Why and How Black Women Should Revive Their Activist Roots

Brenda J. Allen

Sheila Radford-Hill. Further to Fly: Black Women and the Politics of Empowerment. Minneapolis, MN. University of Minnesota Press, 2000. 176 pages. Notes, bibliography, and index. $44.95 (cloth); $17.95 (paper).

According to Sheila Radford-Hill, entrenched poverty and social disintegration within segments of black America correspond directly with the decline of African American women’s political and social activism. Traditionally, black women in the United States were culture bearers and community builders: they "strengthened black cultural resistance to the devastating impact of racism in its myriad forms" (xx). However, Radford-Hill asserts that this powerful force has diminished significantly over the past 30 years, to the detriment of certain members of the black community.

Radford-Hill contends that black people will be released from economic blight and cultural malaise when black women recover their legacy of community activism. Thus, she issues a clarion call for black women to resuscitate their social and political power to rebuild black communities.

Radford-Hill is a feminist educator and activist currently employed as a division administrator at the Illinois State Board of Education. Her work centers on community, economic development, and educational policy. The title of the book "invokes the hope of future liberation and pays homage to the idea of flight as the quintessential metaphor of the black American experience" (xix).

In Further to Fly, Radford-Hill unearths and illuminates causes and effects of the decline of black women’s activist efforts. She also advocates and proposes strategies for empowerment, which she defines as "black women’s agency expressed through social and political action" (xi).

The diminution of black women’s political and social power, claims Radford-Hill, stems from multiple developments, including the migration of upwardly mobile blacks from black communities to (mostly) white suburbs, the infamous Moynihan report (which disparaged the so-called black matriarchy), and misogynist tendencies of the black nationalist movement. She explains, for instance, that black nationalists often impugned black women’s desire to assume decision making roles, labeling them as counterrevolutionary. Consequently, intra-racial gender conflict arose as black activist groups tended to relegate black women to subservient roles. Moreover, some women willingly agreed to take a back seat to men to spotlight race rather than gender issues. Radford-Hill offers a compelling chronicle of the conditions and complexities of this era.

Although she identifies and explains numerous contributing factors for decreased activism among black women, Radford-Hill concentrates mainly on various historical developments in the feminist movement. In fact, she depicts her book as a "cultural critique of feminist theorizing" (xiv). For instance, she contends that second wave feminism obscured relationships between race, class, and gender by emphasizing sexist oppression and ignoring the race and class privilege of white middle class feminists.

Further, postmodern feminism disconnected itself from communities that need "leadership and direction" (15). Because of the estrangement between feminist thought and theorizing from empirical gender research and social action, academics neglected to engage people in understanding and changing their own social condition.

As black feminists grappled with these issues, and as they worked to be included in the academy, they also struggled to get other black women to believe that feminism was not limited to white women. These foci and others, according to Radford-Hill, distracted black women from traditional grassroots activism.

Radford-Hill offers numerous recommendations for closing the gap between feminist thought, theory, and action. To "integrate multiple theoretical and activist perspectives into significant and meaningful social change" (2), she encourages scholar-activists to return to the humanistic roots and activist orientation of traditional feminist thought. She urges them to advocate personal freedom through collective struggle, and to focus on contemporary social ills such as crime, AIDS, teen suicide, slum landlords, and welfare dependence. Further, she stresses the importance of engaging in strong economic advocacy. She notes that black and brown feminists often study effects of poverty without analyzing economic forces. Thus, she endorses research on relationships between economic distress and sexuality and gender identity.

She also entreats feminists to engage in community building activities. She recommends that they organize and mobilize women across class, gender, and race distinctions; educate women who are not politically involved; develop and support relevant public policy; and develop networks of professional and grassroots organizations.

To accomplish these and other goals, Radford-Hill advocates an "authentic feminism," which seeks to develop, implement, and disseminate research that explicitly delves into social realities of women, as women themselves perceive their realities. Authentic feminism upholds traditional feminist values of political commitment and social transformation. For researchers, authentic feminism elicits and requires participatory methods such as ethnographic research, oral histories, and case studies. Moreover, scholars should apply their research to rebuild "connections between feminist theorizing, social interaction, and social change" (xiii).

Radford-Hill specifies her audience as "committed feminists and other women" (xx). Sometimes she speaks directly to black feminist academics: "black feminists cannot continue simply to write to each other from protected rooms and tenured positions in academe" (92). She also calls upon other women of color, and she observes that white and black feminists can become partners in political activism. Later, she extends the invitation for community building to black men.

Yet, her ultimate audience is black women, all black women. "The idea is for black women to embrace each other in pursuit of the historical values inherent in black womanhood" (xxii). "Come as you are," she urges black women, " and do your part" (xxii). "All you need is an indignant heart, an insurgent spirit, and a willingness to act" (xxii).

This book might be suitable for research and teaching about a number of topics, including (but not limited to) feminism, women’s studies, black feminism, black women/women of color, political movements, United States history, and ethnic studies. Communication scholars interested in these and related topics might use this volume as a supplemental text, or as one of a set of primary readings.

Radford-Hill does a commendable job of tracing the history of black women’s contributions as well as the decrease in their community activism. She also fulfills her promise to offer a critique of feminist theorizing, and she offers feasible strategies for a rebirth of black women’s social and political power.

However, she seems to assume that the reader is familiar with feminism(s) and feminist movements. Those who are not well versed may not always be able to discern the gist of her discussions related to these topics. In addition, Radford-Hill’s emphasis on local, grassroots action does not adequately stress the need for national or even state level policy development, which might have longer lasting and farther-reaching consequences. In addition, she places too much responsibility on the shoulders of black women, without also issuing an explicit, deliberate call for coalition building among all interested parties. Moreover, such coalitions might collaborate to effect change for all traditionally disenfranchised persons, which aligns with tenets of some black feminist perspectives (see, for example, Collins, 1991). However, these concerns may be beyond the purview of the book, which succeeds in offering an itinerary for black women to transcend contemporary circumstances through reviving their social and political power.

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