The Combahee River Collective Statement Quotes

“In the practice of our politics we do not believe that the end always justifies the means.”
― Combahee River Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing In The Seventies and Eighties

“If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression”
― Combahee River Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing In The Seventies and Eighties

“In the practice of our politics, we do not believe that the end always justifies the means. Many reactionary and destructive acts have been done in the name of achieving “correct” political goals. As feminists we do not want to mess over people in the name of politics.”
― Combahee River Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing In The Seventies and Eighties

“Above all else, our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s but because of our need as human persons for autonomy. This may seem so obvious as to sound simplistic, but it is apparent that no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever considered our specific oppression as a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression.”
― Combahee River Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing In The Seventies and Eighties

“If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since
our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.”
― Combahee River Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing In The Seventies and Eighties

“Although we are feminists and lesbians, we feel solidarity with progressive black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand.”
― Combahee River Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing In The Seventies and Eighties