Autobiographies record the oral tradition of theorizing...These writings share more than autobiographical details; they express highly politicized commitments to praxis on behalf of liberation, with an understanding of the essential nature of spirit(s).
Joy James

Alexander, Elizabeth. "The Anxiety of Authority." Women's Review of Books. February 1994, 7-9.

          . "Memory, Community, Voice." Callaloo 17, no. 2 (1994): 408-421.

Alexander, Jacqui. "Remembering This Bridge, Remembering Ourselves: Yearning Memory, and Desire." In This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, eds. Gloria E. Anzaldua and Analouise Keating. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Ards, Angela. "To Be Young, Female and Black: A Real, Live African American Role Model Goes to Work at a Shelter for Homeless Teenage Moms." The Village Voice, 13 February 1996, 27-31.

Awkward, Michael. Scenes of Instruction: A Memoir. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.

Barnett, Elizabeth F. "Mary McLeod Bethume: Feminist, Educatior, and Activist". Multicultural Education, Transformative Knowledge, and Action: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, ed. James A. Banks. New York: Teachers College Press, 1996.

Bowleg, Lisa. "Better in the Bahamas?Not if You're a Feminist." In Listen Up: Voices From the Next Generation, ed. Barbara Findlen. Seattle: Seal Press, 1995.

Boyd, Valerie. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Scribner, 2003.

Brooks, Siobhan. "Black Feminism In Everyday Life: Race, Mental Illness, Poverty and Motherhood." In Colonize This: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism, eds Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman. New York: Seal Press, 2002.

Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story. New York: Pantheon, 1993.

Brown, Elsa Barkley. "Matters of Mind." Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women 6, no. 1 (1989): 4-11.

          . "The Future is Not Some Mystical Place: A Conversation with the Incomparable Storyteller Octavia Butler." Interview by Cecila Tan. Sojourner: The Women's Forum. 25, no. 5 (January 2000): 24+.

          . "Positive Obsession." Bloodchild, Novellas and Other Stories. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995. Originally published in Essence magazine under the title "Birth of a Writer" (1989).

Byllye, Avery. "Empowerment Through Wellness." Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. 4, no. 1 (1991).

Canaan, Andrea. "Browness." In This Bridge Called my Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, eds. Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua. Watertown, MA: Persephone Press, 1991.

Carby, Hazel. "History's Hybrids". Women's Review of Books 17, no. 5 (February 2000): 16.

          . The Good Fight. New York: Harper and Row, 1973.

Childers, M. and bell hooks. "A Conversation About Race and Class." In Conflicts in Feminism, eds. M. Hirsch and E.F. Keller. New York: Routledge, 1990.

Christian, Barbara, "Your Silence Will Not Protect You: A Tribute to Audre Lorde." Berkeley Women's Law Journal l 8 (1993): 1-5; Also published in under the title "Remembering Audre Lorde" in The Women's Review of Books March 1993, 5.

Clarke, Cheryl, Jewell Gomez, Evelyn Hammonds. Bonnie Johnson, and Linda Powell. "Conversations and Questions:Black Women on Black Women Writers." Conditions Nine 3, no. 3 (1983): 88-.

          . Unbought and Unbossed. New York: Avon, 1970.

Clarke, Tracy. "On Your Mark…Get Set…Go." In Skin Deep: Women Writing on Color, Culture and Identity, ed. Elena Featherston. Freedom, CA: the Crossing Press, 1994.

Cleaver, Kathleen. "Black Scholar Interviews Kathleen Cleaver." The Black Scholar 3, no. 4 (1971): 54-59.

Cliff, Michelle. Claiming an Identity They Taught Me to Despise.Watertown, MA: Persephone Press, 1982.

          . If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write this in Fire." In The Graywolf Annual Five: Multicultural Literacy, eds Rick Simonson and Scott Walker. St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1988; Orignally published in The Land of Look Behind, (New York: Firebrand Books, 1985).

Cole Johnnetta Betsch and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. "The Personal is Political." In Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women's Equality in African American Communities. New York: One World Ballantine Books, 2003.

