Dorothy Pitman Hughes, icon of American feminism, dies at 84 | Society

Black American feminism pioneer Dorothy Pitman Hughes has died in Tampa, Florida at the age of 84. The 1971 photo of her raising her fist with Gloria Steinem, another feminism icon, has become the most powerful image of the interracial sisterhood in the fight for women’s rights. Pitman died on Dec. 1, but the news didn’t break until Saturday night.

Pitman was born in Lumpkin, Georgia in October 1938, in rural black America. When he was 10, his father was nearly beaten to death and left on his doorstep in what the family believed was an attack by the Ku Klux Klan. She moved to New York in 1957 where she has undertaken all kinds of activism in favor of civil rights, racial equality and feminism, with particular attention to the care of vulnerable children.

In the 1960s she worked as a shop assistant, cleaning houses and as a singer in nightclubs. According to his official biography, With fist raised (With fist raised), Written by University of Pittsburgh history professor Laura L. Lovett and published in early 2021, Pitman’s first act of activism was fundraising for the Congress on Racial Equality in the early 1960s. He was involved in the civil rights struggle and met Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

Because he worked nights as a singer and was at home during the day, he realized that the children in his neighborhood were forced to take care of their younger siblings, taking on adult tasks. In the late 1960s, partly out of a need for an alternative for his daughters, Pitman organized a multiracial cooperative daycare on New York’s West Side, the West 80th Community Childcare Center.

He soon realized that the neighborhood’s problems weren’t just childcare, but poverty, drugs, racial discrimination, vulnerable homes, and lack of education, among others, so the community center expanded its outreach. action, offering childcare services, vocational training, advocacy training and many other services. “Dorothy’s activism was incredibly multifaceted,” writes Laura L. Lovett in her biography. “She has rooted her feminism in her experience of hers and in more basic needs for safety, food, shelter and childcare,” she adds.

Gloria Steinem, columnist for New York Magazine, In 1968 he went to see that center to write about it and they both became friends. At the time, Pitman was already an activist, while Steinem was a journalist interested in feminism and social issues. With experience performing on stage and leading social protests, she was the African American who encouraged Steinem to start speaking together in public about the feminist movement. The two traveled around the country between 1969 and 1973 giving talks at universities, community centers and other venues. Lovett points out that Steinem was the first white woman to enter the local church in her home community of Georgia.

During that daring tour, the photo that now hangs on the walls of the National Portrait Museum in downtown Washington was taken. Pitman and Steinem needed a poster for their calls, and photographer Dan Wynn offered to do it for free. Both wore turtlenecks, Steinem with his blond hair and Pitman with his afro, posed defiantly with a raised fist, Black Power gesture, in a deliberately provocative image that quickly became iconic and was later recreated from another time in his life. The photo was published in the magazine Squire with the caption “Body and soul: Gloria Steinem and her partner, Dorothy Pitman Hughes, show off the style that delighted audiences on their speaking tour.”

After the popularity he gained during his tour, Pitman Hughes encouraged Steinem to co-found the revue with other partners. SM., which started out as a special edition of the New York Magazine and soon became a point of reference for the feminist movement. “Dorothy’s style was to denounce the racism she saw in the white women’s movement. She often took the stage to explain how white women’s privilege oppressed black women, but she also offered her friendship with Gloria as proof that this obstacle could be overcome.” Lovett pointed out just over a year ago to the magazine SM.

She campaigned for the Democratic Party and remained immersed in activism. In the 1980s she moved to Harlem, where she opened her own business in the 1990s, the first stationery, office supply and copy shop owned by a black woman in Harlem. She thought President Bill Clinton’s neighborhood development program launched in 1994 would be a great opportunity for black business owners in the neighborhood, and she got involved. However, she was later very critical of her because she ended up benefiting the big chains more than the local merchants, according to Lovett. Pitman left his Home Office Supply after opening a giant Staples store in the area.

While Steinem has remained in the spotlight as a huge star of the feminist movement, Pitman has fallen somewhat into oblivion. With a lower profile, he remained a community activist in Florida. She was mother of three daughters.

Steinem herself paid tribute to him. “We have become companions of social life and friends for life. We will miss him, but if we continue to tell his story about him, he will continue to inspire us all,” she told the AP.