Trailblazing Woman: Barbara Smith

BARBARA SMITH (b. 1946)

Barbara Smith is a Black lesbian feminist pioneer, scholar, activist, lecturer, author, and publisher.

Smith was born in Ohio in 1946 and has a twin sister named Beverly. Their mother died when they were 9, leaving her in the care of her grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Academics and activism were equally important to Smith, and she participated in civil rights protests, boycotts, and marches throughout the 1960s.

Beginning in the 1970s, Smith became involved in the Women’s and Gay Liberation Movements and quickly realized neither were attentive to the concerns of women of color. In 1974, Smith co-founded the Combahee River Collective, one of the most radical and intersectional activist groups of its time.

Combahee is best known for their collective statement that outlined the principles of Black feminism and provided a new way to look at identity-based oppressions and social justice work. Today, this framework is known as “intersectionality,” as it looks at the ways in which class, gender, sexuality, and race intersect and impact an individual’s lived experience.

Smith has also been a leader in establishing the field of Black women’s studies in the US. In 1973, Smith taught one of the first university courses on Black women’s literature at Emerson College and began writing criticism of women’s literature that was attentive to issues of sexuality.

In 1980, Smith co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press with friend and colleague Audre Lorde, and several others. As the first publisher in the US for women of color, Kitchen Table also put voices of lesbian and queer women at the forefront. To quote Smith, “freedom of the press belongs to those who own the press.”

One of the books edited by Smith, Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (1983), broke new literary ground by integrating black lesbian voices with those of other black women.

Just as oppression has not changed in the years since, Smith began her work as an activist and author, neither has her message. Smith continues to call for awareness that racism, sexism, and homophobia do still exist, and that they affect all people.

Sources: