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acknowledge the centrality of Black women’s contributions, little is written and therefore, even
less is passed on to future generations. In a sense, the anonymity of Black women leaders is
partially by design as women like Baker saw “headlines” as distractions and detrimental to
collective uplift efforts.
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Despite their relative absence in political writings or newspaper archives, Black women were
central to the movements. “If it were not for [B]lack women, there would have been no
Montgomery Bus Boycott, few voting rights campaigns, far less marvelous educational impact –
in short, the civil rights movement as we know it would not have occurred” (Cleaver 1997, 35).
Kathleen Cleaver, former Communications Secretary of the Black Panther Party, argues that it
was precisely because of their emphasis on collectively held grassroots movements or as termed
by Baker “group-centered leadership,” that Black women are not highlighted in Black history or
accounts of the Civil Rights movement. Grassroots forms of leadership move away from placing
the “leader” at the center instead dispersing the responsibilities of leadership more broadly to the
entirety of the movement membership. While such a concept might prove difficult to recount by
mainstream standards that seek to credit individuals for movements, this approach encourages
each member to view himself or herself as a leader or as a potential leader.
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Racist, sexist and intersectionally oppressive patterns of exclusion and silencing are also
working to limit the degree to which Black women’s leadership is recognized. The focus on
individual leadership rather than transformative movements can be thought of as a part of this
exclusionary process.
Convention