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Scholarship and Action: CCWHP and the Movement(s)
- Journal of Women's History
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 6, Number 3, Fall 1994
- pp. 79-96
- 10.1353/jowh.2010.0318
- Article
- Additional Information
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International Trends: Scholarship and Action: CCWHP and the Movement(s)* Berenice A. Carroll In this twenty-fifth anniversary year of the Coordinating Committee on Women in the Historical Profession (CCWHP), we may look back with pride, recalling all those who brought the vitality of their anger and hope, indignation and optimism, knowledge and theory, criticism and support, to this group in its struggles to change history—to change the profession of history, to change historical scholarship, and to change the direction of our own history.1 As we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of our founding/ we stand close also to the twenty-fifth anniversary of that landmark year, 1970, that saw the appearance of many generative works of contemporary feminism, among them, to name only some that were especially formative in my own consciousness: CeUestine Ware, Woman Power: The Movement for Women's Liberation (New York: Tower PubUcations); Kate Millett, Sexual Politics (Garden City, New York: Doubleday); Robin Morgan, Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement (New York: Vintage); Toni Cade, The Black Woman (New York: Signet); Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (New York, Bantam); and LesUe Tanner, Voices from Women's Liberation (New York: Signet). These works remind us of the history of our relationship to the broader women's movement—or rather, movements—and of the significant inteUectual contributions of the activist movements themselves. While our founding meeting in 1969 immediately preceded the publication of most of these works, all were manifestations of the ideas and momentum of the multifaceted feminisms that grew rapidly throughout the 1960s, and many of the essays and manifestos pubUshed in the 1970 anthologies were already in circulation in women's groups and journals.2 It is also worthy of note that two of the six books I have just mentioned were by African-American women (Ware and Cade), and that both Cade and Tanner included in their anthologies versions of the essay by Pat © 1994 Journal of Women's History, Vol 6 No. 3 (Fall)____________________ *Portions of this essay are drawn from the author's memoir, 'The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of CCWHP: Reflections on Activism and Scholarship, Diversity and Difference," in A History of the Coordinating Committee on Women in the Historical Profession—Conference Group on Women's History, published by the CCWHPCGWH , 1994, pp. 56-85 (cited as: "Reflections on Activism and Scholarship ..."). + Editors' note—see Chaudhuri and Perry article in this section for more information about the founding of CCWHP. 80 Journal of Women's History Fall Robinson "and group" entitled: "A Historical and Critical Essay for Black Women in the Cities," a work whose theoretical importance is too seldom remembered today. In our efforts to acknowledge racism among white women in the history of feminism, we often speak of "the women's movement" as a "white women's movement"; but this phrase, a just criticism in some contexts, erases the leading roles black women and other women of color have actually played in shaping the ideas of contemporary feminism.3 We may look back with some awe to that time—the turn of a decade, the end of the 1960s, the beginning of the 1970s. It was certainly glorious, not only for us but for a broad-ranging, loose coalition of scholars and activists seeking major changes in our society. On our tenth anniversary I remembered that time as one of "astounding and exhilirating successes"— crowded sessions, electric atmosphere, our resolutions adopted with ease.4 In recoUections for the twentieth anniversary, Christie Farnham [Pope] wrote: "I am sure that my experience was not unique in being both thrilled and excited—it really sent my adrenalin racing ... to see such articulate and self-possessed women historians as those who spoke at our meetings in the early seventies."5 "Those years were energizing, exciting, and promising," wrote Sandi Cooper, describing a time filled with organizing , networking, pressuring the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians and the regional associations, working for change on our own campuses.6 Like so much of the history of women's political action in many arenas, the keynote was "joy...