How We Get Free // Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective

"If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free." — Combahee River Collective Statement Winner of the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction In the last several years, Black feminism has reemerged as the analytical framework for the activist response to the oppression of trans women of color, the fight for reproductive rights, and, of course, the movement against police abuse and violence. The most visible organizations and activists connected to the Black Lives Matter movement speak openly about how Black feminism shapes their politics and strategies today. The interviews I have compiled in this book -- with the three authors of the Combahee River Collective Statement, Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, and Demita Frazier, #BlackLivesMatter cofounder Alicia Garza, and historian and activist Barbara Ransby -- are an attempt to show how these politics remain historically vibrant and relevant to the struggles of today. As Demita Frazier says, th