Table of Contents

Women Alice Walker xiii

Foreword Mary Berry xv

Introduction: The Politics of Black Women's Studies Akasha (Gloria T.) Hull Barbara Smith xvii

Visions and Recommendations xxxiii

Section 1 Searching for Sisterhood: Black Feminism

1 A Black Feminist's Search for Sisterhood Michele Wallace 5

2 A Black Feminist Statement: The Combahee River Collective 13

3 Selected Bibliography of Black Feminism Patrica Bell-Scott 23

Section 2 Roadblocks and Bridges: Confronting Racism

4 One Child of One's Own: A Meaningful Digression Within the Work(s)?An Excerpt Alice Walker 37

5 Racism?A White Issue Ellen Pence 45

6 Racism and Women's Studies Barbara Smith 48

7 Face-to-face, Day-to-Day?Racism CR Tia Cross Freada Klein Barbara Smith Beverly Smith 52

Section 3 Dispelling the Myths: Black Women and the Social Sciences

8 Studying Slavery: Some Literary and Pedagogical Considerations on the Black Female Slave Erlene Stetson 61

9 Debunking Sapphire: Toward a Non-Racist and Non-Sexist Social Science Patricia Bell-Scott 85

10 Two Representative Issues in Contemporary Sociological Work on Black Women Elizabeth Higginbotham 93

Section 4 Creative Survival: Preserving Body, Mind, and Spirit

11 Black Women's Health: Notes for a Course Beverly Smith 103

12 Three's Crowd: The Dilemma of the Black Woman in Higher Education Constance M. Carroll 115

13 Slave Codes and Liner Notes Michele Russell 129

14 Black Women and the Church Jacquelyn Grant 141

Section 5 "Necessary Bread": Black Women's Literature

15 Toward a Black Feminist Criticism Barbara Smith 157

16 "This Infinity of Conscious Pain": Zora Neale Hurston and the Black Female Literary Tradition Lorraine Bethel 176

17 Researching Alice Dunbar-Nelson: A Personal and Literary Perspective Akasha (Gloria T.) Hull 189

18 Black-Eyed Blues Connections: Teaching Black Women Michele Russell 196

19 Teaching Black-Eyed Susans: An Approach to the Study of Black Women Writers Mary Helen Washington 208

Section 6 Bibliographies and Bibliographic Essays

20 Afro-American Women, 1800?1910: Excerpts from a Working Bibliography Jean Fagan Yellin 221

21 Afro-American Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century: A Guide to Research and Bio-Bibliographies of the Poets Joan R. Sherman 245

22 On the Novels Written by Selected Black American Women: A Bibliographical Eassy Rita B. Dandridge 261

23 Black Women Playwrights from Grimké to Shange: Selected Synopses of Their Works Jeanne-Marie A. Miller 280

24 Americn Black Women Composers: A Selected Annotated Bibliography Ora Williams Thelma Willims Dora Wilson Ramond Matthewson 297

25 A Listing of Non-Print Materials on Black Women Martha H. Brown 307

26 Additional References and Resources 327

Section 7 Doing the Work: Selected Course Syllabi

27 General/Social/Interdisciplinary 337

28 Literature 360

Afterword Brittney Cooper 379

About the Contributors 387

Acknowledgments 395

Index 399