[2] The term "Négritude" itself was coined by Martiniquan writer-activist Aimé Césaire, one of the three individuals formally recognized as the "fathers" of the cultural movement, along with Senegalese poet Léopold Senghor and French Guianese writer Léon Damas.
[3] It was not until relatively recently, however, that the women involved in the Négritude movement, including Jane and Paulette Nardal, began to receive the recognition they were due.
[4] After completing her preparatory school education, Jane Nardal joined her sister Paulette in Paris in 1923 to study classic literature and French at the Sorbonne.
Jane's specialties were primarily political and cultural; she wrote two critical essays for the paper, including "Internationalisme noir" (Black internationalism) which was published in the journal's very first issue.
[6] In her writings, Jane also outlined pivotal concepts which would become central to the early Negritude movement, including the global community, Afro-Latin race consciousness, the New French-speaking Negro, and the après-guerre nègre.
[2] Jane Nardal moved back to Martinique in 1929 where she hosted a conference on "Le chant Nègre aux Etats-Unis" (Black songs in the United States) with a focus on the influence of Blues.
In 1956, someone threw a torch through the window of the Nardals' Martiniquan family home, burning a considerable amount of Paulette's correspondence and writings, in response to Jane's political activity.