Cozart, Sheryl Conrad. "When the Spirit Shows Up: An Autoethnography of Spiritual Reconciliation with the Academy." Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association 46, no. 2 (2010): 250-269.

Curry-Johnson, Sonja D. "Weaving an Identity Tapestry." In Listen Up: Voices From the Next Generation, ed. Barbara Findlen. Seattle: Seal Press, 1995.

Dahlburg, John-Thor. "'Beach Lady' Triumphed Over Tide of Development." Los Angeles Times. 28 September 2005, A14.

Davis, Angela Y. "Afro-Images: Politics, Fashion, and Nostalgia." In Names We Call Home: Autobiography on Racial Identity, eds. Becky Thompson and Sangeeta Tyagi. New York: Routledge, 1996.

          . Angela Y. Davis: An Autobiography. New York: Random House, 1974. Douglas, Marian E. "Building Community For Black Single Mothers." Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women 7, no. 2 (1990): 53-.

Deggs, Sister Mary Bernard. No Cross, No Crown: Black Nuns in Nineteenth Century New Orleans. Edited by Virginia Meacham Gould and Charles E. Nolan. Bloomington: Indian University Press, 2001.

Emerson, Barbara W. "Coming of Age: Civil Rights and Feminism." In The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices From Women's Liberation, eds. Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Ann Snitnow.New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.

Ewart, Audrey. "Silence, Culture, and Slow Awakening." Conditions Five 2, no. 2 (1979): 79-80.

Fox, Margalit. "Dororthy Height, Largely Unsung Giant of the Civil Rights Era Dies at 98." New York Times 21 April 2010, A25.

Frazier, Demita. Rethinking Identity Politics: An Interview with Demita Frazier.Inteview by Karen Kahn. Sojourner: The Women's Forum 21, no. 1 (30 September 1995): 12.

Gault, Charlayne Hunter. "'Heirs to a Legacy of Struggle': Charlayne Hunter Integrates the University of Georgia". In Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement, eds. Bettye Collier thoma and V.P. Franklin. New YorK: New York University Press, 2001.

Gomez, Jewell L. "Across the Glittering Sea." In Skin Deep: Black Women and White Women Write About Race, eds. Marita Golden and Susan Richards. New York: Nan A. Talese, 1999.

          . Forty-Three Septembers.Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books, 1993

Green, Cheryl. "One Resilient Baby." In Listen Up: Voices From the Next Generation, ed. Barbara Findlen. Seattle: Seal Press, 1995.

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. "Other Mothers of Women's Studies." In The Politics of Women's Studies: Testimony From 30 Founding Mothers, ed. Florence Howe. New York: Feminst Press at The City University of New York, 2000.

          . "Sisters in Struggle: A Belated Response." In The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices From Women's Liberation, eds. Rachel Blau and Ann Snitnow.New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.

          . "Toni Cade Bambara: Black Feminist Foremother." In Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, eds. Linda Janet Holmes and Cheryl A. Wall. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2007.

Harris, M. Jean. "Not My color, Not My Kind: Lessons in Race, Class, Age, and Gender in the Academy." In Women in Anthropology: Autobiographical Narratives and Social History, eds, Maria G. Cattell and Marjorie M. Schweitzer. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2006

Height, Dorothy I. "'We Wanted the voice of a woman to Be Heard': Black Women and the 1963 March on Washington". In Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement, eds. Bettye Collier thoma and V.P. Franklin. New YorK: New York University Press, 2001.

hooks, bell. Bone Black: Memories of a Girlhood. New York: Henry Holt, 1996.

          . "A Final Yearning: January 1990." In Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics.Boston: South End Press, 1990.

          . Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work.New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

          . Words of Passion: A Writing Life. New York: Henry Holt, 1997.

          . "Writing Autobiography." In Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader, eds. Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998)

          . "Writing From the Darkness." In The Beacon Book of Essays by Contemporary American Women, ed. Wendy Martin. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.

Jacobs, Harriet [Linda Brent]. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written By Herself, ed. L. Marie Childs. Boston: 1861.Reprint, ed. Jean Fagan Yellin, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987). Reprinted In The Classic Slave Narratives, ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. New York: Mentor, 1987.

