The Black feminist movement of the 1970s built on a long history of Black women's activism to center the way racism and sexism affect Black women at the same time. From this movement came Alice Walker's "womanism" in the 1980s and Kimberlé Crenshaw's "intersectionality" in the 1990s, two ideas that connect modern scholarship to earlier Black women's resistance.

Why This Matters for the AP African American Studies Exam

This topic helps you trace continuity and change across Black women's activism, which is a common way the exam asks you to think. You can connect 1700s and 1800s figures like Jarena Lee, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman to 1970s organizers and to later scholars, showing how earlier resistance shaped new frameworks.

It also gives you a required source, the "Combahee River Collective Statement" (1977), that you can analyze and use as evidence. When a question asks about systems of oppression, naming and defining womanism and intersectionality lets you write with precision instead of vague generalizations.

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Key Takeaways

Black women resisted racism and sexism long before the 1970s, and the Black feminist movement drew directly on that earlier activism.
The Combahee River Collective was a Boston-based Black feminist and lesbian organization named after Harriet Tubman's Combahee River raid, which freed over 700 people during the Civil War.
The Collective's 1977 statement argued that freeing Black women would require ending all systems of oppression, including racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.
Alice Walker coined "womanist" in the 1980s, opposing racism in feminist spaces and sexism in Black communities.
Kimberlé Crenshaw introduced "intersectionality" in the 1990s as a framework for how overlapping identities interact with systems of inequality and privilege.
Know the right name, decade, and definition for each term, because mixing them up is the easiest way to lose points.

The Black Feminist Movement and Earlier Activism

Black women have resisted injustice throughout U.S. history, both as enslaved and free people. In the 1700s and 1800s, activists like Jarena Lee, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman fought against oppression and highlighted the particular ways Black women experienced both racism and sexism.

The Black feminist movement of the 1970s drew inspiration from that long tradition. Instead of treating racism and sexism as separate problems, it focused on how they affect Black women together, and it argued for an approach to justice that addresses multiple forms of discrimination at once.

The Combahee River Collective

The Combahee River Collective was a Boston-based Black feminist and lesbian organization. Its name comes from Harriet Tubman's Combahee River raid, which freed over 700 African Americans during the Civil War, linking the group directly to a legacy of Black women's leadership.

In 1977, the Collective released the Combahee River Collective Statement. The statement argued that the liberation of Black women would benefit everyone, because achieving it would require dismantling all systems of oppression, including racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. This idea that different oppressions are interlocking, not separate, is central to the topic.

Alice Walker and Womanism

In the 1980s, writer Alice Walker coined the term "womanist." Womanism builds on earlier Black women's activism and responds to two problems at once:

Racism within feminist movements
Sexism within Black communities and liberation movements

By naming both, womanism centers the experiences and perspectives of Black women while staying connected to the broader fight for justice.

Kimberlé Crenshaw and Intersectionality

In the 1990s, scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw introduced the term "intersectionality." It is a framework for understanding the distinct experiences of Black women through the way their social, economic, and political identities interact with systems of inequality and privilege.

Intersectionality explains how race, gender, class, and other identities combine to create experiences of discrimination that you cannot fully understand by looking at any one category alone. It also ties modern Black feminist scholarship back to the long history of Black women's activism that this topic traces.

Required Source: "Combahee River Collective Statement" (1977)

This is the required source for the topic, so be ready to analyze it and use it as evidence. The statement articulated a Black feminist perspective that addressed race, gender, class, and sexuality together. It criticized mainstream feminism for ignoring race and criticized Black liberation movements for ignoring sexism, giving voice to struggles that single-issue politics left out.

Main ideas to remember:

Interlocking oppression: Racial, sexual, class, and heterosexual oppression are connected and cannot be addressed in isolation.
Black feminist identity: Politics should be built from Black women's own lived experiences.
Critique of existing movements: The statement challenged racism in the white women's movement and sexism in Black liberation movements.
The personal is political: Sharing personal experiences reveals broader systemic patterns.
A vision for liberation: Freeing Black women requires dismantling all systems of oppression while keeping an autonomous Black feminist movement.

