First Advisor
Patricia Schechter
Term of Graduation
January 2026
Date of Publication
1-1-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Language
English
Subjects
Activism, Citizenship, Feminism, Intersectionality, Social Movements, Women of Color
Physical Description
1 online resource ( pages)
Abstract
Not since the phrase “Ain’t I a Woman” has African American women’s intellectual leadership and insight been as visible and influential as the contemporary concept of intersectionality. Like Sojourner Truth's iconic intellectual intervention in the anti-slavery movement, intersectionality has experienced a similar trajectory of dissolution, distortion, appropriation, and popularization. Since its articulation by Black legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality theory has had a bumpy road to its buzzy, if controversial, status in the firmament of twenty-first-century political thought. This thesis traces the origins of intersectionality theory through three distinct but intertwined phases. Phase one is the genealogy of the theory, the long intellectual tradition from Truth to Crenshaw. Phase two is the practice of the theory and its variants found in the archive, as well as the embodied expressions and activism of the Third World Women’s Alliance (TWWA) and the Puerto Rican Young Lords Party (YLP). Finally, phase three is the sublimation of the theory from the streets into literature and the academy, notably in the law. Throughout these phases, I unearth and discuss the earliest and richest expressions of intersectional thought, how its ideology was practiced by women-of-color activists in 1970s New York City to create an alternate expression of insurgent citizenship and postulate why and how intersectional activism slowed in momentum but morphed into a literary and academic force that shaped public reception of Crenshaw’s version of intersectionality. I invoke Kimberlé Crenshaw as a touchpoint throughout my thesis to document its evolution and to suggest the differences in the reception of Crenshaw’s coinage of the theory compared to her earlier antecedents. Crenshaw serves as a type of bridge between the grassroots activism of the 1970s and the institutional legibility of the 1990s. By placing her in conversation with her antecedents, I show what was gained and what was silenced when intersectionality moved from the streets and intellectual prose to a legal and academic doctrine. I argue in Chapter One that intersectionality did not emerge from an intellectual vacuum in 1989; rather, it followed a non-linear and often contentious trajectory long before its formal articulation as a legal concept. I provide an in-depth genealogy of the theory, tracing its earliest thinkers, such as Sojourner Truth and Anna Julia Cooper. I demonstrate how Crenshaw drew inspiration from them or altered their perspectives to a contemporary context, a century-long intellectual lineage that functioned as a survival strategy long before it became a legal theory. Chapter Two offers a visceral exploration of intersectional praxis within the grassroots activism of the Third World Women’s Alliance (TWWA) and the Young Lords Party (YLP). By analyzing their newspapers, Triple Jeopardy and Palante, I demonstrate how intersectionality was a lived reality. These women didn't have the luxury of theory separated from practice. Claiming their autonomy, they came together to create a movement projecting their intersectional realities into public expression and activism, and consequently, a rich alternative definition of citizenship. An insurgent citizenship of care and embodied validation that existed freely and unapologetically outside of national structures of recognition (like voting). Chapter Three investigates the political and social conditions that slowed the momentum of the 1970s insurgent feminist movement, specifically during the conservative ascendancy of the following decade. I examine how the embodied and community-centric citizenship practiced by the TWWA and the Young Lords was forced into abeyance by the Reagan era’s colorblind policy shift. I contend that this period was not an ending, but a sublimation of their voices, experiences, and sacrifices. As the physical organizations of the street were dismantled or defunded, the Theory of the Flesh—the lived knowledge of Black and Brown women—morphed into a potent literary and academic force. I analyze how the creative works of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, and others served as vital vessels for intersectional thought, keeping the movement's radical core alive, often through poetry and creative works, as the political landscape grew too hostile for grassroots organizing. I conclude by tracing how these fragmented pieces of 1970s praxis were gathered and institutionalized by scholars like Kimberlé Crenshaw and Patricia Hill Collins, ensuring that their intellectual legacy became a permanent, if contested, fixture of the American academic landscape. The coinage of "intersectionality" in 1989 was not the start of a movement but a pivotal moment of institutional translation.
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Recommended Citation
Davis, Genevieve Bonner, "Intersectionality and Insurgent Citizenship: Women of Color Feminism in 1970s New York City" (2026). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 7147.