Smith, Barbara

November 16, 1946

Barbara Smith is a lesbian writer, publisher, educator, and activist who was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1969 and her M.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971. In 1974 she cofounded the Combahee River Collective, an early black feminist organization that challenged racism in the gay movement and homophobia in the black community.

Smith was the first to openly address the subject of black lesbian eroticism in the canon of African-American literature. Her well-known 1977 essay, "Toward a Black Feminist Criticism," offered one of the first critical looks at matters of feminism, race, and literature together. Smith was cofounder and publisher of the now defunct Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. The press was the first to focus on the realities and politics of women and lesbians of color.

Smith's publications include This Bridge Called My Black: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981), All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies (1982), Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (1983), Yours in the Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism (1984), and The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom (1998). Additionally, Smith has lectured and served as writer-in-residence at numerous colleges and universities, including Radcliffe College, Emerson College, the University of Massachusetts, Boston University, Barnard College, and Mt. Holyoke College. She has remained an outspoken critic of the absence of a discussion of lesbianism within the African-American literary canon.

See also Black Studies; Feminist Theory and Criticism; Intellectual Life; Lesbians

Bibliography

Farajaje-Jones, Elias. Interview by author. April 13, 2000.

"Smith, Barbara." Contemporary Authors. Detroit, Mich.: Gale, 1994.

"Smith, Barbara." Who's Who in Black America, 6th ed., edited by Iris Loyd. Detroit, Mich.: Gale, 1990.

rachel zellars (1996)
Updated by publisher 2005