James, Joy. "Angela Y. Davis." In Revolution: Faces of Change, eds. John Miller and Aaron Kenedi. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2000.

Jamila, Shani. "Can I Get a Witness?: Testimony from a Hip Hop Feminist." In Colonize This: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism, eds. Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman. New York: Seal Press, 2002.

Jones, Darice. "Falling Off the Tightrope onto a Bed of Feathers." In Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism, eds. Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman. New York: Seal Press, 2002.

Jones, Lisa. "Sister Knowledge. "Interview. Essence May 1995, 187-188.

Jones, Muriel. "The Misfits." Conditions Five 2, no. 2 (1979): 69-70.

Jordan, June. "Declaration of Independence I Just as Soon Not Have." In Civil Wars.Boston: Beacon Press, 1981.Originally published under the title "Second Thoughts of a Black Feminist." Ms., February 1977.

Keita, Gwendolyn P. "Working With Feminist Foremothers to Advance Women's Issues." Interview by Adele Jones. Women and Therapy 17, no. 3-4 (1995): 283-290.

Kennedy, Florynce. Color Me Flo: My Hard Life and Good Times. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1976.

Latifa, Queen. "The Queen On-Screen. "Interview by Joan Morgan. Essence January 1998, 70-74.

Leatherman, Courtney. "A Name for Herself (Feminist Writer bell hooks)." Chronicle of Higher Education 19 May 1995, sec. A, p. 22.

Lemons, Gary L. Black Male Outsider: Teaching as a Pro-Feminist Man. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008.

Lorde, Audre. A Burst of Light. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books, 1988.

          . The Cancer Journals. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Spinsters Ink, 1988.

          . "Manchild: A Black Lesbian Feminist Response." Conditions Four 2, no. 1 (1979): 30-. Reprinted in Conditions Sixteen (1989): 28-35. Reprinted in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1984).

          . "Notes From a Trip to Russia." In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1984.

          . Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Persephone Press, 1982.

Lorde, Audre, and Adrienne Rich. "An Interview with Audre Lorde." Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society 6, no. 3 (1981): 713-36.

Lorde, Audre, and James Baldwin. "A Conversation Between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde." Essence August 1982, 58-60.

Madigan, Vonnie. "Flo Kennedy: A Wild Brillant Fighter For Rights." Sepia (July 1974): 68-.

Malveaux, Julianne, and Tammy Bruce. "An OTI Dialogue with Tammy Bruce and Julianne Malveaux." On the Issues 5, no. 3 (1996): 16-21, 56.

Marshall, Paule. "Shaping the World of My Art." Women's Studies Quarterly 9, no. 4 (1981): 23-24.

McCall, Nathan. "Men: We Just don't Get it." In Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality, eds. Rudolph P. Byrd and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.

McCluskey, Audrey Thomas. "Multiple Consciousness in the Leadership of Mary McCleod Bethune." NWSA Journal 6, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 6+.

McKay, Nellie Y. "Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas: Personal Reflections on Social Equality and the Rights of Black Women." Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women 7, no. 2 (1990): 58-60.

McKay, Nellie, Patricia Hill Collins, Mae Henderson, and June Jordan. "The State of the Art." Interview. Women's Review of Books February 1991, 5+.

McNair, Bernice. "Angela Davis and Women, Race & Class: A Pioneer in Integrative RGC Stuides.": Race, Gender & Class 10, no. 3 (July 31 2003): 9+.

Morgan, Joan. "My Date With Chris Webber." Essence February 1997, 64-66+.

          . When the Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip Hop Feminist. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999.

Morrrison, Toni. "A Knowing So Deep." In The Beacon Book of Essays by Contemporary American Women, ed. Wendy Martin. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.

Murray, Pauli. Song in a Weary Heart: An American Pilgrimage. New York: Harper and Row, 1987. Reprinted as Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest and Poet, (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989).

Muse, Daphne. "The Bob—Not an Afro, But Still a Liberating Do." In Skin Deep: Women Writing on Color, Culture and Identity, ed. Elena Featherston. Freedom, CA: the Crossing Press, 1994.

