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Ambiguity in the law allowed for prostitutes to challenge imprisonment in the courts. Through these cases prostitutes forced a popular recognition of their profession and defended their rights and property. Despite sex workers' efforts, social reformers looking to abolish prostitution outright began to gain traction in the early 20th century. New laws focused on the third-party businesses where prostitution took place, such as saloons and brothels, holding the owners culpable for the activities that happened within their premises. Red-light districts began to close. Finally, in 1910 the Mann Act, or "White Slave Traffic Act" made illegal the act of coercing a person into prostitution or other immoral activity, the first federal law addressing prostitution. This act was created to address the trafficking of young, European girls who were thought to have been kidnapped and transported to the United States to work in brothels, but criminalized those participating in consensual sex work. Subsequently, at the start of the First World War, a Navy decree forced the closure of sex-related businesses in close proximity to military bases. Restrictions and outright violence led to the loss of the little control workers had over their work. In addition to this, in 1918, the Chamberlain-Kahn Act made it so that any woman found to have a sexually transmitted infection (STI) would be quarantined by the government. The original purpose of this act was to stop the spread of venereal diseases among U.S. soldiers. By 1915 under this act, prostitutes, or those perceived to be prostitutes could be stopped, inspected, and detained or sent to a rehabilitation facility if they were found to test positive for any venereal disease. During World War I, an estimated 3,000 women were detained and examined. The state had made sex workers into legal outcasts. During the Great Depression, black women in New York City accounted for more than 50 percent of arrests for prostitution.

(What's currently live as of 3/23/2021) Demita Frazier is a self proclaimed unrepentant lifelong Black Feminist, thought leader, writer, teacher, and social justice activist. She is a founding member of the Combahee River Collective (CRC). While it has been more than forty years since the Combahee River Collective released their Black Feminist Statement, Frazier has remained committed to the "lifetime of work and struggle" for liberation for all.

Early Life & Activism
As a child of the Fifties, Frazier attributes the events during the years of 1967-1969, including but not limited to the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement and the Women's Movement, as a "political awakening" for her. One text was particularly influential for Frazier, which was Woman Power: The Movement for Women's Liberation by Celestine Ware.

Frazier began her lifelong commitment to activism by opposing the Vietnam War in high school. After leaving traditional school settings to pursue her own independent studies, Frazier participated in political organizing and activism with the Chicago Black Panther's Breakfast Program and the Jane Collective. Frazier eventually moved to Boston and continued organizing there. In Boston, she connected with other founding members of the CRC, Barbara Smith and Beverly Smith, through the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO). The CRC was an outgrowth of the NBFO. In addition to her organizing and activism, Frazier obtained her Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University.

Combahee River Collective
As a founding member of the Combahee River Collective, Frazier intellectual labor is referenced every time the CRC name is uttered. One of the largest contributions of the CRC statement is the recognition of "intersecting oppressions" prior to the coining of the term intersectionality by Kimberlé Crenshaw. Which Frazier says in Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's (Ed.) book, How We Get Free that she noted in "probably our third or fourth draft of the statement, I said,...we stand at the intersection where are identities are indivisible."

The CRC and their statement defined Black Feminism then and their words and legacy continue to shape it presently. For Frazier, "Black Feminism is a representation of Black women's power. Black women's agency. Black women's right to look at their material conditions, analyze it, interrogate it, and come away with an analysis that's about empowerment."

References to the contributions and impact of the CRC can be found throughout the canon of Black Feminist Thought in works such as Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought edited by Beverly Guy-Sheftall and Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought edited by Briona Simone Jones.

Later Life
Frazier has taught and lectured throughout the New England region, most recently at Bunker Hill Community College.

On the subject of intergenerational coalition, Frazier stated in a 2017 roundtable: "'...I dream of deep listening across the generations, both to what we find easy to say and to that with which we struggle mightily...Organizing for political change is hard work, particularly in coalition, and core issues--the ability to deeply listen, to tolerate ambiguity and paradox, to demonstrate respect in the ways that are most meaningful when working across and through difference---take a kind of discipline that takes leadership and time to develop.'"

In that same roundtable when asked of how she keeps going in the work of liberation, Frazier said: "'I am unwilling to give up this fight for freedom, for all people, especially Black people, and I am inspired by the many humans I share this planet with who are committed to that struggle. So many quietly brave, unwavering people have shared the struggle for freedom. I am allied with that energy.'"Frazier continues to dismantle the myth of white supremacy, by working to end misogynoir, hetero-patriarchal hegemony, and undermining late stage capitalism. She is a practicing unallied Buddhist, committed to embodied loving kindness. When she isn't working she enjoys working in her garden and cooking.

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Support

As a someone who practices what she preaches and has committed to a "lifetime of work and struggle" Barbara does not have access to traditional retirement fund. Following in the collective care of Black feminist ethos, there is a Caring Circle that supports Barbara and her work. Contributions can be made monthly.