# Margaret Prescod

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{{short description|Barbadian activist, author and journalist}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Margaret Prescod
| alma_mater         = [Long Island University](/source/Long_Island_University) <br> [Teachers College, Columbia University](/source/Teachers_College%2C_Columbia_University)
| birth_place        = [Barbados](/source/Barbados)
| relatives          = [Chanda Prescod-Weinstein](/source/Chanda_Prescod-Weinstein) (daughter)
| notable_works      = ''Black Women: Bringing it All Back Home'' (1980)
}}

'''Margaret Prescod''' is an activist, author, journalist and radio host. She was a founder of The Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders<ref>{{Cite web|first=
Kirk|last= Siegler|title=Families Of LA Serial Killer's Victims Still Await Closure|work=[Morning Edition](/source/Morning_Edition)|publisher=[NPR](/source/NPR)|url=https://www.npr.org/2016/05/02/476017102/6-years-later-families-of-la-serial-killers-victims-still-await-closure|access-date=2020-06-10|language=en-US}}</ref> and of [Black Women for Wages for Housework](/source/Wages_for_housework).<ref name="rhe">{{Cite web|title=Executive Board|url=https://www.racialhealthequity.org/executive-board/|access-date=2020-06-10|website=Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health|language=en-US}}</ref> Prescod is on the executive board of the Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health, at [UCLA](/source/UCLA)'s [Fielding School of Public Health](/source/UCLA_Fielding_School_of_Public_Health).

== Early life and education ==
Prescod was born in [Barbados](/source/Barbados) and emigrated to the [United States](/source/United_States) in 1962 as a teenager.<ref name="rhe" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Hendrix|first=Kathleen|date=1985-07-28|title=Campaign Catches On : L.A. Pair Seek Wages for Women's Unpaid Work|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-28-vw-5698-story.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-06-10|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref> Within her first two weeks of moving to the United States she was on a [picket line](/source/picket_line), protesting against a medical centre in [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn) that would not employ Black people.<ref name=":0" /> Prescod attended [Long Island University](/source/Long_Island_University) for her undergraduate studies. She started a course at the [Teachers College, Columbia University](/source/Teachers_College%2C_Columbia_University), but left to work in remedial teaching for adults.<ref name=":0" /> Prescod became increasingly active in the [civil rights movement](/source/civil_rights_movement).<ref name=":0" />

== Career ==
In the early 1970s Prescod started to focus her activism on initiatives that looked to improve the welfare of mothers. At the time she was working as a school teacher in [New York City](/source/New_York_City).<ref name=":0" /> She became involved with the [United Nations](/source/United_Nations), and was part of the series of conferences that were part of the [Decade for Women](/source/United_Nations_Decade_for_Women).<ref name=":0" /> She launched the International Black Women for Wages for Housework program with [Wilmette Brown](/source/Wilmette_Brown) in 1975.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=mantilla|first1=karla|last2=douglas|first2=carol anne|date=1994|title=NWSA: Getting a Global Perspective|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/20834891|journal=Off Our Backs|volume=24|issue=8|pages=8–14|jstor=20834891|issn=0030-0071}}</ref> In 1980, she wrote ''Black Women: Bringing it All Back Home'', the first book that explored the relationship between women, immigration and race.<ref>{{Cite web|title=LA Sentinel|date=6 December 2018|url=https://lasentinel.net/a-new-way-of-life-reentry-project-honors-social-justice-champions.html|language=en-US}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=February 2024}} In 1985, she moved to [Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles), where she became involved with the [Utility Workers Union of America](/source/Utility_Workers_Union_of_America).<ref name="rhe" /> Prescod was involved with the [Wages for Housework](/source/Wages_for_housework) campaign, and delivered evidence at both the [Democratic](/source/Democratic_Party_(United_States)) and [Republican Party](/source/Republican_Party_(United_States)) annual conventions.<ref>{{Cite web|title=National Convention Protests {{!}} C-SPAN.org|url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?158093-1/national-convention-protests|access-date=2020-06-10|website=www.c-span.org|language=en-us}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> In particular, Prescod looked to involve women's unwaged work in consideration of economic analyses.<ref name=":1" />

