• 1963 – New York

  Pauli Marray addressed a crowd at the National Council of Negro Women Leadership Conference. Outlining the frustrations of sexism within the civil rights movement, Murray called for Black Women to fight against both racism and sexism. It was here that she coined the term “Jane Crow” to describe the dual oppression Black Women experience.

• 1973 – New York

  The Black Women’s Alliance was established, aiming to dispel Black matriarchy stereotypes, recognize Black Women’s unique oppression in slavery, and combat narratives about women’s role in the revolution. This group later became the Third World Women’s Alliance. 

• 1973 – San Francisco, California

  A historical press conference was organized by Eleanor Holmes Norton and Margret Sloan to combat sexist narratives among the Black community about Roe vs. Wade. There, the National Black Feminist Organization was established and an Eastern Regional Conference was announced. Over 200 women attended the first meeting.

• 1973 – San Francisco, California

  Black Women Organized for Action was established by fifteen women challenging the San Francisco Mayor’s Committee on the Status of Women. Although the committee aimed to determine the status of women, Black Women were entirely overlooked. The group emphasized political action and leadership roles. 

• 1974 – Boston

  The Combahee Collective was established by Barbra Smith to highlight and address the ways Lesbian Black Women were neglected by feminist organizations and social movements. The Combahee River Collective became a key framework for Black Feminists. 

• 1975 – Chicago

  The National Alliance of Black Women was formed by Brenda Eichelberger out of a chapter of the National Black Feminist Organization. Among many other accomplishments, the organization established a Black Women’s Bill of Rights. 

• 2012 – Twitter, USA

  Janet Mock created #girlslikeus to support Jenna Talackova, a transgender woman Miss Universe pageant contestant disqualified for “not being born a natural female”. The hashtag has over 100,00 tweets and is used by trans women to share life experiences, advocate for trans rights, and celebrate trans women’s accomplishments. 

• 2013 – Chicago

  The Black Youth Project 100 was established as an organizing group of young, queer, Black feminists working to address contemporary struggles for freedom. Although it originally started in Chicago, the organization has expanded its chapters nationwide and uses digital platforms to increase outreach. 

• 2014- Twitter, USA

  Twitter user and activist @FeministaJones created the twitter campaign #YouOKSis? To raise awareness of Black Women’s experiences of street harassment and promote helpful bystander interventions. 

• 2015, Twitter

  Established by Kimberly Crenshaw and the African American Policy Forum during a week-long webinar series, #Sayhername was created to bring visibility to Black Women police violence victims and dispel narratives that police brutality only affects Black Men. The hashtag gained over 170,000 tweets from 2015-2017 and has expanded to a global, in-person movement. The movement, existing both digitally and in-person, creates a public eulogy of Black Women victims and demands visibility of victims and concrete policy interventions.

• 2020, Twitter

  Originally used on facebook by Alicia Garza in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter has since evolved. After Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, #Blacklivesmatter saw a surge in tweets protesting police brutality. George Floyd’s murder in 2020 saw a resurgence in Black Lives Matter, creating a global social movement composed of online protests and discourse, media attention, in-person demonstrations, and policy reform. 

Sources

Springer, Kimberly. “No Longer Divided Against Ourselves.” Living For the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968–1980, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2005, pp. 45–64. 

Jackson, Sarah J., et al. #hashtagactivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice. The MIT Press, 2020. 

Carruthers, Charlene A. Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements. Beacon Press, 2019.