With its debut in San Francisco in December 1974 and the subsequent Broadway production debut in September 1976, for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf entered the public consciousness during the height of the Womanist movement, Black Feminist Movement, Second-Wave Feminism, the rise of Pan-African political awareness, and the Black Arts Movement, which is the aesthetic arm of the Black Power Movement. Shange’s entry into these conversations created a splash and contributed to her unique position both inside and outside of these movements.

During the 1970s, political consciousness grew at a rapid-fire pace almost globally. Around the world, colonized nations were throwing off their oppressors and making identities and rules for themselves, particularly African nations, most of which gained independence from European colonizers in waves between the 1950s and 1970s. At the same time, African Americans waged their own battles for Civil Rights. The Civil Rights Movement of previous decades primarily focused on creating more humane living conditions in the American South. By the 1970s, many African Americans in northern, urban cities were taking center stage with their calls for Black Power, at the core of which was more equitable and fair living conditions for Black people living in America’s urban centers.