Anita Cornwell

Anita Cornwell (September 23, 1923 – May 27, 2023) was an American lesbian feminist author. In 1983, she wrote the first collection of essays by an African-American lesbian, Black Lesbian in White America.

Biography Born on September 23, 1923, in Greenwood, South Carolina, Cornwell moved to Pennsylvania at the age of 16, living first in Yeadon with her aunt, then in Philadelphia with her mother, She graduated from Temple University with a B.S. in journalism and the social sciences in 1948. She worked as a journalist for local newspapers The Philadelphia Tribune and The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. She was also a clerical worker for private companies and government agencies, such as the Philadelphia Department of Public Assistance.

Cornwell's early writings, published in The Ladder and The Negro Digest in the 1950s, were among the first to identify the author as a black lesbian. Other publications where her work has appeared include Feminist Review, Labyrinth, National Leader, the Los Angeles Free Press, Azalea: a Magazine for Third World Lesbians, and BLACK/OUT (published in Philadelphia by the poet Joe Beam).

She was a member of the Daughters of Bilitis, and was a founding member of the Philadelphia chapter of Radicalesbians, a progressive activist group for lesbians.