Black Women Taught Us

Fearless essays that reclaim the work and words of Black women activists, abolitionists, and movement makers who have long fought for liberation and justice--from a beloved Teen Vogue columnist and an essential new voice in Black feminism.

Jenn M. Jackson has been known to bring deep historical acuity to some of the most controversial topics in America today. Now, in their first book, Jackson applies their critical analysis to the questions that have long energized their work: Why has Black women's freedom fighting been so overlooked throughout history, and what has our society lost in the meantime? A love letter to those who have been minimized and forgotten, this collection repositions Black women's intellectual and political work at the center of today's liberation movements.

Across thirteen original essays that explore the legacy and work of Black women writers and leaders--from Harriet Jacobs and Ida B. Wells to the Combahee River Collective and Audre Lorde--Jackson sets the record straight about Black women's longtime movement organizing, theorizing, and coalition building in the name of racial, gender, and sexual justice in the United States and abroad. These essays show, in both critical and deeply personal terms, how Black women have been at the center of modern liberation movements, despite the erasure and misrecognition of their efforts. Jackson illustrates how Black women have frequently done the work of liberation at great risk to their lives and livelihoods.

For a new generation of movement organizers and potential co-strugglers, Black Women Taught Us serves as a reminder that Black women were the first ones to teach us how to fight racism, how to name that fight, and how to imagine a more just world for all of us. A reclamation of an essential history, and a hopeful gesture towards a better political future, this is what listening to Black women looks like.

Jenn M. Jackson is an award-winning professor of Political Science at Syracuse University and a columnist for Teen Vogue, where they write the popular "Speak On It" column that "explores how today's social and political life is influenced by generations of racial and gender (dis)order." A queer genderflux androgynous Black woman, Jackson primary research is in Black Politics with a focus on racial trauma and threat, gender and sexuality, and social movements. This is their first book.

• Publisher: ‎Random House (January 23, 2024)
• Language: ‎English
• Hardcover: ‎368 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎0593243331
• ISBN-13: ‎9780593243336
• Item Weight: ‎1 pound