"Fifty years ago, the Third World Women's Alliance passionately
insisted on interconnections among racism, sexism, and capitalism,
inspiring radical analytical frameworks and organizing strategies
associated with contemporary conceptions of feminism. We are deeply
indebted to Patricia Romney for helping to generate a record of the
Alliance's pioneering contributions and thus for ensuring that their
revolutionary legacies live on." --Angela Y. Davis, author of
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle
From 1970 to 1980, the Third World Women's Alliance lived the dream of
third world feminism. The small bicoastal organization was one of the
earliest groups advocating for what came to be known as intersectional
activism, arguing that women of color faced a "triple jeopardy" of race,
gender, and class oppression. Rooted in the Black civil rights
move-ment, the TWWA pushed the women's movement to address issues such
as sterilization abuse, infant mortality, welfare, and wage
exploitation, and challenged third world activist organizations to
address sexism in their ranks. Widely recognized as the era's pri-mary
voice for women of color, this alliance across ethnic and racial
identities was unique then and now.
Interweaving oral history, scholarly and archival research, and
first-person memoir, We Were There documents how the TWWA shaped and
defined second wave feminism. Highlight-ing the essential contributions
of women of color to the justice move-ments of the 1970s, this
historical resource will inspire activists today and tomorrow, reminding
a new generation that solidarity is the only way forward.
