Two Black Women Who Made Us Feel Welcomed
This Sunday, July 16, is the birthday of two of our greatest freedom fighters—Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Assata Shakur. Tomorrow, as thousands of women all over the country walk together in sisterhood, we will honor their works with our steps.
These women lived in two different eras but there is a common thread in their stories—a radical love for our people. (What do you know about the abiding love of a Cancer woman?)
We know their names because they didn’t play about us. They were harassed and threatened but nothing could keep them from the fight for our freedom. In honor of their birthdays, here are three things we learned from Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Assata Shakur.
Speak the truth. Once considered the most famous Black woman in the United States, Ida B. Wells-Barnett single-handedly took on white supremacy and told the stories of Black men and women who had been lynched. She was on a mission to tell the truth and seek justice—and she never let up despite death threats and intimidation. Assata Shakur was targeted by the U.S. government for her political activities with the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army but continued to speak out against American imperialism, fascism, and racist repression. She still writes and speaks from Cuba where she was granted political asylum in 1984.
Strategize. If we want to win or succeed at anything, we have to have a strategy. A plan. Assata began organizing as a young student in New York and then moved to Oakland to join the Black Panther Party and later the Black Liberation Army. She learned political strategy as a member of these organizations and studied the strategies of freedom fighters in other parts of the world. Ida, who began investigating lynchings in the U.S. after a friend was lynched, knew the only way to end lynching was to show the horrors of American terrorism. She started writing articles in local journals and newspapers with facts and statistics and eventually published her research on lynchings in two books, one of which was “The Red Record,” a 100-page pamphlet that included graphic accounts. Her writings, in addition to an international speaking tour that took her to England, Scotland, and Wales, worked to shine a light on white American violence and the brutality of lynchings.
Don’t care what other people think of you. Both women provoked many people with their strong political views. Ida was seen as “too radical” by her contemporaries, and during World War I, the U.S. government placed her under surveillance, labeling her a dangerous "race agitator.” After her escape from prison in 1979, Assata was placed on the FBI’s most wanted list and is still considered an enemy of the state. But we don’t let those who oppress us tell us who our enemies are.
When we say we are the #DaughtersOf freedom fighters, waymakers, strategists, institution builders, it is not just hyperbole. This is what we’re made of. We are the #DaughtersOf Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Assata Shakur. How can we not win?
This weekend, host or join a Welcome Walk in your neighborhood and activate the power of this sisterhood. It’s not too late to put a pin on GirlTrek’s national map and tell us where you’ll be walking. You don’t have to drive anywhere. Just walk outside your front door.
And make sure to show us what radical welcome looked like for you this weekend, using #girltrek.
(Can’t put a pin on the map? Wear your superhero blue wherever you’re going tomorrow as an act of solidarity.)
The GirlTrek Team
