How Blakkklansman reminds us about the role of Black women

This weekend, I saw Blackkklansman in theaters. A movie directed by Spike Lee about an undercover cop that becomes part of the KKK. The plot of the film itself highlights diversity because this cop is the first Black cop in his town. In addition, it showcases the important role that women had during the civil rights movement.

Women have long been erased from the civil rights movement. One starts to notice this once you see how difficult it is for most people to name women civil rights activist that are not Rosa Parks and Angela Davis.

Patrice is the name of the woman that is the head of the Black Student Union at a university in the film. She was gracious enough to bring Stokely Carmichael to speak at the university and organized protests against white supremacy. She was also highly sought after by the KKK for this activism and would face sexual harassment for it from the police.

In this film, we see how women were oppressed during the civil rights movement differently than men. It also showcases a small fraction of the grassroots organizing and immense effort that Black women brought, and continue to bring, to the Black liberation movement.