# Barbara Smith Born November 16, 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio. American Black lesbian feminist writer, activist, publisher, and one of the **founding figures of contemporary Black feminist intellectual tradition**. Smith was a co-founder of two of the foundational institutions of late-20th-century Black-feminist organizing: the [[Combahee River Collective]] in 1974 and **Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press** in 1980. ## The Combahee River Collective In **1974**, Smith — along with her twin sister Beverly Smith, Demita Frazier, and others — co-founded the **Combahee River Collective**, a Boston-based Black-lesbian-feminist group whose **1977 *Black Feminist Statement*** is one of the foundational texts of contemporary American intersectional political theory. The Statement: - **Coined the term "identity politics"** — though in a sense substantially different from how the term has subsequently been deployed in critical conservative usage - **Explicitly framed Black-feminist analysis as inseparable from Black-lesbian-feminist analysis** — refusing both the racial-only frame of mainstream Black liberation and the gender-only frame of mainstream (white) feminism - **Articulated the "interlocking systems of oppression" framework** that [[Kimberlé Crenshaw]] would name "intersectionality" twelve years later in her 1989 University of Chicago Legal Forum article The Collective took its name from Harriet Tubman's June 1863 raid on the Combahee River in South Carolina — the only [[U.S. Civil War]] military action planned and led by a woman, which freed approximately 750 enslaved people. ## Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press In **1980**, Smith co-founded **Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press** with [[Audre Lorde]], Cherríe Moraga, Hattie Gossett, and others. Kitchen Table was the **first U.S. publishing house specifically organized to publish women of color** — at a time when major publishing houses systematically excluded such voices. Major Kitchen Table publications: - ***This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color*** (1981, edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa) — the foundational multiracial-feminist anthology of the 1980s, distributed by Kitchen Table after the original publisher dropped it - ***Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology*** (1983, edited by Smith) — the foundational Black-feminist anthology - Works by [[Audre Lorde]], Cherríe Moraga, Hattie Gossett, Mitsuye Yamada, Merle Woo, and other women-of-color writers ## Albany Common Council Smith served two terms (2006-2014) on the **Albany Common Council** in Albany, New York — making her one of the few openly lesbian women of color in elected office in upstate New York during her tenure, and one of the relatively few founding-generation Black-feminist movement figures to enter electoral politics directly. ## Place in the Vault Smith is the **lead surviving foundational figure** of the 1970s-1980s Black-lesbian-feminist intellectual and organizational tradition — the tradition that produced the analytical frameworks (intersectionality, identity politics, interlocking systems of oppression) that now structure contemporary American left-political vocabulary. Her sustained organizing and publishing work across half a century is one of the most consequential individual contributions to the contemporary multiracial-feminist intellectual landscape. --- ## See Also - [[Queer Liberation Ecosystem]] - [[Queer Liberation Timeline]] - [[Combahee River Collective]] - [[Audre Lorde]]