SUSU book of days
the women of Black August
Black women have always carried movements in visible and invisible ways. during Black August, we honor those legacies alongside the people whose names history remembers. we invite you to participate in #802givesBlack
who taught you how to care for someone else?
perhaps it was a grandmother or an auntie, a neighbor or a teacher, or someone whose name appears in history books. someone whose name lives only inside your family stories. someone whose name you may never know but you can feel their knowledge that you carry in your body.
Black August arrives each year as an invitation to remember. it calls us into study and sometimes grief, sometimes gratitude, and into the ongoing work of freedom.
many people first learn about Black August through the lives of Black political prisoners and freedom fighters who organized behind prison walls and imagined liberation beyond them. their courage reminds us that even under extraordinary violence, people continued believing another world was possible.
they were never alone. people of all genders, including Black women, contributed directly to the fight, to how we think about liberation, and sometimes, to what made the fight for liberation possible behind the scenes.
freedom has always traveled through many hands, in many different ways.
someone packed food before a meeting. someone wrote letters. someone cared for children. someone visited prisons. someone organized transportation. someone opened their home. someone kept everyone fed. someone remembered birthdays. someone carried the names of those the world tried to forget.
this month, as we remember those who struggled for Black liberation, we also honor the countless Black women and people whose labor often remained unnamed while movements grew around them. they cultivated relationships, tended the land, prepared meals, organized neighborhoods, raised children, taught political education, held communities together, and insisted that care itself could become a freedom practice.
at SUSU, we understand this work as part of a living Black archive that lives in recipes passed between generations and seeds saved from one season to the next. songs remembered without sheet music and hands that know exactly how much flour belongs in the bowl, and in stories carried long after newspapers stop printing them.
Black women have always carried movements in visible and invisible ways. this month, we honor those legacies alongside the people whose names history remembers.
Fannie Lou Hamer organized sharecroppers and voters while creating the Freedom Farm Cooperative, believing that political freedom and food sovereignty belonged together. she reminded us that land could nourish bodies, dignity, and self-determination all at once.
Assata Shakur wrote that "it is our duty to fight for our freedom." her writing asks us what liberation requires from each of us, individually and collectively.
Safiya Bukhari organized both inside and outside prison walls, advocating for political prisoners while reminding movements that care and accountability belong together.
Ashley Diamond is a Black transgender woman and activist whose ongoing fight against severe mistreatment and denial of healthcare in men’s prisons highlighted the systemic violence faced by trans women by the state.
Ericka Huggins helped lead community survival programs, emphasizing that political education, healing, and spiritual practice strengthen movements over generations.
Ella Baker taught that strong communities are built through ordinary people learning to trust their own capacity to lead. she invested deeply in relationships, believing lasting change grows outward from local communities.
be a part of #802givesBlack
we're inviting one hundred people to join us in celebrating Black August by gathering circles and making gifts of reciprocity to sou sou. the fundraiser began on august 1st as we look to honor the freedom fighters, Black political prisoners, and revolutionaries of the movement for collective liberation. Black August holds profound significance in our lineages. it commemorates Black political prisoners, revolutionaries, and visionaries who continue to pave the way for justice and freedom. by ending our campaign on october 6th, Fannie Lou Hamer’s birthday, we honor her legacy as a loving mother and visionary for food and land sovereignty. through this practice of commUNITY resource sharing, together we will continue the legacies of our ancestors as we build liberated worlds.
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