Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought

The first major anthology to trace the development, from the early 1800s to the present, of black feminist thought in the United States, Words of Fire is Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s comprehensive collection of writings, in the feminist tradition, of more than sixty African American women. From the pioneering work of abolitionist Maria Miller Stewart and anti-lynching crusader Ida Wells-Barnett to the writings of contemporary feminist critics Michele Wallace and bell hooks, black women have been writing about the multiple jeopardies — racism, sexism, and classicm — that have made it imperative for them to forge a brand of feminism uniquely their own.

List of Contributors:
• Margaret Walker Alexander
• Sadie Tanner Mosell Alexander
• Frances Beale
• Shirley Chisholm
• Cheryl Clarke
• Pearl Cleage
• Johnnetta B. Cole
• Patricia Hill Collins
• The Combahee River Collective
• Anna Julia Cooper
• Angela Davis
• Alice Dunbar-Nelson
• Julia A.J. Foote
• Amy Jacques Garvey
• Paula Giddings
• Jacquelyn Grant
• Patricia Haden
• Evelynn Hammonds
• Lorraine Hansberry
• Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
• Elizabeth Higginbotham
• Darlene Clark Hine
• bell hooks
• Claudia Jones
• June Jordan
• Gloria Joseph
• Florynce “Flo” Kennedy
• Deborah K. King
• Linda La Rue
• Audre Lorde
• Tracye Matthews
• Elise Johnson McDougald
• Donna Middleton
• Gertrude Bustill Mossell
• Pauli Murray
• • Barbara Omolade
• Barbara Ransby
• Beth E. Richie
• Patricia Robinson
• Barbara Smith
• Maria Miller Stewart
• Ula Taylor
• Mary Church Terrell
• Pauline Terrelonge
• Sojourner Truth
• Alice Walker
• Michele Wallace
• Mary Ann Weathers
• Ida Wells-Barnett
• E. Frances White
• Margaret Wilkerson

"A promising corrective, Words of Fire represents a first step toward a long-overdue revision of American intellectual history." Yvonne Chireau, Swarthmore College

"This book is ultimately a baptism of fire for many of the words and authors it presents, an introduction to the canon of challenging and penetrating voices long omitted, lost or ignored." Diverse

"The indefatigable Beverly Guy-Sheftall has put together a breathtaking sweep of African American feminist thought in one indispensable volume." Elizabeth Spelman, professor of philosophy, Smith College

Beverly Guy-Sheftall is the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Spelman College and the founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center. She is also one of the founding co-editors of Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women. Her previous publications include Who Should Be First?: Feminists Speak Out on the 2008 Presidential Campaign (co-edited with Johnnetta B. Cole) and Still Brave: The Evolution of Black Women’s Studies (co-edited with Frances Smith Foster and Stanlie M. James).