Jumping the Eight Ball

Billie "Lady Day" Holiday, that throaty singer of the blues, had the right idea when she maintained, "It is the easiest thing in the world to say 'every broad for herself--saying it and acting that way is one thing that's kept some of us behind the eight ball where we've been living for a hundred years." To be behind the eight ball for a woman, and particularly for a black woman, is in part to be unable to define and realize your own place in the world around you. On one's own, with "every broad for herself," it is difficult to find the practical answers and solutions to day-to-day obstacles so necessary for emerging from behind the eight ball.

Feeling a need for these answer, or at least a desire to find support among other group of black Radcliffe women met last spring to discuss the position of black women at Harvard.

The result of the meeting was the formation of the Association of Black Radcliffe Women (ABRW), Shelley Anderson '77, chairwoman of ABRW, explains, because the women decided to take it upon themselves to put together a group that would be responsive to their particular needs. More specifically, she says, the women hoped to provide a catalyst for bringing black women together and a supportive force for individual and collective pursuits.

"Harvard can be an elitist place," Anderson says, straining to express the special position of black women here, "If you're a woman, there's going to be at least one time you'll confront that--if you are black you will surely have to. If you're black and female it can be a double burden." But she stresses that they did not organize because they fell oppressed by the environment, but rather "because we had an incredibly strong sense that we can help one another to deal with it."

Attempting to bring black women together, ABRW this year has sponsored a "Big Sib" program for incoming black freshman women, a meeting to provide general information about University Health Services, and a dinner with W. Antoinette Ford, formerly a member of the presidential clemency board and now a fellow at the Institute of Politics.

"At the dinner, we got off onto what it is like to be a black woman," Carla Herriford '76, ABRW recording secretary, remembers. "Anything negative we had to say, she had something positive to say. She was really inspirational." Herriford's most emotional experiences with ABRW--the ones that bring the most excitement and warmth into her boice--come from meetings with other women. "There were times last spring we were on the verge of crying, we were so happy just to see a room full of black women."

"One of the best feelings," Herriford says with a soft smile on her face, "is hearing four or five sisters say they've been through the same things you have--even finding another sister from your home town you didn't know was here."

The meetings have enabled Herriford to come in contact with other black pre-med women. "There are about eight or nine of us who have gotten really tight. We support each other, saying, 'Go ahead, apply there sister.'" Herriford is now trying to show freshman women that the problems of being a pre-med are not insurmountable. "I've had my individual struggle and I feel good about it--I don't want my sisters to change their major because they feel they can't do it."

Wendy Brown '76, co-chairwoman of ABRW, also thinks ABRW has already unified the black women at Radcliffe. Working with people, she explains energetically, allows you to form a different kind of relationship from going to class with them. "Now we have reasons to stop and talk to one another--now we take time to get to know one another."

Although the group has brought black women together--62 of the about 150 black women at Radcliffe are members--Brown doesn't think the problems of coping with Harvard are being internalized. "We're not just huddling together, we're outward moving. By letting freshmen and sophomores know what we've been through, they can avoid running into the same obstacles."

Until 1973, Doris Mitchell, former assistant dean of Radcliffe, had coordinated activities for black women, such as teas, open houses and a career symposium, thereby delaying the need for a formal organization like ABRW. "After she left, there was really no one around who had the interest she had in black women," Anderson says, adding that in forming an organization, the women decided they wanted to be autonomous, since "if we had felt there were groups that were responsive to our individual needs, we would not have needed our own." ABRW receives $5 yearly dues from each of its members, and this year received about $850 from RUS to allow them to coordinate activities. The women accept money from RUS in part because they feel the money is theirs and also, "considering Harvard isn't going to accept 1000 black women any time soon, we can't go on our own dues," Brown explains practically.

Another potential source of income is their own activities. ABRW plans to sponsor a women's health issues seminar, with a panel of mostly gynecologists and women doctors from UHS, and, on a larger scale, a weekend career seminar similar to the one organized by Mitchell. Mostly black women from the Boston area--members of the Association of Black Women Lawyers, for example--will be invited, in order to show the black women here the options that are open to them after Harvard. Active communication with black alumnae will hopefully provide this kind of service in the long run.

For the moment at least, ABRW has chosen not to participate actively in the more political issues confronting minorities at Harvard--choosing, for example, not to join the recently formed task force on affirmative action. Herriford explains that the core purpose of ABRW is to unify the black women here and to provide support and morale; when the group has a better idea of its potential, and has overcome the hassles of organization, it may choose to join with other groups on issues like affirmative action and minority recruiting.

Their potential seems unbounded. The women turned inward to cultivate the strength to look outward, and it seems that strength has begun to grow. The members speak with pride and confidence of what they have done, what they hope to do, and how they feel about themselves. A supportive morale is emerging, growing from the warmth and spirit they have found in their sisterhood.