The Unseen Architects: Black Women and the Building of American Democracy

The Unseen Architects is part of a larger book project that explores Black women’s paradoxical relationship with American democracy. Their experiences reveal the contradictions and conflicts inherent in the enormous political tension between the ideological framework upon which American democracy was founded, and the norms and practices carried out within the institutional structures of the democratic state. This historical tension between democratic ideals and established institutional praxis forces Black women to confront the racialized gender challenges encountered in their contradictory relationship with American democracy. Ironically, it is precisely this tension that shape their political contributions to strengtheing American democracy, particular during transgressive and transformative moments in its political history. From the shadows of history’s margins, they offer counternarratives that reframe dominant systems of knowledge, experience, and sociopolitical discourse. This paper retraces some of those critical historical moments in American history as a foundation for understanding the current turbulent political trends occurring in American democracy today. The focus is on the pivotal role Black women play during those moments in their attempts to advance racial, gender and social justice through their distinct political discourse of fundamental fairness, in the furtherance of protecting and advancing progressive changes in the body politics of American democracy. Where their political intellect, activism and unwavering commitment to the moral principles of fair-play aid in strengthening the body politics of democracy. Especially, during those periods that threatens the viability of the democratic state. In ways that severely compromises fundamental democratic principles and legal norms, while reversing political advancements undermining the very legitimacy of the democratic state itself. Even though Black women efforts are largely unacknowledged or their importance erased altogether, their architectural influence in strengthening the body politics of American democracy is one of the essential political components that contributes to sustaining the future of American democracy.