Neal, Mark Anthony. "My Black Male Feminist Heroes." PopMatters, February 26 2003. http://www.popmatters.com/features/030226-blackfeminists.shtml. (Accessed 04/04/06).

Nelson, Jill. "Fighting the Right." Women's Review of Books July 1995, 8-9.

          . Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown Up Black Woman. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1997.

          . "Liquid Assets." The Women's Review of Books July 1998, 7.

          . Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience. Chicago: Nobel Press, 1993.

Omolade, Barbara. "Black Womanhood Images of Dignity: Ella Baker and Miriam Makeba." Black Collegian 35 (April-May 1980): 52-54.

          . "Sisterhood in Black and White." In The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices From Women's Liberation, eds. Rachel Blau and Ann Snitnow.New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.

Parks, Rosa. "'Tired of Giving In': The Launching of the Mongomery Bus Boycott". In Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement, eds. Bettye Collier thoma and V.P. Franklin. New YorK: New York University Press, 2001.

Paul, Dierdre Glenn. Life and Education on the Academic Plantation: Womanist Thought and Perspective. New York: Peter Lang, 2001.

Post, Deborah Waire. "The Politics of Pedagogy: Confessons of a Black Woman Law Professor". In Critical Race Feminism: A Reader, ed. Adrien Katherine Wing. 2nd Edition. New York: New York Univeristy Press, 2003.

Powell, Kevin. "Confessions of a Recovering Misogynist." Ms. (April-May 2000): 72-77.

Randolph, Sherie M. Florynce "Flo" Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015.

Riley, Sirena. "The Black Beauty Myth." In Colonize This: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism. New York: Seal Press, 2002.

Ringgold, Faith. "Being My Own Woman." Women's Studies Quarterly 15, no. 1 (1987): 31+. Originally published in Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women, eds. Amiri Baraka and Amina Baraka, (New York: Quill, 1983).

          . We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Ringgold. Boston: Little Brown, 1995.

Robinson, Cynthia. "The Evolution of Alice Walker." Women's Studies 38, no. 3 (April 2009): 293-3111.

Royals, Demetria. "All I Gotta Do is Stay Black and Die." Transformations 9, no. 2 (1998): 9-11.

Scott, Kesho Yvonne. The Habit of Surviving:Black Women's Strategies for Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991.

Scott, Patricia Bell, ed. Life Notes: Personal Writings by Contemporary Black Women. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.

          . "Reflections From a Homegirl: Activist Barbara Smith." Ms. January-February 1995, 59-.

Shakur, Assata. Assata: An Autobiography. Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill & Company, 1987.

Simmons, Judy. "The Necessary Bitch." In The Psychopathology of Everyday Racism and Sexism, ed. Lenora Fulani. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1988.

Singleton, Janet. "On Roses and Thorns." Conditions Five 2, no. 2 (1979): 77-78.

          . "'Feisty Character' and 'Other People's Causes': Memories of White Racism and U.S. Feminism." In The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices From Women's Liberation, eds. Rachel Blau and Ann Snitnow.New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.

Smith, Barbara. "Building Black Women's Studies." In The Politics of Women's Studies: Testimony From 30 Founding Mothers, ed. Florence Howe. New York: Feminist Press at The City University of New york, 2000.

Smith, Barbara, and Beverly Smith. "I Am Not Meant to be Alone and Without You Who Understand": Letters From Black Feminists, 1972-1978." Conditions Four 2, no. 1 (Winter 1979): 62+.

Smith, Barbara, Judith Stein, and Priscillia Golding. "The Possibility Between Us: A Dialogue Between Black and Jewish Women." Conditions Seven 3, no. 1 (1981): 25+.

Smith, Beverly. "The Wedding." Conditions Five 2, no. 2 (1979): 103+.

Starr, Terrell Jermaine. Meet the Black Woman Who Is the Brains Behind the Green New Deal. The Root. 18 December 2019. Accessed 24 January 2020.

Sterling, Dorothy, ed. We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: W.W. Norton, 1984.

Stetson, Erlene. "Pink Elephants: Confessions of a Black Feminist in an All-White, Mostly Male English Department of a White University Somewhere in God's Country." In Gendered Subjects: The Dynamics of Feminist Teaching, eds Margo Culley and Catehrine Portugues. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987.

