From Slavery to Freedom
th
9 ed.
Chapter 21
Black Power
Black Power’s Antecedents
 The Heritage of Appeals to Self-Reliance
 A. Phillip Randolph’s March on Washington
Movement’s (MOWM) racial exclusivist
mandate
 Black self-determination and self-reliance
 Separatist strategies often seen as necessary
prerequisite to eventual integration
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Black Power’s Antecedents
 Malcom X
 Nation of Islam led by Elijah Muhammad
 Preached personal and group empowerment of racial
separation
 NOI’s black-owned businesses and self-help programs
offered security to disaffected blacks
 Rejected all names that might imply a connection with
whites
 Advocated total racial separation
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Black Power’s Antecedents
 Malcom X most vocal opponent of civil rights
movement
 Believed nonviolent resistance to be unmanly
and dangerous
 Believed black pride and black manhood responsible
for raising him out of his criminal life
 “Message to the Grassroots”
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Malcolm X speaking at Rally
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Black Power’s Antecedents
 Activism in the South
 In South, perspectives on civil rights tactics
diverse; receptive climate for black power
 Gloria Richardson – refused to accept
nonviolence over self-defense
 Paramilitary Defense Units
 Deacons of Defense and Justice – unofficial
“police system”
 Worked in cooperation with nonviolent movement
 Protected civil rights activists
 Typically military veterans
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Black Power’s Antecedents
 Armed Revolution
 Robert F. Williams
 Simultaneously advocated nonviolent protest with idea
that “violence must be met with violence”
 Equated black manhood with protesting inequality but
also protecting self and others from white mobs
 Radio Free Dixie; The Crusader
 Black Panther Party played influential role in
radicalizing black college students
 Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM)
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Black Power’s Antecedents
 Internationalizing the Struggle
 Malcom X internationalized the African
American freedom struggle
 Linked it to anticolonial movements; attempted to
forge ties with African nations
 Bandung 1955
 Bandung Conference of Asian and African
peoples followed closely by African Americans
 29 leaders discussed political self determination,
national sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference,
and equality
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Black Power’s Antecedents
 Malcolm and the Dark World
 Malcolm X made two trips to Africa in 1964
 Hajj
 Meeting of Organization of African Unity (OAU)
 OAU was model for Malcolm X’s newly formed
Organization of African American Unity
 Nonreligious group; separate from Nation of Islam
 Submitted memorandum to OAU members
requesting they bring before the UN a violation
of African American rights
 Also sought aid
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Black Power’s Antecedents
 American authorities “disturbed” by comments
subsequently made by Africans on UN floor
 After African trip, Malcom X’s opinions on
whites shifted and he began to rethink his ideas
on race
 The Assassination of Malcolm X
 Malcolm X killed by black assassin on
February 21, 1965
 Unable to develop new ideas gained in Africa
or his visions for the newly formed OAAU
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Proclaiming Black Power
 Stokely Carmichael Makes History
 At freedom rally during Meredith March, cried
out the words “black power” – transforming
history
 Chosen to lead SNCC
 Reflection of SNCC’s new militancy
 Carmichael believed independence from whites
would enhance blacks’ ability to integrate
 Emphasized self-worth, self-love, and self-respect, and
control of black institutions and communities
 Eventually disenchanted, he moved to Guinea
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Proclaiming Black Power
 The Black Panther Party
 Founded in Oakland in 1966
 Gained notoriety after Huey Newton’s
manslaughter conviction of a policeman
 Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice
 “Ten-Point Program: What We Want/What We
Believe”
 Defined black Americans as an oppressed, exploited
colonial population
 Quoted anticolonial revolutionaries
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Huey Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party,
pictured at party headquarters in San Francisco
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Proclaiming Black Power
 Black nationalism a male-centered culture
 Believed American racism targeted black manhood for
destruction
 Nationally circulated newspaper the Black
Panther contained brash and profane rhetoric
 FBI COINTELPRO investigated Panthers
 Killing of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark
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Proclaiming Black Power
 Revolutionary Nationalism versus Cultural
Nationalism
 US under Maulana Karenga representative of
ideology of cultural nationalism
 Promoted alternative value system
 Contentious relationship with Black Panthers
 Fatal shootout in 1969 on UCLA campus
 Muhammad Ali
 Member of Nation of Islam
 Convicted for violating Selective Service Act
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A Dissident Youth Culture
 A Dissident Youth Culture
 Three trends in African American higher
education in second half of 20th century
 Number of blacks at predominately white institutions
grew dramatically

Graduation rate higher at historically black institutions
 Introduction of Black Studies programs
 Activism that formed part of larger student movement
 Campus Activism
 “Orangeburg Massacre”
 Kent State
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A Dissident Youth Culture
 Black students made demands of academic
establishment: courses in black history; hiring of
