Listen to Black Women
By Felicia Davis, President & CEO of Chicago Foundation for Women
February is celebrated as Black History Month, a time when we honor Black Americans and the many contributions they’ve made to our collective history. But stories shared about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other notable figures are only half the story; too often, Black women are left out. Most Americans know of Rosa Parks, the Black woman who famously refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus in Alabama and helped to ignite the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. Equally well known is Coretta Scott King, the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a formidable force in her own right. But a majority of Americans would have a hard time naming other important female leaders of the Civil Rights Movement:
Aileen Hernandez began her activism as a student leader at Howard University in legally segregated Washington, D.C., during World War II. In 1964, she became the first woman and the first African American to be appointed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), from which she resigned because of its unwillingness to address sexual harassment. She also was the first African American president of the National Organization for Women.
During her freshman year at Swarthmore College, Judy Richardson joined the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) group. She left Swarthmore after her freshman year to join the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She later became the series associate producer and education director for Eyes on the Prize, the seminal fourteen-hour PBS series on the Civil Rights Movement.
Diane Nash led the Nashville Sit-in Movement and coordinated the Birmingham, Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi Freedom Ride after the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) was forced to discontinue it. Her tactical and unwavering support of the Freedom Riders was critical to their success throughout the South. After her work with the Freedom Riders, she returned to her hometown of Chicago and became an advocate for fair housing.
Of course, the Civil Rights era is but a small slice of the accomplishments of Black women. In the years before, women like Ida Barnett Wells and Mary Church Terrell were leaders in the fight for women’s suffrage. In the years since, Black women, like Marsha P. Johnson and Tarana Burke, join the chorus of women before them, leading the pursuit of racial and gender justice.
As a Black woman at the head of a community foundation dedicated to achieving gender equity, I want to uplift the voices of all women who are often unheard; this includes Black women. Time and time again, we’ve heard the statement ‘listen to Black women.’ I invite you to join me in reflecting on what it will take to actually listen, and what we might accomplish when their voices are centered. I hope you believe, as I do, we cannot have a movement for women’s equity and justice without having all our sisters in the fight.
As a movement, we still have a lot of ground to cover. Black women continue to suffer the economic and health consequences of COVID-19 at alarming rates. Long-standing systemic racism and marginalization of communities of color have caused Black women to experience increased vulnerability to negative health outcomes. Black women make up a large portion of front-line workers and heads of households; if they become infected with COVID-19, they have higher risks of complications and mortality than their non-Black counterparts. We must continue to explore how Black women and Women of Color receive information about the risks, the impact COVID-19 has on their day-to-day lives, and how to address this long term on the road to recovery.
Violence continues to plague Black women as well. Instances of violence against them are often overlooked, not investigated, or blamed on the victim. I am proud to have led CFW last year in designating targeted grant funding to support organizations addressing violence against Black and trans women across Chicago, including a special grant to the Chicago Reader to ensure their stories get told. The Chicago Reader’s recent in-depth look into 51 missing or murdered women whose cases have largely gone unsolved sheds more light on the many women whose bodies were discarded in alleyways, found only on garbage pick-up days. It’s long overdue for us as a community to hear their families’ cries and continue demanding investigations into these crimes and justice for these women.
When we listen to Black women, everyone benefits. In the recent presidential election, Black women turned out in droves — 93%, to be exact, voted for the Biden-Harris ticket. In addition, women like Stacey Abrams, Nse Ufot, Deborah Scott, and Tamieka Atkins led efforts to combat voter suppression and continue working today by mobilizing and empowering communities who’ve long felt forgotten, to ensure their voices are heard.
I’m inspired by these examples and by the many women I get to work with every day, whether it’s the young people part of the Status of Women and Girls Working Group Youth Advisory Council, the Willie’s Warriors Cohort Members, CFW’s 2021 Impact Awards Honorees, or my fellow Women of Color philanthropic leaders across the Chicago region. We can no longer stay silent; our work is too important. To our colleagues and friends, we can be more successful if we work together. Valuing each other’s voice, perspective, and lived experience is the first step toward true coalition building. The first step is to listen.
This article was originally published as part of Chicago Foundation for Women’s “GoWomen” Monthly Newsletter which you can read here.
