“Black Women Taught Us: The Power of Black Feminism in Shaping a Just Society”

In an era where the terms “intersectionality” and “feminism” have been turned into pejoratives by critics, a new book promises to set the record straight about how Black feminism has promoted a more just society.

“Black Women Taught Us: An Intimate History of Black Feminism” is a collection of 11 essays dedicated to Black women changemakers. The collection was conceived and written by scholar Jenn M. Jackson, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Syracuse University.

Dr. Jackson combines the expertise from their acclaimed “Black Feminist Politics” academic course with the power of their own story in “Black Women Taught Us.” The result is a book that pays homage to Black foremothers such as Ida B. Wells, Audre Lorde, and Harriet Jacobs while helping readers understand how layered Black women’s identities really are.

“This book is the culmination of my experience coming to and living through Black feminism,” Dr. Jackson tells theGrio in an interview. “It’s the discovery of Black feminism in a bookstore when I was in my 20s and had never picked up a Black feminist text.”

Dr. Jackson grew up in Oakland, California, during the 1980s and ’90s in a loving family, but encountered a world often hostile to their Black body, with its six-foot frame and brown skin.

“Experiences like Jackson’s highlight how race and gender intersect differently for Black women and femmes, despite promises of a mainstream feminism that is supposed to be inclusive of all women.”

Acknowledging and understanding intersectionality has become even more important in a time when gender wars dominate podcasts and social media debates alike, often lowering discourse to petty levels that frequently demonize Black feminists.

Dr. Jackson posits that Black feminism shouldn’t be feared. Many Black and African communities historically had societies that were matrilineal — meaning kinship and inheritance were traced through mothers and female elders who all received due respect.

“This book is really an effort to push those boundaries, not just for Black people, but for all people to say, ‘We can show up however we want to.”

“This book is giving people permission to be their full selves, to bring all of it with them into every room, into every space and at every table,” Dr. Jackson continues. “And I think that’s how we should be able to live.”