About
Barbara Smith is a Black lesbian feminist scholar, writer, publisher, editor, educator, and activist whose work helped shape Black feminist thought and organizing in the United States. A co-founder of the Combahee River Collective and Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, she has spent decades connecting race, gender, class, sexuality, literature, and political liberation.
Biography
Barbara Smith emerged as a writer and activist during the Black feminist and lesbian feminist movements of the 1970s. She co-founded the Combahee River Collective in 1974 with Beverly Smith and Demita Frazier and was among the authors of the collective’s influential 1977 statement addressing interconnected racial, gender, class, and sexual oppression.
In 1980, Smith co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, creating an independent publishing space for women of color. Her writing and editorial work includes Toward a Black Feminist Criticism (1977) and Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (1983), which became important works in Black feminist literary and political thought.
Smith also served two terms on the Albany Common Council from 2006 to 2013 and has continued her work as an author, activist, independent scholar, and movement educator. Her personal papers were acquired by Harvard’s Schlesinger Library in 2026, where the collection is being processed for future public research.
BQW Impact
Barbara Smith is a foundational figure in Black feminist and lesbian history. Through the Combahee River Collective and Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, she helped create spaces for Black feminist and Black lesbian perspectives within political organizing, scholarship, and publishing.
Her writing and activism connected race, gender, class, and sexuality in ways that continue to influence Black feminist and queer movements. Her work helped establish a lasting intellectual and cultural foundation for Black queer women.
Selected work
Toward a Black Feminist Criticism (1977)
Foundational essay establishing a framework for Black women’s literary criticism.
The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977)
Collective work by the Combahee River Collective, with Smith among its credited authors, addressing interconnected racial, gender, class, and sexual oppression.
Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (1983)
Influential anthology edited by Smith and published through Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.
Sources
Barbara Smith Official Website
Official information about Smith’s life, writing, activism, publications, and movement history.
Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology
Publisher information for Smith’s influential anthology.
Smith College Voices of Feminism Oral History Project
Oral-history transcript documenting Smith’s activism and writing.
Harvard Radcliffe Schlesinger Library
Information on the 2026 acquisition of Smith’s papers and its ongoing processing.
Profile details
- Fields: Literature, Social Change
- Roles: Literary Scholarship, Nonfiction, Political Leadership, Rights & Justice
- Pronouns: She/Her
- Gender Identity: Woman
- LGBTQ Identity: Lesbian
- Nationality: American
- Ethnicity: African American
- Topics: Black Feminist Literature, Queer Literature