A powerful article by Bernice McNair Barnett explores why black women are still invisible and unrecognized as leaders in the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Based on 36 personal interviews and multiple published and archived sources, the author demonstrates that black women in the South have played a prominent role in the struggle for their rights. However, the main obstacle to recognizing their leadership roles was discrimination based on race, gender, and class, both in society and academic literature.
The images of female activists in scholarly research are subject to a number of biases. These include stereotypes of poor black women being passive members of society and a preference for middle-class activists over ones from more modest social backgrounds. Questionnaires compiled by Barnett asked interviewees to choose between different leadership roles and relate civil rights activists to these categories. The findings demonstrated that male activists and especially Martin Luther King were rated much higher than their female counterparts. Among the intrinsically “feminine” roles in civil rights activism, the respondents identified mobilization and fundraising (Barnett, 1993, p. 172). Moreover, research on social movements in America focuses on men and the elite as the vanguard of protest. In turn, the early feminist scholarship places great emphasis on the activism of middle-class white women.
The author’s findings demonstrate that although leadership was interpreted as a multifunctional category, the distribution of roles was gender-, race-, and class-oriented. While sexist attitudes and economic hardships often prevented black women from being recognized in the social movements, they have made significant and undeniable contributions to the struggle for rights.
Question: According to this study, what are the main reasons why the role of Black women leaders has remained “invisible” and unrecognized?
Reference
Barnett, B. M. (1993). Invisible southern black women leaders in the civil rights movement: The triple constraints of gender, race, and class. Gender & Society, 7(2), 162–182.