Demita Frazier is a Black Feminist, thought leader, writer, teacher, and social justice activist. She is a founding member of the

Combahee River Collective The Combahee River Collective ( ) was a Black feminist lesbian socialist organization active in Boston from 1974 to 1980. Marable, Manning; Leith Mullings (eds), ''Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices of Resistance, Reform, and Renewal'', Combahee R ...

(CRC). While it has been more than forty years since the Combahee River Collective released their Black Feminist Statement, Frazier has remained committed to the "lifetime of work and struggle" for liberation for all.

Early life and activism

As a child of the Fifties, Frazier attributes the events during the years of 1967-1969, including but not limited to the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

, the Black Power Movement and the

Women's Movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such iss ...

, as a "political awakening" for her. One text was particularly influential for Frazier, which was Woman Power: The Movement for Women's Liberation by Celestine Ware. Frazier began her lifelong commitment to activism by opposing the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

in high school. After leaving traditional school settings to pursue her own independent studies, Frazier participated in political organizing and activism with the Chicago Black Panther's Breakfast Program and the

Jane Collective The Jane Collective or Jane, officially known as the Abortion Counseling Service of Women's Liberation, was an underground service in Chicago, Illinois affiliated with the Chicago Women's Liberation Union that operated from 1969 to 1973, a time ...

. Frazier eventually moved to Boston and continued organizing there. In Boston, she connected with other founding members of the CRC,

Barbara Smith Barbara Smith (born November 16, 1946) is an American lesbian feminist and socialist who has played a significant role in Black feminism in the United States. Since the early 1970s, she has been active as a scholar, activist, critic, lecturer, au ...

and

Beverly Smith Beverly Smith (born November 16, 1946) in Cleveland, Ohio, is a Black feminist health advocate, writer, academic, theorist and activist who is also the twin sister of writer, publisher, activist and academic Barbara Smith. Beverly Smith is an inst ...

, through the

National Black Feminist Organization The National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) was founded in 1973. The group worked to address the unique issues affecting black women in America.Wilma Pearl Mankiller. The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History, Houghton Mifflin Books, 1998 ...

(NBFO). The CRC was an evolution of the NBFO. In addition to her organizing and activism, Frazier obtained her Juris Doctor from

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

Combahee River Collective

The CRC solidified the foundation that broadened the

Black feminism Black feminism is a philosophy that centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently valuable, that lack women'sliberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because our need as human persons for autonomy." Race, gen ...

perspective with their founding in 1974. The group's name came from the heroic actions of

Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, us ...

, who solely led a campaign that freed more than 750 slaves at South Carolina's

Combahee River The Combahee River ( ) is a short blackwater river in the southern Lowcountry region of South Carolina formed at the confluence of the Salkehatchie and Little Salkehatchie rivers near the Islandton community of Colleton County, South Carolina ...

in 1863. The overall mission of the CRC was to inform society of the lived experiences of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

women. The released their "Combahee River Collective Statement in 1974. Their statement includes the first usage of identity politics and was an important contribution to the concept in critical theory. As a founding member of the Combahee River Collective , Frazier intellectual labor is referenced every time the CRC name is uttered. One of the largest contributions of the CRC statement is the recognition of "intersecting oppressions" prior to the coining of the term

intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adva ...

Kimberlé Crenshaw Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (born May 5, 1959) is an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory. She is a professor at the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School, where she specializes in race and gender iss ...

. Which Frazier says in

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor __NOTOC__ Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is an American academic, writer, and activist. She is a professor of African American Studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of ''From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation'' (2016). For this book, ...

's (Ed.) book,

How We Get Free ''How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective'' is a 2017 book edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor about the principles involved with Combahee River Collective. It was published on the occasion of the Collective's 40th anniver ...

that she noted in "probably our third or fourth draft of the statement, I said,...we stand at the intersection where are identities are indivisible." The CRC and their statement defined Black Feminism then and their words and legacy continue to shape it presently. For Frazier, "Black Feminism is a representation of Black women's power. Black women's agency. Black women's right to look at their material conditions, analyze it, interrogate it, and come away with an analysis that's about empowerment." References to the contributions and impact of the CRC can be found throughout the canon of

Black Feminist Thought ''Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment'' is a 1990 book by Patricia Hill Collins. Defining Black Feminist Thought Black feminist thought is a field of knowledge that is focused on the perspectives and ...

in works such as

Words of Fire A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...

: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought edited by

Beverly Guy-Sheftall Beverly Guy-Sheftall (born June 1, 1946, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American Black feminist scholar, writer and editor, who is the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies and English at Spelman College, in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the fou ...

and

Mouths of Rain ''Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought'' is a nonfiction debut anthology edited by Briona Simone Jones. It includes essays, poetry, and other writings by Black lesbian feminists such as Audre Lorde, Cheryl Clarke, and Bettina Lov ...

: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought edited by Briona Simone Jones. The Combahee River Collective disbanded in 1980 and Frazier wrote the group's final statement, alongside

and

Later life

Frazier has taught and lectured throughout the New England region, most recently at Bunker Hill Community College. On the subject of intergenerational coalition, Frazier stated in a 2017 roundtable:

"...I dream of deep listening across the generations, both to what we find easy to say and to that with which we struggle mightily...Organizing for political change is hard work, particularly in coalition, and core issues--the ability to deeply listen, to tolerate ambiguity and paradox, to demonstrate respect in the ways that are most meaningful when working across and through difference---take a kind of discipline that takes leadership and time to develop."

In that same roundtable when asked of how she keeps going in the work of liberation, Frazier said:

"I am unwilling to give up this fight for freedom, for all people, especially Black people, and I am inspired by the many humans I share this planet with who are committed to that struggle. So many quietly brave, unwavering people have shared the struggle for freedom. I am allied with that energy."

Frazier continues to dismantle the myth of

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

, by working to end

misogynoir ''Misogynoir'' is a term referring to misogyny directed towards black women where race and gender both play a role. The term was coined by black feminist writer Moya Bailey in 2010 to address misogyny directed toward black transgender and cisgende ...

, hetero-patriarchal

hegemony Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one State (polity), state over other states. In Ancient Greece (8th BC – AD 6th ), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of the ''hegemon'' city-state over oth ...

, and undermining late stage capitalism. She is a practicing unallied

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

, committed to embodied loving kindness. When she isn't working she enjoys working in her garden and cooking.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frazier, Demita African-American feminists American feminists Living people American socialists History of women's rights in the United States Year of birth missing (living people) Members of the Combahee River Collective American lesbians Lesbian feminists LGBT African Americans Second-wave feminism People from Chicago Activists from Chicago Black feminism Buddhist activists 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 21st-century American LGBT people