Beverly Guy-Sheftall (born June 1, 1946) is an AmericanBlack feminist scholar, writer and editor, who is theAnna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies and English atSpelman College, inAtlanta, Georgia. She is the founding director of the Spelman College Women's Research and Resource Center, the first at ahistorically Black college or university.^[1]

Beverly was born on June 1, 1946, to Walter and Ernestine Varnado-Guy inMemphis, Tennessee.^[2] She graduated high school at the age of 16 and attendedSpelman College, where she graduated in 1966.^[3] She received anM.A. fromAtlanta University in English and aPhD fromEmory University in 1984 from the Institute of Liberal Arts.^[4] She founded the Spelman Women's Research and Resources Center in 1981, the first of its kind at a historically Black college or university.^[5] The Center also hosts the firstWomen's Studies program at a historically Black college or university.^[6] In 1983, she became one of the founding co-editors ofSage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women.^[7]

Guy-Sheftall's publications include the 1995 anthologyWords of Fire, about which one reviewer (Kamili Anderson) has written: "Fire can be used to burn down, burn away or burn through. Metaphorically,Words of Fire does all three. The works it includes are conventional and controversial, reaffirming and disarming. Their overall effect is overwhelming. With uncommon command and unparalleled thoroughness, the image of African-American women as progenitors, participants and propellants in the feminist movement emerges fromWords of Fire — 'a stronger soul within a finer frame'."^[8]

She contributed the piece "African American Women: The Legacy of Black Feminism" to the 2003 anthologySisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, edited byRobin Morgan.^[9]

In 2004, students in her Feminist Theory class touched off a national conversation regarding the lyrics and depictions of women in music videos when they decided to engage rapperNelly about his video "Tip Drill."^[10] The students argued that if Nelly was able to come to campus for a fundraising event, he could spend the time to engage in debate and conversation about the depiction of Black women in his videos. The foundation canceled its event when the College could not guarantee there would be no student protest.^[11]

In 2013, she was a featuredfeminist in the 2013PBS documentaryMakers: Women Who Make America, which highlightedfeminist history.^[12] In 2017, Dr. Guy-Sheftall was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[13]

• Bell, Roseann P.; Bettye J. Parker; Beverly Guy-Sheftall, eds. (1979).Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press.ISBN 978-0-385-13347-0.
• Guy-Sheftall, Beverly (1990).Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes toward Black Women, 1880–1920. Carlson Pub.ISBN 978-0-926019-17-1.
• Guy-Sheftall, Beverly, ed. (1995).Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought. The New Press.ISBN 978-1-56584-256-4.
• Guy-Sheftall, Beverly; Byrd, Rudolph P., eds. (2001).Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality. Indiana University Press. p. 342.ISBN 978-0-253-33901-0.
• Guy-Sheftall, Beverly; Cole, Johnetta (2003).Gender Talk: The Struggle for Equality in African American Communities. One World/Ballantine Books.ISBN 978-0-345-45412-6.
• Guy-Sheftall, Beverly (2025).Black! Feminist! Free!. Third World Press. ISBN 978-0-883-78433-4.

• Candace Award for Education,National Coalition of 100 Black Women, 1989^[14]

• Spelman College Faculty - Beverly Guy-Sheftall
• Makers: Beverly Guy-Sheftall

• 1946 births
• Living people
• American academic journal editors
• American feminists
• Emory University alumni
• Academics from Memphis, Tennessee
• Presidents of the National Women's Studies Association
• Spelman College alumni
• Spelman College faculty

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