Race Women Internationalists explores how a group of Caribbean and African American women in the early and mid-twentieth century traveled the world to fight colonialism, fascism, sexism, and racism. Based on newspaper articles, speeches, and creative fiction and adopting a comparative perspective, the book brings together the entangled lives of three notable but overlooked women: American Eslanda Robeson, Martinican Paulette Nardal, and Jamaican Una Marson. It explores how, between the 1920s and the 1960s, the trio participated in global freedom struggles by traveling; building networks in feminist, student, black-led, anticolonial, and antifascist organizations; and forging alliances with key leaders. This made them race women internationalists-figures who engaged with a variety of interconnected internationalisms to challenge various forms of inequality facing people of African descent across the diaspora and the continent.

About the Author
Imaobong D. Umoren is Assistant Professor of International History of Gender at the London School of Economics.

Reviews
"Umoren's diligent research and exposition of various meetings, organisations and influencers provide ample points from which to begin. . . . readers will leave Race Women Internationalists with a great deal more knowledge about Marson, Nardal and Robeson, as well as agreeing with Umoren's foundational claim that race women internationalists warrant greater inclusion in the narratives historians will tell about anti-colonialism, feminism, socialism and Pan-Africanism in the years to come." * LSE Review of Books *
"The group biography format...allows Umoren to stress the heterogeneity of commitments that motivated Nardel, Marson, and Robeson's activism. In addition, Umoren's work offers an important corrective to disciplinary boundaries that would cordon off the myriad of cultural and political practices these activist-intellectuals engaged in. . . . [and] sets the foundation for future scholarship on the contributions of black feminist intellectuals to the world stage in the space between." * The Space Between: Literature and Culture, 1914-1945 *
"This is an incredibly well-researched text. Pulling from governmental papers, personal papers, activist and mainstream publications and artistic writings from five countries, the author manages to give each of her subjects a distinct voice." * Journal of Social History *



Book Information
ISBN 9780520295810
Author Imaobong D. Umoren
Format Paperback
Page Count 216
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 272g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 15mm