barbara ransby | University of Illinois at Chicago (original) (raw)

Papers by barbara ransby

African American Studies Center, 2005

Discussion with historian, writer and longtime activist Barbara Ransby on Black Women and Long St... more Discussion with historian, writer and longtime activist Barbara Ransby on Black Women and Long Struggle for Racial, Gender and Economic Justice, 1969 to 2019 . Barbara Ransby is an historian, writer and longtime activist. She is a Distinguished Professor of African American Studies, Gender and Women\u27s Studies, and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where she directs the campus-wide Social Justice Initiative. She is author of the highly acclaimed biography, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision, which received eight national awards and recognitions. She is also the author of Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson (Yale University Press, January 2013) and, most recently, Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century (University of California Press, 2019). Hosted by the Marquette Forum, Raynor Memorial Libraries, Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, History Department, CURTO, Institute for Women\u27s Leadership and Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies

Making All Black Lives Matter, 2018

Educational Studies, 2016

Grace Lee Boggs died on October 5, 2015, at the age of 100, and the world is better for the centu... more Grace Lee Boggs died on October 5, 2015, at the age of 100, and the world is better for the century that she walked it with us. As a writer, insurgent intellectual, revolutionary organizer, mentor, community builder, and friend to many, Grace will be dearly missed. When I was a teenager in Detroit and a wannabe revolutionary in the 1970s, I heard the names Grace and Jimmy Boggs all the time. I knew they were beloved and respected in Detroit's Black activist community, and I just assumed they were both Black. I was surprised to finally meet Grace and discover that she was Chinese American. I had to recalibrate my notions about the Black struggle, "my people," and race itself. Long after many of Detroit's young Black revolutionaries left Detroit and the revolution, Grace stayed. She was so immersed in the life and struggles of Detroit's predominately Black communities that she said her FBI file described her as "probably Afro-Chinese." Alongside her partner in life and politics, former auto-worker and Black activist and leader Jimmy Boggs (who died in 1993), Grace fought the good fight over 5 decades, writing books, building organizations, organizing campaigns, and teaching by example that revolution is a protracted process-not a single event or a spate of protests. She saw the Black struggle as the cutting-edge struggle of her lifetime, intricately linked to many others, and she was humbled to be a part of it. Grace was also a catalyst for bringing people together. The Boggs Center, which she founded, was a creative space for artists, the young participants in the now-famous Detroit Summer projects and various fans and visitors who migrated there to pay their respects to Grace. Those visitors included celebrities and scholars: from the late Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, to Danny Glover, historian Robin D. G. Kelley, and Chicago activists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. But there were also lesser-known filmmakers, hip-hop artists, labor organizers, students, and politicians that showed up at Grace's door over the decades, drawn by the power of her reputation and her track record for getting things done. Her beloved chosen family in Detroit included

The Black Scholar, 1992

events surrounding the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas for the U.S. Supreme Court and Pr... more events surrounding the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas for the U.S. Supreme Court and Professor Anita Hill's revelation that Thomas had sexually harassed her some ten years earlier raised a set of issues much larger than the two individuals at the center of the drama. The hearings highlighted two very ominous political trends confronting African Americans in this country as we approach the 21st century. Firstly, they reflected the increasing hostility toward and scapegoating of black women for a whole range of social problems now confronting our communities, including the oppression of black men. Secondly, they showcased the rise and increasing legitimacy, in some circles, of black neo-conservatives, a new breed of predators who pimp off of the call for racial solidarity when they can use it to their benefit, and then betray the best interests of the majority of black people at the first opportunity. The first trend, the scapegoating of black women, is predicated upon an increasingly male-centered definition of the black experience and black oppression. In recent years we have seen the racist and sexist theory of the so-called pathological black matriarchy, initially popularized by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1965, resurrected and re-packaged by white journalists, black and white neoconservatives, and even spokespersons who profess to be genuine allies and defenders of the black community. Some of these theorists claim only to be concerned with the desperate plight of young African American men, yet in the process of demonstrating this concern, they effectively minimize the equally desperate plight of black women, often tacitly blaming black women for our own oppression and that of our families and children. At one end

Dissent, 2015

While the concerns raised by the Black Lives Matter movement reflect the experiences of most blac... more While the concerns raised by the Black Lives Matter movement reflect the experiences of most black Americans, they also extend beyond these communities. It is imperative that all progressive and left forces pay careful and respectful attention to this growing movement and its bold confrontation with state power. Its message is, in part, that there can be no real economic justice without racial justice.

Issue: A Journal of Opinion, 1996

The fifth Pan-African Congress was held in Manchester, England in October 1945 with a great roste... more The fifth Pan-African Congress was held in Manchester, England in October 1945 with a great roster of delegates who would play, and had played, critical roles in the advancement of Black freedom: W.E.B. DuBois, Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore, and Jomo Kenyatta, to name a few. It was an historic gathering held at a point in history when the defeat of fascism in Europe and the impending demise of colonialism in Africa and the Caribbean were great causes for optimism among progressive people the world over. The manifesto issued by the Congress delegates exposed the atrocities of colonialism, tapped into the universal language of anti-fascism, and thereby hastened the process of decolonization.

The Women's Review of Books, 2003

Transforming Anthropology, 2012

This statement is a call to action by U.S. indigenous and women of color feminists after a visit ... more This statement is a call to action by U.S. indigenous and women of color feminists after a visit to Palestine in June 2011.

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2000

DOO mailing list to publicize and gamer support for their campaign, and AAWIDOO's strate... more DOO mailing list to publicize and gamer support for their campaign, and AAWIDOO's strategy of buying newspaper ads served as an inspiration and model for St. Louis activists who organized a similar campaign against the exaltation of Tyson in their community.2 The growing ...

Race & Class, 1993

Over the past decade in African-American communities throughout the United States, there has been... more Over the past decade in African-American communities throughout the United States, there has been a visible resurgence of various forms of Black cultural nationalism. This has partly occurred in response to some of the crises currently facing African Americans, and partly ...