How to Use This on the AP African American Studies Exam

Using Sources Effectively

When you work with the Combahee River Collective Statement, identify its main argument (that all systems of oppression are interlocking) and its dual critique of both mainstream feminism and Black liberation movements. Tie those points to the wider claim that Black women's liberation benefits everyone.

Continuity and Change

Be ready to connect earlier activists like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman to the 1970s movement and to later scholars. The throughline is Black women highlighting their unique experiences of racism and sexism across different eras.

Common Trap

Match each term to the correct person and decade: womanism with Alice Walker in the 1980s, and intersectionality with Kimberlé Crenshaw in the 1990s. Swapping these is an easy and avoidable mistake.

Common Misconceptions

Womanism and intersectionality are not the same thing. Womanism is Alice Walker's term from the 1980s; intersectionality is Kimberlé Crenshaw's term from the 1990s. They are related but have different authors, decades, and definitions.
The Black feminist movement did not begin in the 1970s out of nowhere. It drew on centuries of Black women's activism, including figures like Jarena Lee, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman.
The Combahee River Collective name is not random. It comes from Harriet Tubman's Combahee River raid during the Civil War, which freed over 700 people.
Intersectionality is not just a list of identities. It describes how identities interact with systems of inequality and privilege to produce distinct experiences, not just that someone holds more than one identity.
Black feminism is not only a critique of white feminism. It also challenges sexism within Black communities and movements, which is part of why womanism exists.

Vocabulary

The following words are mentioned explicitly in the College Board Course and Exam Description for this topic.

Term	Definition
Black feminist movement	A twentieth-century social and political movement led by Black women that challenged racism, sexism, and other systems of oppression while drawing inspiration from earlier Black women's activism.
Black women's activism	The historical efforts and resistance by Black women against injustice, oppression, racism, and sexism throughout United States history.
Combahee River Collective	A Boston-based Black feminist and lesbian organization founded in the 1970s that argued for the liberation of Black women through the destruction of all systems of oppression.
intersectionality	A framework introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the 1990s for understanding how Black women's social, economic, and political identities interact with systems of inequality and privilege to create distinct experiences.
marginalization	The process of being pushed to the edges or excluded from mainstream movements and power structures, as experienced by Black women in white feminist and Black political movements.
systems of oppression	Interconnected structures of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination that marginalize and disadvantage certain groups in society.
womanist	A term coined by Alice Walker in the 1980s that builds upon Black women's activism through opposition to racism in the feminist community and sexism in Black communities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is AP African American Studies 4.13 about?

AP African American Studies 4.13 explains how the twentieth-century Black feminist movement drew inspiration from earlier Black women activists. It focuses on the Combahee River Collective, Alice Walker's womanism, Kimberle Crenshaw's intersectionality, and the long history of Black women resisting racism and sexism together.

What did the Combahee River Collective argue?

The Combahee River Collective argued that Black women's liberation required ending interlocking systems of oppression, including racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Their 1977 statement connected Black feminist politics to lived experience and challenged both racism in feminist movements and sexism in Black political movements.

What is womanism?

Womanism is a term Alice Walker coined in the 1980s. In this topic, it refers to a framework rooted in Black women's activism that opposes racism in feminist spaces and sexism in Black communities, while centering Black women's experiences and perspectives.

What is intersectionality?

Intersectionality is Kimberle Crenshaw's 1990s framework for understanding how social, economic, and political identities interact with systems of inequality and privilege. It helps explain why Black women's experiences cannot be understood by looking at race or gender in isolation.

How are womanism and intersectionality different?

Womanism is Alice Walker's term from the 1980s and grows out of Black women's activism, culture, and critiques of racism and sexism. Intersectionality is Kimberle Crenshaw's 1990s analytical framework for explaining how identities interact with systems of power. They are related, but they are not the same term.

How should I use this topic on the AP African American Studies exam?

Use this topic to trace continuity and change in Black women's activism. Connect earlier leaders such as Jarena Lee, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman to twentieth-century Black feminism, then use the Combahee River Collective Statement as evidence for interlocking oppression and Black feminist political thought.