Margaret Sloan-Hunter, 57; Writer Formed Black Feminist Organization
Margaret Sloan-Hunter, 57, a leading black feminist writer and lecturer, died Sept. 23 at a hospital in Oakland after a long illness.
A native of Chattanooga, Tenn., Sloan-Hunter attended Chicago City College, Malcolm X Community College in Chicago and graduate school in women’s studies at Antioch University in San Francisco.
She was one of the early editors at Ms. magazine.
The publication’s co-founder, Gloria Steinem, said Sloan-Hunter united feminist and black identities.
“She used to say, ‘I’m not black Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and a woman Thursday, Friday and Saturday,’ ” Steinem said. “She really made clear that the black woman could be, and had to be, loyal to both her race and her gender.”
In 1973, she founded and was the first chairwoman of the National Black Feminist Organization.
After moving to Oakland in 1975, Sloan-Hunter was an organizer for the Berkeley Women’s Center and the Feminist School for Girls. She also was co-founder of the Women’s Foundation and served on the board of directors of the Women’s Alcoholism Center in San Francisco.
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