“I Am a Revolutionary Black Woman”: Black Power Women and Armed Resistance

This presentation centers on the “Revolutionary Black Woman,” an identity and politics that was anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-sexist and committed to the liberation of all people. Using the activism and thoughts of Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, Afeni Shakur, and Safiya Bukhari, this presentation presents an analysis of armed resistance and Black women during the Black Power Movement. Women’s involvement in Black Power organizations, particularly those that held a commitment to armed warfare, have yet to be fully examined. And while the notions of “militant Black men with guns” monopolizes the public and scholarly imagination, it does not account for the women involved in this movement nor does it fully appreciate how and why these women activists used armed warfare for the purpose of changing social, political, and economic structures. I contend that Revolutionary Black women understood revolutionary violence as a necessary component of the liberation struggle.

This presentation also explores the governmental response to Revolutionary Black Women. To organize – or attempt to organize – a revolutionary movement in the United States was nothing short of treason. The United States government reacted accordingly, and waged a brutal campaign against radical activists. The U.S. federal government did not simply seek to compromise Black Power groups; it prioritized the very destruction of the Black Power movement. Centering on the narratives of Revolutionary Black women such as Assata Shakur reveals how Black women experienced repression from the United States Government, and elucidates the range of gender-specific tactics used by the state to destroy Black revolutionary women.