bell hooks was born Gloria Jean Watkins on September 25, 1952, to Rosa Bell Watkins and Veodis Watkins in rural, segregated Kentucky.
She was born into a working-class community and borrowed her pen name from her maternal grandmother, who was known for her “snappy and bold tongue.” When she was of age, she went about setting her experiences to paper.
She was a brilliant writer from a young age, having written her first of many books at the age of 19, titled “Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism,” which would lay the groundwork for intersectional feminist ideology in the coming decades.
hooks’ primary contribution to the field of activism and feminism was her perspective and focus on intersectionality. Simply put, intersectionality is how an individual’s social and political identity or status work together to either provide social privileges or promote discrimination in society.
bell hooks dedicated her entire life to the intersectionality of race, gender, and socioeconomic status, and their relation to systemic oppression.
She was quite the accomplished academic and writer, having taken her education to the Doctoral level at the University of California. She also taught at Stanford, Yale, The City College of New York, and Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. In 2014, she also founded her eponymous bell hooks Institute in Berea.
She published over 30 works during her life, some of which she wrote as an undergraduate student, such as “Ain’t I a Woman”. Her works were highly influential, both during and after initial publication. In 2019, the New York Times stated that “Ain’t I a Woman” “remains a radical and relevant work of political theory” in modern day politics. An excerpt from one of her books, “Feminism is for Everybody,” is currently discussed and analyzed at Winthrop University in the Human Experience anthology.
In her later years, she received many accolades for her life’s work. 2018 marked her induction into the Kentucky Writers’ Hall of Fame, and in 2020, TIME magazine listed her as one of the 100 Women of the Year. Many other awards and nominations followed her for her extensive bibliography and filmography.
Unfortunately, at the end of 2021, her life was cut short by kidney failure, and she passed away at the age of 69. While she left behind no spouse or children, she did leave behind an extensive legacy of activism and social awareness that continues to fuel human rights conversations to this day. It likely will continue to for decades to come.
Image Courtesy of Time Magazine