In 1986, Prescod founded the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders, which was established in response to the murder of eleven women in [South Los Angeles](/source/South_Los_Angeles).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hendrix |first=Kathleen |date=1986-10-16 |title=Passionate Pursuer's Crusade Against the South Side Slayer : Margaret Prescod Trying to Raise Community Awareness on the Streets of South-Central L.A. . . . and Beverly Hills |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-10-16-vw-5852-story.html |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2020-06-10 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="rhe" /> She was concerned with ensuring that the coalition looked to encourage the police and policy makers to investigate the murders and not to malign the victims.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders|url=http://www.blackcoalitionfightingbackserialmurders.net/|access-date=2020-06-10|website=Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title='Grim Sleeper' Killer Was Convicted, But Black Women Are Still Vulnerable|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/grim-sleeper-killer-convicted-black-women-are-still-vulnerable-n584856|access-date=2020-06-10|website=NBC News|date=2 June 2016 |language=en}}</ref> The organisation wound down in the mid-1990s, but was restarted in 2008 when the serial killer returned.<ref>{{Cite web|last=TheGrio|date=2009-10-20|title=10 black women you should know|url=https://thegrio.com/2009/10/20/in-every-social-movement-in/|access-date=2020-06-10|website=TheGrio|language=en-US}}</ref> In 2014 her efforts were turned into a film by [HBO](/source/HBO), ''Tales of the [Grim Sleeper](/source/Grim_Sleeper)'', which was nominated for an [Academy Award](/source/Academy_Awards).<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Zuppello|first=Suzanne|date=2016-08-18|title='Grim Sleeper' Serial Killer: Everything You Need to Know|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/grim-sleeper-serial-killer-everything-you-need-to-know-252246/|access-date=2020-06-10|magazine=[Rolling Stone](/source/Rolling_Stone)|language=en-US}}</ref>

She is presently the host and executive producer of the Sojourner Truth radio show which is broadcast by [KPFK](/source/KPFK) and syndicated by radio stations [WPFW](/source/WPFW) (Washington DC) and [WBAI](/source/WBAI) in New York City,<ref>{{Cite web|title=KPFK|date=19 July 2023 |url=https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/margaret-prescod/|language=en-US}}</ref> named after the abolitionist and women's rights activist [Sojourner Truth](/source/Sojourner_Truth).

== Personal life ==
Her daughter, [Chanda Prescod-Weinstein](/source/Chanda_Prescod-Weinstein), is a [cosmologist](/source/cosmologist), science writer and equality activist.<ref>{{Cite web|title=How this theoretical physicist is advocating for women of colour in STEM|url=https://www.tvo.org/article/how-this-theoretical-physicist-is-advocating-for-women-of-colour-in-stem|first=Carla|last=Lucchetta|date=2019-07-11|access-date=2020-06-10|website=TVO.org|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Margaret Prescod with husband Sam Weinstein and daughter, 1986|url=https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/21198/zz0002n8mv/|access-date=2020-06-10|website=Calisphere|date=16 October 1986|language=en}}</ref>

== Selected publications ==
*{{Cite book|last=Prescod, Margaret.|title=Black women : bringing it all back home|date=1980|publisher=Falling Wall Press|others=Steele, Norma.|isbn=0-905046-09-9|location=Bristol, England|oclc=6996554}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* http://sotrueradio.org
* [http://www.blackcoalitionfightingbackserialmurders.net "The Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders"]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prescod, Margaret}}
Category:Living people
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:21st-century African-American people
Category:American civil rights activists
Category:African-American women activists
Category:African-American civil rights activists
Category:Barbadian women activists
Category:Long Island University alumni
Category:Women civil rights activists
Category:Women non-fiction writers
Category:American women human rights activists

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Margaret Prescod](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Prescod) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Prescod?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.