A review by shuly
But Some of Us Are Brave: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men: Black Women's Studies by Barbara Smith (feminist), Patricia Bell-Scott, Akasha Gloria Hull

4.0

But Some Of Us Are Brave is a wonderful introduction to Black feminist history. I've read a number of anthologies of Black feminist theory which skim over the earlier history of a Black women's feminism in the backdrop of the movements 50s and 60s. Maybe with a few notes or an essay you'll be introduced to the origins of the school of thought but because Black feminism covers such a wide-range, I often read anthologies that are focused much more heavily on the work of later scholars.

What I appreciate about Akasha Gloria Hull's anthology is the historical focus. It was first published in 1982 (the second edition was in 2016) and many of the essays focus on earlier organizing experiences or on study of pre-1960s Black women's history/culture. The sections, "Searching for Sisterhood: Black Feminism" and "Creative Survival: Preserving Mind, Body, and Spirit" were the most enlightening for me and help contextualize many of the conversations being had in feminism today, but I also enjoyed combing over the bibliographies and suggested syllabi offered, many of the books/articles listed are works that have been largely forgotten over the past decades and deserve renewed attention.