When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (1984)
Ida, A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching (2008)
Paula Jane Giddings (born 1947) is an American writer, historian, and civil rightsactivist. She is the author of When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (1984), In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement (1988) and Ida, A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching (2008).
Early life
Paula Jane Giddings was born on November 16, 1947, in Yonkers, New York,[1] to Virginia Iola Stokes and Curtis Gulliver Giddings.[2] She grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood in Yonkers, where she regularly and systematically experienced isolation and racism from her white neighbors.[3] As a teen, Giddings personally experienced and witnessed the racism and violence against African Americans that led to and occurred in reaction to the Civil Rights Movement. This led her to participate in the movement as a Freedom Rider. According to Giddings, this set the stage for her desire to understand both oppression and resistance to it, a theme that would recur through her own activism and writing.[4]
Education
In 1965, Giddings enrolled in the historically Black collegeHoward University, where she worked on the university's newspaper beginning in her first year. In 1967, she became editor of the university's literary magazine,The Promethean, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1969. As a student at Howard, Giddings was part of a group of students who worked against sexism, colorism, and classism that they saw as rampant on their campus.[4]
Career
From 1969 to 1972, Giddings worked for Random House, first as an editorial assistant and later as a copy editor. She then became an associate book editor for Howard University Press. In 1975, she moved to Paris, France, to serve as the Paris bureau chief for Encore America/Worldwide News. Two years later, she transferred to the New York office, where she served as an associate editor until 1979.[2] In 1975, she traveled to South Africa, where she had the opportunity to meet leaders of the Anti-Apartheid Movement.[5]
In 1984, Giddings published her first book, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America, which tracks the history of Black women in the United States through the 1970s and the confluence of the Civil Rights and Women's Rights movements. Kirkus Reviews described the book as "the first historical study of the relationship, in America, between racism and sexism--broad-ranging, occasionally plodding, generally sound and insightful."[6] The following year, Giddings served as contributing editor and book review editor for Essence magazine and became a distinguished scholar for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).[2]
In 1988, Giddings joined the faculty of Douglass College at Rutgers University. That same year, she published In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement, a history of Delta Sigma Theta, the African-American sorority of which she is a member. The book was recognized for its depth and its focus on the influence of Delta Sigma Theta and its members.[7][8]
In 2001, Giddings joined Smith College as the Elizabeth A. Woodson 1922 Professor of Africana Studies. She also served as the editor of feminist journal Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. She then became Smith College department chair and honors thesis advisor for the department of Africana studies, where she remained until her retirement in 2017.[2][9]
In 2017, Giddings was a National Book Award Judge for nonfiction works.[12] That same year, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[7][13]
In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement (William Morrow & Co, 1988; Quill Publishers, 1995, ISBN0688135099)
When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America (William Morrow & Co, 1984; Bantam Press, 1985; 2nd edn: William Morrow Paperbacks, 1996, ISBN0688146503)
Selected honors and awards
The following is a brief listing of some of the recognition Paula Giddings has received for her work and its impact.[10][14][15][16][17]
