As a response to the saddening news of how 21-year-old Charnesia Corley was molested on Monday by police officers claiming to have been in search of marijuana in her vagina, Dr. Daina Ramey Berry created the #BlkWomenSyllabus hashtag on Twitter to provide a list of resources and books every Black woman should read.
Berry, a scholar of American slavery, history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of The Price for their Pound of Flesh, invited scholars, historians, writers and editors to weigh in. Book recommendations ranged from If They Come in the Morning by Angela Davis to When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost by Joan Morgan, and many more documentaries and writings.
This hashtag serves as a reference for Black women to remember that there are numeorous resources to remind us of just how tenacious, electrifying and radiant we really are. Here’s a look at our favorite tweets and recommendations from the trending hashtag below.
Every #blkwomensyllabus absolutely must include the groundbreaking book of its time: “The Black Woman: An Anthology.” pic.twitter.com/LqHDI6xCjw
— Renita Weems (@somethingwithin) August 11, 2015
#blkwomensyllabus because black women’s scholarship should not be relegated to a one-day lecture in the name of “diversity”
— Jen Bailey (@revjenbailey) August 12, 2015
#blkwomensyllabus Documentaries: Out in the Night, Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, Black Power Mixtape & Black August Hip Hop
— Jasmin H (@jhsting32) August 11, 2015
Laboring Women, Closer To Freedom, & Swing the Sickle for the Harvest is Ripe #blkwomensyllabus
— Natasha Lightfoot (@njlightfoot) August 11, 2015
What books, films or writings would you add to every Black woman’s syllabus?