Soujourner Truth, the original Third Waver
(cross-posted from Meta
I posted this as part of a Meta discussion about the 2nd and 3rd wave because I don't see the waves as chronological phases. I see them as having always overlapped and that even at the beginning of the Suffragette movement, there were plenty of 3rd Wavers and Lipstick Feminists.)
I see her that way because in gender and race issues throughout the history of Feminism the relationship between feminists and civil rights activists, progressive movements was very uneasy and non-Whites felt that the main Feminist groups tolerated the most insidious kinds of chauvinism, patriarchy and bigotry.
"So, too, our histories with feminism. It is because white women inherently kept gatekeeping the right to determine the forms and agenda of feminist movement building that Alice Walker felt so compelled to create womanism, that Barbara Smith and the members of Combahee had to articulate what Black feminism looked like, that Fran Beale and the members of the TWWA had to articulate what a third world feminism looked like, that Gloria Anzaldua had to articulate what a Chicana feminism looked like."
http://crunkfeministcollective.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/i-saw-the-sign-but-did-we-really-need-a-sign-slutwalk-and-racism/
Suggested reading for anyone interested in this
1. Michelle Wallace: "Anger in Isolation: A Black Feminist's Search for Sisterhood,"
2. Margaret Simons: "Racism and Feminism: A Schism in the Sisterhood"
3. "Vol. 9.1 - A History of Black Feminism in the U.S." http://www.mit.edu/~thistle/v9/9.01/6blackf.html
4. Audre Lorde: "I am your sister"
5. Audre Lorde, Cheryl Clarke: "Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches"
6. Anything by Dorothy Sue Cobble, Silke Roth, Bell Hooks and Kimberly Springer who wrote about the racism within the predominately White Feminist movement
and it's still going on, to this day. The transphobia, so viciously expressed by some Feminists, stems from the same roots. So does the demand that you only have allegiance to Feminism and no other -isms.
This is just one current example and write up about the racism still prevalent: "White Privilege Diary Series #1 - White Feminist Privilege in Organizations"
Back to Soujourner. I read her short speech "Ain't I A Woman" as a slap in the face to the racists, especially the racist male and female supporters of Feminism who didn't want her to speak, even to the more kind-hearted but privileged ones who wanted to keep race issues out of the picture.
She was accused of being a man and bared her breasts to prove she wasn't, saying "Ain't I A Woman". Shortly afterwards she gave her famous speech off the top of her head.
The incident at Inez Milholland's grave was another ugly show, among many. It looks to me like the third wave was there from the beginning and gained strength as people's attitudes evolved.
Here's an amazing book on the subject
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250792.Ain_t_I_a_Woman
= new reply since forum marked as read
And good on Inez Mullholland's father too. I'd never heard that incident. 
"Friends of Inez," he said with obvious emotion, "I am her father and I want to say to you what I had intended to say until now, as I stand here beside her grave. I feel [a] duty to speak out. If I did not think her spirit would rise up from the grave and say to me, 'Dad, why were you afraid.'"
"And so I want to remind you that in the first suffrage parade, Inez herself demanded that the colored women be allowed to march, and now today we were told that it would mar the program to have these guests of mine speak. I have nothing to say except that Inez believed in equal rights for everybody."
There was a pause as Mr. Milholland finished and leaders of the party talked together in low tones and a suppressed murmur ran through the throngs of delegates.
Then Dr. Scott was asked to say something. "Inez Milholland had the courage to face the application of democratic principles and was not afraid to follow them to their logical end." began Dr. Scott.
"Those who fight for a fresh idea and for a great ideal do not fear to be counted as a friend of the friendless and a defender of the weak, and she was that and more. Howard University holds dear among its traditions the unflinching faith and courage of the woman who in the moment of her greatest triumph, forgot not justice and fair play."
