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When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America

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This is the book for you if you are interested in history and especially the history of Black Women in America. The author factually grabs hold of you and guides you through the lifes of black women in this country. Their beliefs, struggles and the way they have affected everything from end of slavery to women's and civil rights movements, and from family and society dynamics to everyday racism. You will read about the more widely known Fannie Lou Hamer's persistent work during the 60's civil rights movement to the relatively unknown Ida Wells and her fight to stop lynchings around the country a century ago. This is a book that will touch you as a woman and as a human being.

Giddings makes history read like a novel. This book is worth its weight in crude oil for the analysis of the U.S. women's suffrage movement and its deal with the white supremacy devil alone. An excellent introduction to African American history for those not yet well-versed in the topic. Great for undergrads and grad students and non-academic readers alike.

I first read this masterpiece by Paula Giddings in my second year of undergraduate studies at SUNY Stony Brook, and thus began my scholastic love affair with Ms. Giddings. The book is as educationally informative as it is necessary for the mental liberation of Black people, in particular Black women. The book essentially encapsulates the untold history of not only Black women's' history, but more importantly how their history profoundly shaped, influenced, and effected American history, culture, and politics for Black people as a whole and women in general. Indeed this is a treasure of a volume; unquestioningly required reading for anyone who thinks they're knowledgeable about Black women's' history, has an interest in general history, and wants to expand their academic knowledge of the subject matter.

This is a wonderful book about the impact of segment of our population that has been perceived as powerless. The novel-type reading of historical, sociological and societal events is truly a gift of this author. She portrays women of conviction, strenght and strong values in a moving, engaging manner.

First read this in college. It was so moving that I often had to put it down for a week at a time to process the strong emotions this book evoked. It is a wonderful read for any women in the United States regardless of race.

Paula Giddings (born 1947) is a writer and historian, as well as professor of African-American Studies at Smith College. She has also written Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching, In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement, and Burning All Illusions: Writings from The Nation on Race (Nation Books).

She states in the Preface to this 1984 book, "When and Where I Enter attempts to strike a balance between the subjective and the objective. Although it is the product of extensive research, it is not without a point of view or a sense of mission. A mission to tell a story largely untold. For despite the range and significance of our history, we have been perceived as token women in Black texts and as token Blacks in feminist ones... So I set out to write a narrative history of Black women, tracing their concerns---and what they did about them---from the seventeenth century to the contemporary period. It is thematic in approach, using a broad canvas to illustrate the nature and meaning of the Black woman's experience."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"It seems ironic that White women abolitionists would discriminate against Black women. For Whites, though, abolitionist activism was primarily a means of releasing their suppressed political energies---energies which they directed toward the goal not of Black liberation, but of their own." (Ch. II)
"The support of the Fifteenth Amendment by Black women did not mean that they had less interest in their suffrage, economic independence, education, or any other issue that pertained to them. And their support certainly didn't mean a collective willingness to be oppressed by men, Black or White. But Harper and others understood that the rights of Black men had to be secured before Black women could assert theirs... But after the Fifteenth Amendment was assured, Black women continued their own struggle throughout the 1870's with renewed vigor." (Ch. III)
"No matter how she characterized it, the Black woman's response to her historical circumstances made a certain feminist sensibility inevitable." (Ch. XI)
"Black women were scolded for being too domineering and too insecure; too ambitious and too decadently idle, all in the same breath. Thus, despite the special socioeconomic circumstances faced by Blacks, Black men saw Black women in the same context that White men saw White women." (Ch. XIV)