Don’t let this thread die! Keep commenting and bringing to light the stories of black women. Just adding more about the black panthers, a lot of people don’t realize that black panther chapters spread across the world to unite black and dark skinned people.
In 1972 Dennis Walker, a black aboriginal Australian cofounded the Australian Black Panther Party (ABPP).
As always black women made up the back bone of the movement, organizing, protesting, and working in the ABPP schools/medical centers. Marlene Cummins, one of the first black women leaders in the movement recently spoke about about the abuse she and other women endured. Marlene and Dennis dated for some time and she has admitted that he was verbally abusive, violent, and cheated on her with white women. She once saw him smash a broken bottle onto a women’s face, which eventually led to their breakup.
She also revealed that she was raped by two indigenous leaders at the time (one aboriginal and the other torres strait islander) which was recorded on tape.
“There were men who are immortalized in history as heroes. Some of them are and some of them aren’t. [Some of them] are not heroes. They were rapists and perpetrators.”
“There were no support systems and women’s refuges weren’t as prevalent as they were today. Women’s rights were not voiced…[So can you imagine] what it was like for young girls with no support networks in those days, when those things – rapes by uncles – were not spoken of. How can you deal with that?
“…Even if you did report a crime, you were questioned whether it happened to you because you contributed to it: you asked for it!”
I’ve see a lot of people leaving comments asking for more information/resources to look into these women. A bit a googling will bring you plenty of reliable resources.
Marlene has a documentary out which can be seen here for free (x). I would also suggest reading this books by black panther women (x), (x), (x), (x) and this book that actually details the work some black men such as Fred Hampton did to address misogyny in the movement.