black faculty
 Number of black professors, administrators
increased
 Affirmative action
 The Afro
 Symbol of the black-power era
 Nina Simone – “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black”
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Black Artistic Power
 Political Activists
 On Guard for Freedom, black-nationalist literary
circle based in New York
 The Umbra Workshop
 Magazine Umbra a race-conscious perspective;
departure from white literary establishment
 Harlem Writers Guild
 John Oliver Killens; Maya Angelou
 Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)
 Black Arts Repertory Theater
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Black Artistic Power
 The Cultural Side of Black Power
 Ideologues of Black Arts Movement linked
politics and art as a way to reinterpret aesthetic
values
 Black Fire (1968) – creative pieces drawn from
contemporary writers
 The Black Aesthetic (1971) – traced development of
theories of independent black culture using
contemporary and historical writings; sought to
establish long tradition of writing
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Black Artistic Power
 The Black Arts Movement
 “Black is beautiful”
 Growing rejection of cultural assimilation,
integrationist-oriented civil rights organizations
 Sought to develop foundation for creation of new
African American art
 Proclaimed a cultural revolution; Rejected the
“universal”
 Enthusiastic for free jazz; John Coltrane
 Artistic movement constantly in flux
 Roots
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Black Artistic Power
 Blaxploitation Movies
 Realization of filmmakers of lucrative black
consumer market
 Shaft; Superfly
 Controversial mix of gangsterism, drugs, sex, and
violence – roots of Hip-Hop
 Graphic Arts
 Romare Bearden – collage
 David Driskell – artist and scholar
 Elizabeth Catlett – linocuts: “Harriet”
 Faith Ringgold – storytelling quilts
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Black Artistic Power
 Women Writers
 1970s, black women writers began writing about
sexism and the insensitivity and abuse they had
suffered
 Revisited richness of African American women’s
writing and themes
 “In Search of Zora Neal Hurston”
 Provided look at black experience through the
gender lens
 The Color Purple – Alice Walker won Pulitzer
Prize
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Black Feminism
 Black Feminism
 Report by Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel
Patrick Moynihan concluded that the black
family was the “fundamental source of
weakness” of the black community
 Clearly blamed female-headed households for “tangle
of pathology” within black community
 Negative characterization of black women
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Black Feminism
 Reaction to the Moynihan Report
 Michelle Wallace – Black Macho and the Myth
of the Superwoman (1979)
 Black women uncomfortable fit in both blackpower and feminist movements
 The Black Women (1970)
 In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose
 “Womanism”
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Black Feminism
 Women’s Organizations
 Black women in need of organization that
acknowledged racism in women’s movement and
sexual discrimination in black power movement
 Created five explicitly feminist organizations, all
committed to eradicating racism, sexism, poverty
 Third World Women’s Alliance; Black Women
Organized for Action; National Black Feminist
Organization; National Alliance of Black Feminists;
Combahee River Collective
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Black Feminism
 National Black Feminist Organization met in small
groups for consciousness-raising discussion

Eleanor Holmes Norton; Shirley Chisholm
 Third World Women’s Alliance
 Most radical; linked African American women’s struggle with
women’s movements in Asia and Africa
 “Free Angela Davis” campaign
 None of these organizations were still active
in 1980s but were successful in putting into
perspective issues of poverty, health,
employment, and family
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Shirley Chisholm campaigns
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Social and Political Realities
 Social and Political Realities
 Between 1949 and 1964, unemployment rate of
blacks doubled that of whites
 80% held jobs at bottom of economic ladder;
discrimination made it impossible to find housing
 July 1964 riots beginning in New York
 Riots in the Cities: Watts
 August 1965, racial tension exploded in Watts
after arrest of young black man for reckless
driving
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Social and Political Realities
 Underlying cause of Watts riots demoralization
of Los Angeles’ black population
 1/6 crowded into area four times as congested as the
rest of the city
 Couldn’t afford housing elsewhere; more than 30% of
wage earners were unemployed
 Newark and Detroit
 40 racial disturbances in summer 1966
 1967 violence in Newark and Detroit
 Assassination of MLK spurred riots across
country; belief in conspiracy
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Social and Political Realities
 The New Black Political Power
 Almost 50% of black population outside South
by 1970 – 28% in central cities of 12 largest
metropolitan areas
 Southern blacks also moving to cities
 Urbanization and ensuing concentration of
African Americans fostered black political
empowerment
 Great majority linked political behavior to
American electoral system
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Social and Political Realities
 Gains in winning political offices
 Congressional Black Caucus
 Success at local offices: mayor, judge, school board
 Slower to success for statewide office
 Demanded greater voices in party affairs
 National Black Political Convention –
March 1972
 “National Black Political Agenda” – revealed deep
divisions on major policy issues
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