the untold story of African American women who built a movement
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Nadasen, Premilla
- Publish Year
- 2015
- Shelfmark
- VS 53 2015 - B
- Thesaurus
- huishoudelijke arbeid, zwarte vrouwen, slavernij, vrouwenbewegingen, feminisme, etniciteit, Verenigde Staten, 20e eeuw
- Description
- Nadasen shows how African American domestic-workers from the 1950s to the 1970 were a far cry from the stereotyped passive and powerless victims: they were innovative labor organizers who tirelessly organized on buses and streets across the United States to bring dignity and legal recognition to their occupation. Dismissed by mainstream labor as “unorganizable,” African American household workers developed unique strategies for social change and formed unprecedented alliances with activists in both the women’s rights and the black freedom movements. Using storytelling as a form of activism and as means of establishing a collective identity as workers, these women proudly declared, “We refuse to be your mammies, nannies, aunties, uncles, girls, handmaidens any longer.”