What’s missing?

A lot!

The anti-carceral feminist movement is, by necessity, intersectional and expansive. Campaigns for economic justice for the Black community, including those that sought to confirm housing and healthcare as a human right, are lacking from this timeline, but are undeniably linked to anti-carceral feminist organizing. In drawing heavily from Thuma’s and Richie’s works primarily, this timeline also fails to speak to the many other historical analyses of the anti-carceral feminist movement. Rather, this project focuses heavily on the origins of the anti-carceral feminism, with less attention to the more contemporary stewards of the movement. More research into the material impact of these historical legacies on the work of current organizers would only enhance this timeline’s mission.

Finally, due to the intentional disappearing/invisibilizing of Black women’s stories, particularly the stories of incarcerated women, this timeline and any historical telling of this movement is plagued by silences in the archive. The effort to tell a counter-history, one that reads the archive against the grain, is ongoing. This effort is also a practice of imagination, of opening up an urgent path toward an anticarceral feminist future.

This zine also invites collaboration. In this timeline’s unfinished, ongoing state, it welcomes feedback, criticism, further engagement and research. As you work with this timeline, you too can take on the role of editor. If you see gaps, blindspots, different threads of analysis or critique, please fill out this form with your ideas.