"Barbara Smith" (December 16,1946)

Is an American lesbian feminist and socialist who has played a significant role in building and sustain Black Feminism in the United States.Since the early 1970s she has been active as a

critic,teacher,author,lecturer,author,scholar,and publisher of Black feminist.She has also taught at numerous colleges and universities over the twenty five years.Her essays reviews,articles,short stories,and literary criticism have appeared in a range of publications,including The New Times Book Review,The Black Scholar,Ms., Gay Community New,The Guardian,The Village Voice,Conditions,and The Nations.Barbara has a twin sister,Beverly Smith,who is also a lesbian feminist activist and writer.Barbara was born in Cleveland,Ohio.her family,wanting to find better economic opportunities and escape from Jim Crow racism,moved from George and settled in Ohio.Gartrell Smith,the twins' daddy,was absent from family life.Their mama Hilda Becall met Gartrell Smith during her attendance at Fort Valley State University (then Fort Valley College) in the mid 1940s.Employed by the armed services,Gartrell was possibly stationed in Cleveland when he and Hilda eloped.Hilda's family did not approve of the marriage,and the relationship fell apart,forcing a then-pregnant Hilda to return home to her family.Barbara and her sister were born prematurely.Barbara died from complications of rheumatic fever when Barbara was 9,and the siblings were brought up by their extended family,with their grandmother as primary caretaker.The siblings grew up in a working-class family,living in a two-family house that included their grandmother,two aunts,the husband of an aunt,themselves,and (formerly) their mama.Barbara credits her dedication to scholarship due to her upbringing.Barbara grand mama had been a schoolteacher to African-American teachers students when she lived in Georgia,and her aunts attended school whenever they could.On education,Barbara recalled,"I never was interested in any other grade except for an A.  [laugh] that wasn't because someone was threatening me at home.It was not about that.It was like,"We go to work every day.You go to school.School is your job.There was no intimidation around achieving in school.It was just like,you, have a mind,you're supposed to use it.Despite being academically gifted and attending well-funded resourced public schools,Barbara as a shy child,did escape humiliating experiences of racism.Her family rarely spoke on issues of Jim Crow racism in the south or economic racial disparities in their hometown,she recalled instances of racial discrimination:believing that she was "ugly"because she grew up not seeing anyone "who faintly looked like [her] being looked at as a beautiful person"in the media,along with experiencing the racial hostility of a French instructor who believed she did not belong in her summer French seminar.A gifted student,Barbara excelled in her honors and performed well on her PSAT.Her grades and test scores gained her entrance to Mount Holyoke College in 1965.Fatigued by the racial animosity at the college,she transferred to the New School and pursued study in social sciences,later returned to graduate from Mount Holyoke for her senior year in 1969.Being born in segregation,"she believed it was easy to develop a political consciousness.As high students Barbara and Beverley participated in school desegregation protest in 1964.Before entering college,Barbara became a volunteer for CORE in 1965,and during college,she participated in Students for Democratic Society activities.As Black Nationalism emerged from the Civil Rights Movement.She became extremely put off by the sexism she experienced in male-dominated groups,and turned to black feminist.Barbara settled in Boston after receiving an MA in Literature from the University of  Pittsburgh.Beverly staff position at Ms.Magazine allowed her obtain critical contacts,and through the publication,met Margaret Sloan,a founder of the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO),intrigued by the call for attendance NBFO'S Eastern Regional Conference n 1974,Barbara caucused with women from the Boston area and made contacts in order to establish a Boston NBFO chapter.In 1975,with her sister and Demita Frazier,a Chicago activist,established a Boston NBFO chapter.Due to lack of direction from the national organization,the Boston chapter maintained an independent nature,deciding as a group to focus on consciousness-raising and grassroots organizing that assisted the poor and working classes of Boston.Frustrated by the lack of the NBFO,the group decided to spilt entirely and form a separate group.Named after a successful military operation led by Harriet Tubman during the Civil War at a river in South Carolina,Combahee River Collective moved quickly to write a manifesto.The Combahee River Collective Statement outlines the objective of the group,also identifies the group on the grounds of being a class-conscious,sexuality-affirming black feminist organization.Recognizing lesbianism as a legitimate identity reinforced the debate with in black feminism and the larger women's movement.As a socialist Black feminist organization,the collective emphasized the intersections of racial,gender,heterosexism,and class oppressions in the lives of African-American and other women of color.Like other black feminist organizations at the time,Combahee articulated many of the concerns specific to African-American women,from anger with African-American men for dating and marrying white women,to internal conflict over skin color,hair texture,and facial features,to the differences the mobility of white & African-American women...also attacking the myth of black matriarch and stereotypical portrayals of African-American women in popular culture.Addiitionally,the collective worked on issues such as "reproductive rights,rape,prison reform,sterilization abuse,violence against women,health care,and racism within the white women's movement.The collective's organizational structure was deliberately not articulated to avoid hierarchy and provide members with a sense of equality,and was cited in a memo author by Barbara as essential to ensuing that "black feminism [surviving] as a radical movement.Combahee members organized retreats to discuss issues within the statement,ways, to incorporate black feminism in the consciousnesses as pressing issues in their own communities.The organization lost momentum,as conversations of lesbianism and educational advancement alienated some members from participating.As a result leadership conflict and interpersonal disputes,memberships in Combahee declined and the lasting meeting was held in February 1980.Contining her work as a community organizer,Barbara was elected to the Albany,New York Common Council (city council) in 2005,representing Ward 4.She was reelected in 2009,and worked during this period on staff with David Kaczynski at New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty on innovative solutions to violet crimes.She continues to serve the 4th Ward,and active on the issues of youth development,violence prevention,ane educational opportunities for poor,minority and underserved persons.Barbara is up for re-election in 2013.Barbara has continued to lecture and speak.She has donated her papers to the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn,New York,and given oral histories of her life to Columbia University &Smith College.Barbara has made apperances in the 1994 Marlon Riggs documentary Black is...Black Ain't,and more recently,the 2013 PBS and AOL documentary Makers:Women Who Make America.Barbara was made a Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College fellow in 1996,and received a 1994 Stonewall Award for her activism.Barbara was was awarded the Church Women United Human Rights Award in 2000 and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.