"We may have to defend ourselves": Black women and campaigns against police sexual violence during the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter eras

This chapter uses two case studies, fifty-years apart in distinct moments, to explore how Black women proffered their own gendered analyses in their activism against systemic sexual violence committed by law enforcement. Through juxtaposing two police sexual violence campaigns led by Dorothy Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women, and artist-activists Grace Franklin and Candace Liger, in the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter eras, respectively, this chapter provides insights into Black women’s organizing in local and national contexts, as well as resonances and knowledge-building across the decades.