A Woman to Know: Margaret Sloan-Hunter
We women are the best thing going. — Margaret Sloan-Hunter
(that's Margaret in the back left -- image via Ms. Magazine)
Margaret had a hard job. As one of the first editors at Ms. Magazine, Gloria Steinem's progressive feminist publication, she frequently raised questions that plagued all feminists, not just those working at Ms.: "How do we include more black women in the movement?" "Why don't we have more black voices in the magazine?" "How do we make white feminists see black women's struggles in the civil rights movement as important as their own?" These questions made up the fundamental dedications of Margaret's life, as a writer and an activist involved in both movements.
"She used to say, I'm not black Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and a woman Thursday, Friday and Saturday," said Gloria Steinem. "She really made clear that the black woman could be, and had to be, loyal to both her race and gender."
In 1973, Margaret founded the Black Feminist Organization, the first national organization to unite agendas from both the civil rights and feminist movements. And in the midst of all her work in activism and publishing, Margaret wrote poems. Her first (and only) collection of poems, "Black and Lavender," includes titles like "Butch," "Longing" "On Not Fitting In Sometimes" and "To My Black Feminist Sisters."
Add to your library list:
Black and Lavender (Margaret Sloan-Hunter)
For Lesbians Only (Celia Kitzinger and Rachel Perkins)
Read more:
Margaret Sloan-Hunter, writer formed black feminist organization (The Los Angeles Times)
An oral history of Ms. Magazine (The New York Magazine)
After 40 years, it's still Ms. to readers (The New York Times)
A second look at the Second Wave (Slate)
Margaret Sloan-Hunter unified the black and feminist struggles (The San Francisco Chronicle)
Hear more:
Sexism and racism: Gloria Steinem and Margaret Sloan-Hunter in conversation (Pacifica Radio Archives)
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