Hi, I’m Jackie Strohm, the Prevention & Resource Coordinator at the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. Welcome to this episode of History You Should Know, part of the PA Centered Podcast.
To celebrate and highlight stories of people who advanced the anti-sexual violence movement, particularly Black women, we are sharing a series of shorter episodes so you can learn all about the people and events that contributed to our movement
During today’s episode we’re going to learn about The Combahee River Collective, who are best known for publishing the Combahee River Collective Statement in 1977.
The Combahee River Collective was started by a small group of Black lesbian feminists in Boston in 1974.  
Members of the Collective were previously involved in the Boston chapter of the National Black Feminist Organization. But after experiencing homophobia, they broke off from the larger organization. 
Founding and early members included Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, Demita Frazier, Cheryl Clarke, Akasha Hull, Margo Okazawa-Rey, Chirlane McCray, and Audre Lorde.
In an article written by Tisa Anders of Black Past, she describes the Collective as, quote, “For the first time in history, Black women openly and unapologetically communicated their sexual orientations in the midst of their social justice work, no longer trading their silence for permission to engage in political struggle.”
They took their name, the Combahee River Collective, from a book, co-founder Barbara Smith owned, that detailed the historic Combahee River Raid and the instrumental part Harriet Tubman played in the military operation that freed 750 enslaved people. Tubman was the only woman known to have led a military operation during the American Civil War.
The Collective was active between 1974 and 1980, and are best known for their Combahee River Collective Statement. This document, released in April of 1977, was one of the first explorations of the intersection of multiple oppressions. Demita Frazier, Beverly Smith, and Barbara Smith were the primary authors of the statement.
In the statement, they describe the evolution of the Collective, starting as a consciousness-raising group, but quickly recognizing the need to do political work and serve as an emotional support group. In 1976, with the addition of new members, they became a study group where they could share readings and writings on Black feminism. They also discussed the possibility of starting a Black feminist publication. 
The begining of the statement says, quote, “The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives. As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face.”
The Collective was critical of mainstream white feminism, pointing out the discrimination and bigotry that many white feminists directed toward women of color, poor women, LGBTQ women, and others during the second wave period of feminism.  In the statement, it says, quote, “One issue that is of major concern to us and that we have begun to publicly address is racism in the white women’s movement. As Black feminists we are made constantly and painfully aware of how little effort white women have made to understand and combat their racism, which requires among other things that they have a more than superficial comprehension of race, color, and Black history and culture. Eliminating racism in the white women’s movement is by definition work for white women to do, but we will continue to speak to and demand accountability on this issue.”
On page 68 of the book, Intersectionality by Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge, one of the co-founders of the Collective, Barbara Smith, said, “Combahee was really so wonderful because it was the first time that I could be all of who I was in the same place. That I didn’t have to leave my feminism  outside the door to be accepted as I would in a conservative Black political context. I didn’t have to leave my lesbianism outside. I didn’t have to leave my race outside, as I might in an all white-women’s context where they didn’t want to know all of that. So, it was just really wonderful to be able to be our whole selves and to be accepted in that way.” She goes on to say, “…the Combahee created, a place where we could be ourselves and where we were valued. A place without homophobia, a place without racism, a place without sexism.”
The Combahee River Collective used an approach to community organizing that centered the most marginalized group in their liberation work, in this case, Black women.
The statement reads, “This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else’s oppression. […] sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in Black women’s lives as are the politics of class and race. We […] find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely sexual.”
 It goes on to say, quote, "If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free, since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all systems of oppression."
This framework continues to be used today in movements such as Black Lives Matter.
Members of the collective were actively involved in political struggles across Massachusetts, including desegregation in Boston schools and community campaigns against police brutality. 
In 1979, 12 black women were murdered in Boston within the span of five months. There was little media coverage and no public acknowledgement from the police or mainstream media that the victims may have been targeted because of their race and gender. The Collective launched and coordinated an awareness campaign, releasing a series of pamphlets condemning the murders and calling attention to the racialized, sexual violence Black women face. The Collective mobilized communities to protest how the Boston Police Department and the media handled the murders. This culminated in a 500 person march on April 28, 1979 at the Boston Common where women protested racial and sexual violence.
Although meetings of the collective ended in 1980, the final sentence from their statement gives voice to the continuation of shared commitment, quote: “As Black feminists and Lesbians we know that we have a very definite revolutionary task to perform and we are ready for the lifetime of work and struggle before us.” 
Their greatest impact was in preparing the way for current-day community organizing among people of color who face both racial and sexual oppression.
Thanks for listening to this episode of History You Should Know, part of the PA Centered Podcast. To learn more about the Combahee River Collective, check out the resources shared in the episode description. To learn more about the history of the anti-sexual violence movement, check out PCAR’s free History and Philosphy eLearning course at campus.nsvrc.org.