OTD in History… August 22, 1973: Black Women Claim Their Place — The Founding of the NBFO

By Bonnie K Goodman, BA, MLIS

On August 22, 1973, a new chapter in American civil rights history began quietly but defiantly in New York City. The National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) was founded, its leaders determined to address what they called the “particular and specific needs of the larger, but almost cast-aside half of the Black race in Amerikkka, the Black woman.” With this sharp declaration, the NBFO staked a claim not simply in feminism or in the Black liberation movement, but in history itself. For too long, Black women had been told to wait their turn — marginalized by white feminist groups that rarely confronted racism and sidelined within Black Power and civil rights circles that centered male leadership. The NBFO was their answer: a demand for centrality, dignity, and liberation.

Twice Marginalized — and Ready

By the early 1970s, Black women lived in two worlds that refused them full belonging. Feminism still dominated by white women rarely addressed racism. Civil rights and Black Power movements largely male-led perpetuated patriarchy. As extracted from Harvard’s American Archive, founder Florynce “Flo” Kennedy reflected on this dynamic: she recognized that civil rights and Black liberation organizations “suffered a great deal from being very patriarchal structure[s]… carrying on the same kinds of oppressions” they claimed to resist.

Margaret Sloan‑Hunter, another founding leader, underscores this intersection: she collaborated with Flo and others to spotlight how sexism and racism were entwined and how Black women belonged at the center of that reckoning.

A Banner Raised — and Bodies Responded

When NBFO’s call went out in August 1973, interest thundered in: not abstract but urgent. By December, 400 women convened at NYC’s Cathedral of Saint John the Divine for the first regional conference — evidence that when you name the truth, people gather to be seen. Those 400 souls soon grew — NBFO soon had at least ten chapters and over 2,000 members nationwide.

It wasn’t a bubble — it was a breakthrough.

Words That Demand Attention

If you open NBFO’s Statement of Purpose, you’ll find an assertion that slices through centuries of denial:

“Black women have suffered cruelly in this society from living the phenomenon of being black and female, in a country that is both racist and sexist.”

The phrasing isn’t politicized jargon. It’s a clear, electric recognition that the pain of Black women has systemic roots — roots ignored or misunderstood by both mainstream feminists and civil rights groups.

What They Say Now — Looking Back

Decades later, the founders and members remember not failure, but seeds planted. In Teen Vogue, contributors Eugenia Wiltshire and Deborah Singletary reflect:

· Wiltshire:

“I… was just searching. My feminism developed from experience.”

· Singletary:

“When the [founders] talked about naming the organization, they just said, ‘Yeah, we’ll call it a national organization. I mean, we’re just gonna go for it.’ … Go for it. Be bold, be big.

They weren’t modest. They were blazing a new path.

Boldness — Strength and Strain

But boldness brings friction. NBFO’s urgency and rapid growth were powerful — but unsteady. Different chapters held competing visions: some thought the national organization wasn’t radical enough. In Boston, this led Barbara Smith, Demita Frazier, and others to form the Combahee River Collective in 1974, which sharpened the tools of Black feminist politics with ideas like “identity politics” and “interlocking oppressions.”

NBFO as a national body dissolved by 1976, and its remaining chapters wound down by around 1980. Yet to judge the NBFO purely on its lifespan is to miss the power of its ripple effects.

A Foundation, Not Footnote

NBFO injected a new premise: the belief that Black women’s liberation was not supplemental — it was foundational. Without naming their specific oppression, you could not win freedom for Black people. That argument thickened into the Black feminist frameworks used and amplified today.

NBFO broke media molds Black women were no longer accessory figures or stereotypes; they were front-and-center, speaking their truths.

Still Echoing in Our Present

Fast-forward fifty years — to today. When the world debates how race, gender, and identity intersect in education, policy, or protest, it’s speaking NBFO-born language. Terms like “intersectionality” and campaigns like #SayHerName trace through activism shaped by the NBFO’s foundational move.

Barbara Ransby calls Black feminism “not a trend, [but] a tradition.” The NBFO — early, explosive, and brief — stands as a cornerstone in that tradition.

Conclusion

On August 22, 1973, the National Black Feminist Organization declared a revolutionary premise: that Black women — too often cast aside by both feminism and liberation movements — would no longer wait. They would found, lead, and define. Though the NBFO did not endure institutionally, its voice resounds today.

The Statement’s declaration still rings urgent:

“Black women have suffered cruelly in this society from living the phenomenon of being black and female, in a country that is both racist and sexist.”

And fifty years on, that truth remains not a relic but a rallying cry.

Sources

• Statement of Purpose and founding goals, membership growth, and conference details
• Founders and founding members: Florynce Kennedy, Margaret Sloan‑Hunter, Michele Wallace, Faith Ringgold, Doris Wright
• Reflective quotes: Eugenia Wiltshire, Deborah Singletary (Teen Vogue, 2023); historian Kimberly Springer
• Formation of Combahee River Collective and its ideological emergence

Bonnie K. Goodman, BA, MLIS, is a historian, librarian, journalist, and artist. She is the author of “On This Day in History…: Significant Events in the American Year,” and “A Constant Battle: McGill University’s Complicated History of Antisemitism and Now anti-Zionism.” She has a BA in History and Art History and a Masters in Library and Information Studies from McGill University. She has done graduate work in Jewish history at Concordia University as part of the MA in Judaic Studies and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as part of their MA in Jewish Education. She contributed to the “History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2008,” edited by Gil Troy, Arthur M. Schlesinger, and Fred L. Israel (2012). She is the former Features Editor at the History News Network and reporter at Examiner.com, where she covered politics, universities, religion, and news. Her scholarly articles can be found on Academia.edu.