Contemporary African American Movements: Power, Participation, and Justice

Black feminism

An intellectual and political tradition that centers Black women’s experiences and argues that racism, sexism, and other systems of oppression are inseparable and must be fought together.

Single-axis thinking

Analyzing power or discrimination through only one category at a time (e.g., only race or only gender), which can obscure how people experience overlapping harms.

Interlocking oppression

The idea that systems like racism, sexism, class inequality, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism shape and reinforce one another rather than operating independently.

Lived experience (as evidence)

A Black feminist claim that personal and community experiences can reveal how institutions actually work, especially when official accounts ignore or minimize harm.

Collective liberation

The principle that freedom strategies should be designed so the most marginalized are not postponed or sacrificed; solutions that work for those facing the steepest barriers often expand freedom for everyone.

Combahee River Collective

A Black feminist lesbian socialist collective active in the 1970s, known for articulating multi-issue liberation politics centered on Black women.

Combahee River Collective Statement (1977)

A foundational Black feminist document arguing that Black women’s liberation requires addressing multiple forms of domination simultaneously.

Identity politics (original Combahee sense)

Political work grounded in the real conditions of a group whose oppression has been ignored; an insistence that freedom movements must take the most neglected lives seriously (not merely “selfish” politics).

Intersectionality

A framework for understanding how overlapping aspects of identity and structural power combine to produce distinct experiences and outcomes—especially what single-axis approaches miss.

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Legal scholar who introduced the term “intersectionality” (late 1980s) to critique how law and policy often treat discrimination as either racial or gender-based, creating blind spots for Black women.

Matrix of domination

Patricia Hill Collins’s concept describing how multiple systems of power (race, gender, class, etc.) interrelate to structure inequality across society.

Reproductive justice

An intersectional framework developed by Black women activists in the 1990s emphasizing the right to have children, not have children, and parent in safe and healthy environments—linking bodily autonomy to social conditions.

Political participation

Ways people influence government and public life, including voting, running for office, campaigning, contacting representatives, protesting, community organizing, mutual aid, litigation, and advocacy.

Voter mobilization

Organized efforts to build voting power (e.g., registration drives, down-ballot education, rides to polls, early voting strategies, and combating misinformation).

Voting Rights Act of 1965

A major federal law designed to protect the right to vote and counter discriminatory state practices that limited African American political participation.

Shelby County v. Holder (2013)

A Supreme Court case that significantly changed enforcement of parts of the Voting Rights Act, intensifying debate over federal oversight versus state control of election rules.

Descriptive representation

Representation where elected officials “look like” or share key backgrounds with constituents (race, gender, class, etc.).

Substantive representation

Representation where officials actively advance constituents’ interests through policy and governance, regardless of whether they share the same identity.

Coalition politics

Building alliances among groups with overlapping interests (e.g., labor, education, healthcare, criminal legal reform) while negotiating differences within and between communities.

Litigation and policy advocacy

Using courts and administrative/policy processes to challenge discriminatory laws and practices; important but often slow, costly, and only one tool among many.

Movement-to-politics pipeline

A pattern where activism shapes public agendas and then influences formal politics through candidate runs, endorsements, accountability campaigns, and policy wins.

Black Lives Matter (BLM)

A movement and rallying cry against anti-Black racism, especially state violence and systemic injustice; associated with Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi and gained prominence after the 2013 Trayvon Martin case.

Narrative change

A movement strategy that reframes issues from isolated incidents (“a few bad actors”) to structural systems (institutions, incentives, budgets, and accountability).

Decentralized organizing

A movement structure where local chapters and allied groups adapt tactics to local conditions instead of relying on a single national organization to direct strategy.

Environmental justice

A focus on how environmental harms (pollution, unsafe water, waste sites, heat islands) disproportionately affect marginalized communities and how organizing targets the policies and market decisions that produce that inequality.