Frances M. Beal, also known as Fran Beal, (born January 13, 1940, in Binghamton, New York) is a

Black feminist 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 ...

and a peace and justice

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

activist. Her focus has predominantly been regarding women's rights, racial justice, anti-war and peace work, as well as international solidarity. Beal was a founding member of the

SNCC The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segreg ...

Black Women's Liberation Committee, which later evolved into the

Third World Women's Alliance The Third World Women's Alliance (TWWA) was a revolutionary socialist women of color organization active in the United States from 1968 to 1980 that aimed at ending capitalism, racism, imperialism, and sexism. As one of the earliest groups advocat ...

. She is most widely known for her publication, “ Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female", which theorizes the intersection of oppression between race, class, and gender. Beal currently lives in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

Early life

Beal was born in Binghamton, NY, to Charlotte Berman Yates and Ernest Yates. Her mother's Russian-Jewish immigrant background and father's

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

and Native-American ancestry, along with their experiences with

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

, inspired her later work as an activist. Beal describes her upbringing as difficult, but acknowledges its impact on shaping her political consciousness. As a child, she negotiated her parents' controversial political activism with the need to belong. In an interview she confesses: "I can remember as a child being embarrassed. Why does my mother have to do this?”, stating "you don’t want your parents to be different from everybody else; on another level, you’re learning about injustice." Her mother taught her that she had a personal and political social responsibility to confront inequalities that she and others are subjected to. Having a background with progressive parents introduced her to the injustices in the world. She ultimately harnessed her feelings of displacement into trying to be the best at everything, transforming her discomfort into political activism, following after her parents. After her father's death, she moved to

St. Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman r ...

, an integrated neighborhood in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

. During her junior year, Beal went abroad to France where she married James Beal and had two children. Beal and her husband lived in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

from 1959 to 1966 as she attended the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. After six years of marriage, they returned to the states and dissolved their union. Beal became aware of the fight to end the colonial domination in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

while studying abroad at the University of Sorbonne, which sparked her political consciousness and interest in social justice.

Political organizing

In 1958 she began work in political activism with the NAACP where she ran into conservative restrictions that discouraged her from American politics. Beal formally reengaged with political organizing by joining the

during the Civil Rights Movement. She actively worked to empower Black women through her political involvement in organizations and positions held on committees. In 1969 Beal composed an essay that addressed the complex relations black women were facing in their collective black struggle, called "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female". /sup> This document became the SNCC's official stance on women. This publication was a part of a history of black feminist organizing, where her work “coincided with other essays exploring the intersections of race and gender in black women's lives, and more specifically, the political agency of African American women". During her time there, SNCC activities shifted toward a male-dominated Black Power, moving away from “sustained community organizing toward Black Power propagandizing that was accompanied by increasing male dominance”. Beal and her female colleagues worked in and contributed to the organization but were not recognized for leadership positions, while patriarchy influenced SNCC's organizing, race singularly became the primary issue that was addressed. Compounded with her concerns over women's rights, Beal became involved with the Women's Movement. Due to women's inferior positions within male-dominated organizations like the SNCC, she co-founded the Black Women's Liberation Committee of SNCC in 1968, which evolved into the

. Looking back, Beal aired her grievances in the film ''She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry'', stating, “I was in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. You’re talking about liberation and freedom half the night on the racial side, and then all of a sudden men are going to turn around and start talking about putting you in your place. So in 1968 we founded the SNCC Black Women’s Liberation Committee to take up some of these issues.” The Black Women's Liberation Committee of SNCC shifted into the Black Women's Alliance, and eventually evolved into the Third World Women's Alliance in 1969. The TWWA is an organization committed to helping marginalized women and communities globally in the struggle for social justice. This organization's fundamental belief recognizes the core stance of intersectionality politics, in which it insists on confronting issues of race and class that affect women of color and poor women uniquely, therefore challenging the idea of a universal womanhood in the process. While working in the SNCC, Beal and her female colleagues became increasingly concerned about female issues, specifically assault on Black women's reproductive justice through forced sterilization, which motivated her to become a voice for Black women's liberation. She was actively involved in CESA, the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse. This organization fought to help poor women of color who were being disproportionately targeted and coerced into involuntary sterilization get reproductive justice. She was also a member of the National Anti-Racist Organizing Committee, which focused on anti-racist politics and centered around national organizing. Through her organizing, Beal confronted a range of oppressive regimes that encompassed complex power relations which subordinated and disenfranchised Black women in particular. Her political organizing sought to address structural inequalities and empower marginalized groups.

Journalism

Aside from her involvement in organizations, Beal maintained a career as a writer and editor. She was an associate editor of ''

The Black Scholar ''The Black Scholar'' (''TBS''), the third-oldest journal of Black culture and political thought in the United States, was founded in 1969 near San Francisco, California, by Robert Chrisman, Nathan Hare, and Allan Ross. It is arguably the most in ...

'' and reported for the

San Francisco Bay View The ''San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper'' is an online and print newspaper, published in San Francisco, California. It covers events from an African-American perspective, with a focus on Black liberation and coverage of worldwide r ...

. Beal also was an editor of the TWWA's newspaper, ''Triple Jeopardy, The Black Woman’s Voice for the National Council of Negro Women'', and a contributing editor to the ''Line of March, a Marxist-Leninist Theoretical Journal''.

Publications

Beal wrote an essay called "Slave of A Slave No More: Black Women in Struggle". Her essay was published in 1975 and appears in the 6th issue of The Black Scholar. This essay addressed chauvinist attitudes of Black men that were predominant during the Civil Rights era. She argues that Black women have been subjected to additive exploitation and oppression because their black brothers maintain gendered ideologies in what should be a collective fight for social justice. In 1969 she publishe
"Black Women's Manifesto; Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female"
She describes the nature of African-American women's unique oppression within sexist and racist orders and prescribes Black women's agency. That pamphlet was later revised and then published in ''The Black Woman'', an anthology edited by

Toni Cade Bambara Toni Cade Bambara, born Miltona Mirkin Cade (March 25, 1939 – December 9, 1995), was an African-American author, documentary film-maker, social activist and college professor. Biography Early life and education Miltona Mirkin Cade was bor ...

in 1970. A revised version of "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female" also appears in the 1970 anthology '' Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From The Women's Liberation Movement'', edited by

Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...

. It was featured in ''The Black Scholar'' in 1975. In 2002, Beal wrote an article called �
Frederick Douglass’ Legacy for Our Times
��, in which she names the erasure of imperialist struggles that go overlooked on Independence Day and draws from Fredrick Douglass to remind people "Freedom is a constant struggle." Beal is featured in the 2013 historical documentary '' Feminist: Stories from Women's Liberation''. Most recently, in 2014, Beal was featured in the feminist history film
She's Beautiful When She's Angry
'. /sup> /sup>

References

External links