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Women In The Civil Rights Movement

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In “Invisible Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class,” by Bernice McNair Barnett, Barnett explores the intersectionality of race, gender, and class and its effects on African American women and their unique experience in the Civil Rights Movement. During the Civil Rights Movements, women were allowed to participate, and they even played essential roles that helped to further the movement. From helping to organize the famous Bus Boycott, raising money, and initiating protests, black women in the Civil Rights Movement had a significant hand in creating one of the social movements. However, because of their gender, African American women weren’t allowed to receive any recognition for …show more content…
Barnett writes, “Although race, gender, and class restraints generally prohibited their being recognized articulators, spokesperson, and media favorites, these women did perform a multiplicity of significant leadership roles, such as the initiation and organization of action, the formulation of tactics, and the provision of crucial resources necessary to sustain the movement.” Even though, black women were an essential part in the movement, they stayed hidden, their work remained unnoticed, and they had to fight against three intersecting forces. Firstly, one of the reasons why women remained in the background was due to sexism. Since the movement centered around the church the ideals and structure transferred into the Civil Rights Movement. Barnett writes, “Indeed, in the Southern social structure of the 1950s, women were expected to adhere to the adage that they should be seen, not heard, and in Southern Baptist churches women’s place was ‘in the pew’ and ‘out the pulpit.’” In the church, there is a male-dominated hierarchy, and black women are forced to stay subordinate and remain in the background, careful of never upsetting the balance. Barnett also regards how traditional gender roles affect black women in the movement. Barnett writes, “‘White society has long decreed that while ‘women’s place is in the home,’ Black woman’s place is in the white woman's kitchen.”’ This idea shows the racism was still prevalent during this time period and the regard for white women to be at a higher standard than black women in the Civil Rights Movement. Also, stereotypes about black women being poor, prone to becoming pregnant at young ages, and ‘bastards’ continued to show racism and prejudice in the movement. Not only does racism and sexism affect black women in

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