Editor’s Note

It was an honor and a pleasure to co-edit this issue of Souls with Black feminist veterans Barbara Smith and Margo Okazawa-Rey on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Combahee River Collective (CRC), a group to which Margo and Barbara and a host of legendary Black feminists belonged. Their continued passion and commitment to radical social transformation is truly an inspiration.

I was in a meeting recently with a group of young activists from Black Youth Project 100 and the CRC statement was mentioned. “That is sacred text” whispered an organizer in her early twenties. The power and relevance of the statement four decades after it was penned speaks volumes.

In a period in which struggles against white supremacy, hetero-patriarchy, and misogyny are often disparaged by high brow Leftist intellectuals and pragmatic “it’s all about class” post-racialists, the CRC statement dispels some important myths. First of all, the Black feminist manifesto written in 1977 was not a divisive document but a unifying one. It was a broad-based platform that addressed the myriad of issues confronting Black women including poverty, racism, and violence. They recognized that those issues impacted Black men and other oppressed communities as well. To center Black women’s oppression was a radically inclusive proposition that ultimately represented a liberatory agenda for all, since Black women’s oppression overlapped with almost every other oppressed group. Second, it was explicitly anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist. This was not some kind of narrow “me only” identity politics, but rather a sophisticated critique of global capitalism and war. Finally, the statement was a call to action in very explicit terms.

The articles in this issue take up the divergent themes and issues addressed by the work of the CRC: reproductive justice, self-determination, violence, healing, radical politics, and resistance. Two of the articles offer analyses of the CRC as a political project. The group-authored essay on intersectionality in the Black Panther Party mirrors the kind of political and intellectual collaboration that defined CRC.

At this juncture of political conservatism and unapologetic racism and misogyny at the highest levels of government, this example of the resilience of Black women’s organizing reminds us of what is possible, even under dire conditions. Today, as queer Black feminists are leading from the center of the Movement for Black Lives, we can feel that the spirit of Combahee is alive and well.

Hopefully the amazing articles in this special issue will not only spur debate and inclusive practices of remembering, but will also spur readers to collective action.

With enormous gratitude to Margo, Barbara, and our brilliant managing editor, Marco Roc.