Taylor, Ula Yvette. The Veiled Garvey: The Life and Times of Amy Jacques Garvey. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

Teish, Luisah. "Mulitcolored Momas. "Interview by Elena Featherston. In Skin Deep: Women Writing on Color, Culture and Identity, ed. Elena Featherston. Freedom,CA: The Crossing Press, 1994.

          . "Brothers and Sisters." In The Beacon Book of Essays by Contemporary American Women, ed. Wendy Martin. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.

          . "One Child of One's Own: A Meaningful Digression Within the Work(s)." In The Writer on Her Work: Contemporary Women Writers Reflect on Their Art and Situation, ed. Janet Sternberg. New York: W.W. Norton, 1980.

Thomas, Greg. Hip-Hop Revolution in the Flesh: Power, Knowledge, and Pleasure in Lil' Kim's Lyricism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Walker, Rebecca. Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After Lifeteime of Ambivalence. New York: Riverhead, 2007.

          . "Claiming the Face of Feminism." Essence January 1996, 123.

          . "Lusting for Freedom." In Listen Up: Voices From the Next Generation, ed. Barbara Findlen. Seattle: Seal Press, 1995.

Wallace, Michele. "Baby Faith." Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory. New York: Verso, 1990. Originally published in Ms., July-August 1987, 154-156.

          . "A Black Feminist's Search for Sisterhood." Village Voice, 28 July 1975, 5-12. Reprinted in All the Women Are White, All the Men Are Black, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies, eds. Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott and Barbara Smith (Old Westbury, NY: The Feminist Press, 1982). Reprinted in Michele Wallace, Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory (New York: Verso, 1990); Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought, ed. Beverly Guy-Sheftall (New York: New Press, 1995). Reprinted in Modern American Women: A Documentary History, ed Susan Ware (New York: McGraw Hill, 1997).

          . "The Dah Principal: To Be Continued." Invisibility Blues From Pop to Theory. New York: Verso, 1998. Originally published in Faith Ringgold: Twenty Years of Painting Sculptor, Performance. New York: The Studio Museum, 1984.

          . "Homelessness is Where the Heart is." Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory. New York: Verso, 1990. Originally published in Zeta Magazine July-August 1988, 49-53.

          . "Memoirs of a Premature Bomb-Thrower: What if a Groundbreaking Black Feminist Told the Truth to her Community and Nobody Wanted to Hear it?" The Village Voice, 13 February 1996, 35-36.

          . "Memories of a 60s Girlhood: The Harlem I Love." Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory. New York: Verso, 1990. Originally published in The Village Voice 6 October 1975, 26-27.

          . "To Hell and Back: On the Road with Black Feminism in the 60s and 70s." In The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices From Women's Liberation, eds. Rachel Blau and Ann Snitnow.New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.

          . "A Women's Prison and the Movement." Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory. New York: Verso, 1990. Originally published in Women's World (Summer 1972).

Wallace, Michele, et al. "Engaging and Escaping." Women's Review of Books July 1995, 13-17.

Washington, Mary Helen. "Working at Single Bliss." Ms. 1982.

Washington, Patrica Ann. "'First, You Got to use What's Lying Around the House': Some Personal Reflections on Affirmative Action and White Feminism." NWSA Journal 10, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 168.

Wattleton, Faye. Life on the Line. New York: Ballantine, 1996.

Weir, Donna M. "Am I a Feminist." Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women 5, no. 1 (1988): 73-74.

West, Cheryl. "Lesbian Daughter." Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women 4, no. 2 (1987): 42-44.

White, Deborah Gray, ed. Telling Histories: Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower. Chapel Hill: University Of North Carolina Press, 2008.

White, E. Frances. "Listening to the Voices of Black Feminism." Radical America 18, nos. 2-3 (1984): 7-25.

White, Evelyn C. Alice Walker: A Life. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004.

Yellin, Jean Fagan. Harriet Jacobs: A Life. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2004.

Zook, Kristal Brent. "Memoir: Dreaming the Delta." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 3, no. 2 (2003): 278-288.

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