Day 7 of the 28 Days of Black Liberation 2024 series
The Sojourner’s for Truth and Justice were led by fourteen radical organizers such as Communist Party leader Louise Thompson Patters, W.E.B Du Bois’ wife Shirley Graham Du Bois, and California Eagle editor Charlotta Bass.
Many of the Sojourners were part of multiple progressive and radical groups, but they found that an organization dedicated to African American women’s concerns was critical for advancing the freedom of all people. They called out the complicity of the state in racist violence against Black women, and understood that the elimination of oppression required a public reckoning with the effect of racial violence on Black women.
Sojourners for Truth and Justice organized a 1951 march on Washington demanding a meeting with then President Truman, Justice Department, and Congress to address racial violence of Jim Crow and U.S. Cold War domestic and foreign policy. They issued “A Call to Negro Women” across the country and more than 132 women attended. Beyond the march, the Sojourner’s organized campaigns in support of Black, female political prisoners.
The Sojourner’s were doing political work together for only a little over one year, but in that short time, defined Black feminism as one that is conscious of race, gender, class — in an amerikkkan and global context.
In the United States, the Black liberation struggle is the vanguard of the revolutionary class struggle. Black resistance to white supremacy has been the catalyst for nearly all critical social ruptures throughout american history. White workers choosing an alliance with the bosses instead of siding with the rest of the working class is the primary roadblock to revolutionary anti-capitalism in the US.
The GDC celebrates the Black liberation struggle and draws inspiration and lessons from its proud history in our struggle for the new world we are fighting for. In February we celebrate Black revolutionary culture, political prisoners, international figures and struggles, and moments in direct action that guide us in our continued, collective fight for liberation!