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This intersectionality theory was first introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the late 1980s, particularly around the issues of black women in the 1960s. As a feminist author, she noticed that the women activists of the 1960s did not just tackle the issues of sexism but also simultaneously straddled the issues of unions being introduced and racial inequality. It's not to say that the white women of the feminist movement or the black men of the civil rights movement weren't influential in the radicalisation of their people. Still, we can analyse how women of colour were marginalised or their issues weren't highlighted because of the complex nature of them. They were not just women or just black or just from the working class, they were all three.

Before we analyse the intersectionality of economic struggle and being black, we must note the history of the economy concerning the black community. In the Southern states of the US, after slavery ended in 1865 with the 13th Amendment, the US Supreme Court introduced Jim Crow laws. The laws limited the economic freedom of newly freed black communities( Althoff and Reichardt, 2023). Although these laws ended after 100 years due to the civil rights movement in the 60's, the effects of economic oppression can still be seen in modern day. He found through tracing back people's ancestors that those who had been freed after the Civil War were of 'lower education, income, and wealth than Black families freed before the Civil War'( Althoff and Reichardt, 2023), and this persisted with their families in the 21st century.