Reflections Unheard: Black Women in Civil Rights

Reflections Unheard: Black Women in Civil Rights (12).
A film by Nevline Nnaji.
US, 2013, 81 minutes.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self Defence (1966 – 2016) Black History Studies presents a series of screenings that look at the role of women in the Black Panther Party in March 2016 for International Women's Month.

Where do Black women activists fit into the epochal struggles for equality and liberation during the 1960s and 70s? This feature-length documentary unearths the story of black women's political marginalization—between the male-dominated Black Power movement and second wave feminism, which was largely white and middle class—showing how each failed to recognize black women's overlapping racial and gender identities. Archival footage and in-depth interviews with former members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), SNCC's Black Women's Liberation Committee, the Black Panther Party, Third World Women's Alliance, and the National Black Women's Feminist Organization reveal how black women mobilized, fought for recognition, and raised awareness of how sexism and class issues affected women of color within and outside The Black Power Movement and mainstream feminism. Prominently featured activists include Frances Beale, Angela Davis, Kola Boof, Nikki Giovanni, Rosemari Mealy, Judy Richardson, Gwendolyn Simmons, Deborah Singletary, and Eugenia Wiltshire. Required viewing for Women's Studies, African American Studies, and students of the Civil Rights Movement.