ONE Black Women and the Activist Challenge One of the worst-kept secrets is the continued presence of anti-black ­ sentiments in America and the material and nonmaterial consequences associated with the anti-black sentiments for black people and nonblack people alike.1 One of the best-kept secrets is the engagement of black women in the practice of adaptive leadership who work to expose the effects of anti-black sentiments from their unique perspective as a group— a group with a history of experiencing not only anti-black sentiments but simultaneously experiencing anti-women sentiments in an interlocking matrix of multilevel and multidimensional systems of oppression. Black women who are engaged in the practice of adaptive leadership have, over time, mobilized one another to tackle the tough challenges of protecting their bodies, representations, agency, families, communities, franchise, and autonomy, while simultaneously working to dismantle racialized social systems, and thrive.2 Black women were not merely working behind the scenes of some of the most significant social movements and events in America’s not-so- distant past (e.g., Civil War, Reconstruction, Suffrage Movement, Civil Rights Movement) rather, black women were on the front lines of his- tory engaged in any number of passive and active forms of resistance. The roles of black women as agents of social change engaged in the practice of leadership are misunderstood and understudied due in large part to a limited understanding of what constitutes a leader. Historically, leadership
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