The Black Women Freedom Fighters History Forgot — The Untold Trauma And Resistance Behind Black August

Every year when Black August rolls around, the stories we pull from the archive tend to center on Black men’s experience while the distinct warfare waged against Black women political prisoners gets reduced to a quiet whisper, if mentioned at all. 

I learned to tune my ears to those whispers early on in my academic career. My education in Black political activism began on the streets of North and West Philadelphia, not far from my university’s lecture halls. 

It was nearly impossible to remain oblivious to Black political struggle while living in Philadelphia, a city mired in a brutal history of police terror aimed narrowly at the Black community. Under the reign of former Philadelphia police commissioner Frank Rizzo, Black neighborhoods were targeted and regularly brutalized by his police force.

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