User:Kajolrachelle/sandbox

Article Evaluation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifeminism

added heading "motivations paragraph"

National Black Feminist Organization: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Black_Feminist_Organization
- very little information

- nothing really goes into depth

- I hope to add more details (dates, people, emergence, legacy)

Born in Flames: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_Flames
- again, not a lot of information

- it is an outwardly black, feminist movies released in 1983- there is a lot of context, content and different issues being addressed

Approved Topic: Brenda Eichelberger
I aim to discuss Eichelberger's involvement in both the National Black Feminists Organization and the National Alliance of Black Feminists. I plan to include her background, beliefs, influences, involvements in both groups, accomplishments, and legacy. I found sources of archives, an interview, and informational articles, so I hope to provide a variety of perspectives.

Sources:
https://www.chipublib.org/fa-brenda-eichelberger-papers/

https://www.chipublib.org/blogs/post/brenda-eichelberger-black-feminist/

https://www.cwluherstory.org/conscious/a-black-womans-view-of-womens-liberation

https://jamesbradfordpate.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/brenda-eichelberger-on-african-american-women-who-reject-white-feminism/

Brenda Eichelberger/National Alliance of Black Feminists Papers, 1974-1997. ***

Lead Paragraph
Brenda Eichelberger was a pioneer in organizing for Black Women. Born on September 2, 1947, Eichelberger grew up as an adolescent in the Civil Rights era. At an early age, Eichlberger recognized gendered oppression, but questioned why racial discrimination was not considered part of the same oppression. She found herself unable to identify with other groups. Eichelberger acted upon this by becoming a founding member of the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO), Chicago Chapter. She later continued to create the National Alliance of Black Feminists (NABF). Eichelberger's early work introduces an intersectional approach to feminism and her later work addresses media portrayal, politicalization and preservation of black women’s culture.

Background
Brenda Eichelberger was born on September 2, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. She recalls being a feminist for all her life as she describes growing up wondering why her brother who was close in age to Brenda always got the top bunk, why her brother was gifted a bike when her family could only afford one, and why she had to do housework, but her brother did not. She acknowledged how Black women lived in neighborhoods with high crime and lower quality goods and services–  heavy security in stores, less literature available, long wait times in doctors’ offices, unsafe abortions, and low quality food at higher prices, to list a few.

Eichelberger experienced and observed social discrimination against Black women within the community through schools, career choices, and healthcare, which resulted in long term repercussions. For example, inadequate health care led to Black women’s rates of hypertension and suicide increasing by eighty percent in the last twenty years. Also, Black men felt threatened by women’s independence in fear of being left out, maintaining equality for Black men in focus.

Eichelberger, like many Black women, felt the sexual oppression from men, but also the racial oppression from the systematic discrimination created and continued by the white population. She recalls never being able to really identify herself with other groups.

National Black Feminist Organization’s Chicago Chapter (NBFO)
Brenda Eichelberger finally found her place when she read about the organization in the 1974 issue of Ms. Magazine. She already identified as a feminists, but she was unsure about how to feel about the added oppression of race absent from discussion with her white friends, until she found this.

Later that year, Eichelberger founded a Chicago Chapter of the NBFO. Brenda organized to address for Black women specifically because of the following five main points:



The NBFO disbanded in 1975, however Eichelberger still continued her efforts.

National Alliance of Black Feminists (NABF)
Recognizing that the fight for achieving full equality for Black women in the United States was far from done, Brenda Eichelberger formed and became the first executive director of the NABF in the summer of 1975. The main goals of this organization was to raise awareness of the intersectional oppressions of race and gender, preserve Black women’s cultural heritage and promote the portrayal of Black women as positive and accurate in media. The organization created a Black Women’s Center, formed a Black Women’s Speaker’s Bureau, and hosted many awareness workshops.

Along with Brenda Eichelberger, the efforts of Willie Barrow, Carol Moseley Braun, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Ethel Payne, Merlene Vaughn, and Nezzie Willis contributed to the expansion of more chapters being formed in Colorado, Richmond, New York, Washington D.C., and Atlanta.

Impact (or Takeaways?)
Brenda Eichelberger passed on June 12, 2013, however her footprint made a lasting impression for other activists to follow. Eichelberger was an early contributor to intersectional feminism.