the political activism of women such as Amy Jacques Garvey, Claudia Jones, Mittie Maude Lena Gordon, Audley “Queen Mother” Moore, and Audre Lorde. Their strategies ranged from challenging centralized male leadership in Black organizations, addressing sexism and racism in the Black Press, and leading political movements for the repatriation of people of African descent. Through their labor, these women were key agents of social change who significantly shaped the trajectory of the Black freedom struggle during the twentieth century and beyond.

Black Perspectives invites essays that construct narratives of Black women’s activism throughout the African Diaspora. The forum seeks to explore Black women’s activism outside of the US with special attention given to the latter half of the twentieth century up to the contemporary movement. We welcome contributors to submit guest posts that explore topics including, but not limited to the following:

• The Black feminist tradition in twentieth-century activism
• Black women’s intellectual contributions to the transnational Black Press
• The multitude of ways that Black women challenged sexism in social justice movements (including the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements)
• Black feminist intellectual connections to the African continent
• Black women’s contemporary activism in the era of Black Lives Matter

Submissions should be between 750 and 1500 words. They must be submitted to the senior editors no later than March 31, 2024 at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time. With your submission, please provide your bio (250-300 words) and a headshot (for use if your essay is accepted).

 All submissions will undergo a peer review process before they are accepted. Please click here for more details on the blog’s submission guidelines as well as information regarding format and citations.