Frances M. Beal
[1] Her focus has predominantly been regarding women's rights, racial justice, anti-war and peace work, as well as international solidarity.
[2] She is most widely known for her publication, “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female", which theorizes the intersection of oppression between race, class, and gender.
[3] Beal's mother, Charlotte Berman Yates, was born in the United States to radical, Russian-Jewish immigrants who fled Russia after rebelling against the anti-Semitic Russian Czar.
[4] Beal's father, Ernest Yates, was a Black-Native American who graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Civil Engineering.
After moving back to Binghamton, Beal's father experienced segregation and racism, unable to land an engineering-related job and eventually becoming a truck driver for the rest of his life.
[2] In Binghamton, Beal's mother hosted Marxism Leninism study groups, against the wishes of the conservative, White majority in the town.
In Sorbonne, Beal explored left-wing ideology through local bookstores and interactions with the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN).
[6] Beal became aware of the fight to end the colonial domination in Algeria while studying abroad at the University of Sorbonne, which sparked her political consciousness and interest in social justice.
[9][10][11] The TWWA is a NYC-based organization committed to helping marginalized women and communities globally in the struggle for social justice.
[11] The TWWA incorporates a core stance of intersectionality politics, acknowledging oppression from the overlapping fronts of race, class, gender, capitalism, imperialism, and ability.
[12] While working in the SNCC, Beal and her colleagues became increasing concerned about female issues, specifically assault on Black women's reproductive justice through forced sterilization.
[13] This organization fought to help poor women of color who were being disproportionately targeted and coerced into involuntary sterilization get reproductive justice.
[15] In this essay, Beal critiques capitalism, reproductive rights, and social politicalization, while acknowledging the unique position Black Women are in, in a monist society.
[17] Through her organizing, Beal confronted a range of oppressive regimes that encompassed complex power relations which subordinated and disenfranchised Black women in particular.
Her work remains influential in academic fields like gender studies and sociology, where Double Jeopardy is frequently referenced in discussions of intersectionality.
