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NEWS & LETTERS, November 2004Margaret Sloan
In 1973, when helping to found the National Black
Feminist Organization (NBFO), Margaret Sloan said: "We are often asked the
ugly question, 'Where are your loyalties? To the Black movement or the feminist
movement?' Well, it would be nice if we were oppressed as women Monday through
Thursday, then oppressed as Blacks the rest of the week. We could combat one or
the other on those days--but we have to fight both every day of the week." In demonstrating that the Black movement "has been
the keystone of all American history," Raya Dunayevskaya, in her work, ROSA
LUXEMBURG, WOMEN'S LIBERATION, AND MARX'S PHILOSOPHY OF REVOLUTION, quoted Sloan
and the NBFO's statement of purpose: "We will encourage the Black community
to stop falling into the trap of the white male Left, utilizing women only in
terms of domestic or servile needs. We will remind the Black Liberation Movement
that there can't be liberation for half a race" (p. 103). Margaret Sloan-Hunter, African-American lesbian feminist
poet, died last month at the age of 57 in Oakland, Cal. Born in Chattanooga,
Tenn., from the age of 14 she showed her passion for civil rights, joining her
local CORE chapter in Chicago. There she organized tenant unions, rent strikes,
and worked against lead poisoning. At 17 she founded the Junior Catholic
Inter-Racial Council; later she participated in open housing marches led by
Martin Luther King, Jr. She welcomed the rise of the Women's Liberation Movement
and was one of the first editors of MS. MAGAZINE. She toured extensively,
speaking on the relationship between the Women's Liberation and Black Liberation
Movements. Sloan-Hunter embodied what Dunayevskaya said was unique about the
Women's Liberation Movement: "...not only did it come out of the left, but
it was DIRECTED AGAINST IT, and not from the right, but FROM WITHIN THE LEFT
ITSELF" (p. 99). The movements for freedom--Black, women's, lesbian--have
lost a thinker and fighter, but the struggle continues. Her family requests
donations be made in Margaret's name to: Charlotte Maxwell, Complimentary
Clinic, 5691 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA 94609. --Terry Moon |
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