Black Women Organize: From the International Council of the Women of the Darker Races of the World, to STAR, and the Combahee River Collective
By Lizzie McCord
Dr. Alana Murray, a middle school principal and Tiferet Ani, a teacher educator, both with Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, shared resources for teaching about Black women’s activism during the 2021 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action Curriculum Fair.
They began the session by sharing some historical context for Black women’s organizing, giving special consideration to the work of the Combahee River Collective, which organized more intersectionally than existing groups of Black women who were organizing. They shared a quote from the Combahee River Collective’s 1977 statement emphasizing Black feminism as a movement for understanding “simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face” and had workshop participants share their interpretations and thoughts on the quote.
The quote then led into a discussion on the importance of sharing the history of Black people in all of their identities, not just the single story of their Blackness.
For example, Sojourner Truth can be taught in units on both Black and women’s history. The workshop leaders emphasized that even in spaces that strive to be diverse, the idea of teaching the entirety of a person is often still missed. This also reflects how students in the classroom are seen, as their own identities can feel limited by the structure of classroom discussion.
Murray and Ani shared an example of teaching about Marsha P. Johnson’s activism, which included images to emphasize the full extent of her activism beyond Stonewall. One interesting discussion which this brought up among attendees and presenters was how to teach about language, since Johnson’s organization STAR (straight transvestite action revolutionaries) contains a word which today is considered outdated and offensive. Ani suggested asking both educators and students to interrogate their own language, and also to teach about the difference between terms like transvestite, transgender, and drag queen. Although these conversations may be hard or uncomfortable, presenters urged attendees to consider whose comfort is prioritized in their classrooms, and to be inclusive of Black Queer and Trans youth they may teach.
Finally, the presenters recommended making connections to current events and existing activist organizations which connect to the historical subjects, such as the Okra Project and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute.
The chat was lively throughout the session, concluding with the sharing of several books for children and young adults which share stories of Queer and Trans youth of color.
Alana Murray is an educator-activist who has taught world history on both the middle- and high-school levels and currently serves as a middle school principal at Shady Grove Middle School in Montgomery County, Maryland public schools. Tiferet Ani is a social studies specialist for Montgomery County Public Schools and 9th grade U.S. History teacher at Northwood HS in Silver Spring.
Lizzie McCord is a history major and Teaching for Change volunteer in the 2020-2021 school year.