Too heavy a load: black women in defense of themselves, 1894-1994

Abstract

A history of the struggle of black women to attain equality and break away from exploitation. At the turn of the century, when African-Americans faced lyching, mob violence, segregation, and disenfranchisement, African-American women stepped forward with a plan of organized resistance. Thus began a century of black women organizing on behalf of their race and themselves. This work explores the efforts of black women to define and explain themselves as well as race and gender issues to white and black men. This history highlights their persistent struggle against racism, male chauvinism and negative stereotypes; it also brings to light and celebrates early 20th-century African-American women's unlauded support for women's rights, civil rights, and civil liberties. The book covers how black women sought to hold their race and gender identity in balance while being pulled in different directions by the agendas of white women and black men. Finally, it tells the larger story of how Americans began the century measuring racial progress by the status of black women but gradually became to focus primarily on the status of black men - the masculinization of America's racial consciousness.