Fffffffffffftrrrrrrrrttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyt5IBHA
Black Power
Based on the article “The Black Power Movement: A State of the Field” by Peniel Joseph, The Journal of
American History; Dec 2009; 96, 3; Platinum Full Text Periodicals, pg. 751 -- accessed on ProQuest
Platinum off Blackboard/TSS.
Questions up for Historiographical Debate:
What is Black Power?
When did it start?
What was its impact?
What is Black Power? (each number represents a different historiographical interpretation)
1) The “evil twin” of the Civil Rights Movement – violent, angry, controversial, anti-white.
2) Marxist.
3) A combination of:
o Black empowerment on a local, national and international level
o Self-determination
o Redefined black identity and created racial solidarity
4) Black militancy
o Iconic images of the Black Panther Party in California and in major eastern cities
brandishing rifles with fists waved in the air defiantly
o Self-help centers created by the Black Panthers that served breakfast and acted as a
community resource
5) A movement focused on local community organizing more than the iconic national leaders
o Worked to make political change like electing the first black mayor of New Haven, CT
o Worked to elect Amiri Baraka as mayor of Newark, New Jersey
6) Comprehensive Movement encompassing political and social organizing
o Change college curriculum to start Black Studies programs
o Creation of Black political machines in northern cities
o Beginning of the Congressional Black Caucus
o Spurned a Black feminist movement (sometimes in opposition to their misogynistic male
counterparts
o Trade unionists in Detroit
o Black sharecroppers in Alabama
7) A cultural movement
o Black arts movement
o Racial identity awareness – education programs that focused on black history/black
literature/black studies
8) Answer to institutional racism
o Create separate institutions that aren’t corrupt
9) Created an internationalist perspective for African-Americans.
When did it start? (each represents a different historiographical interpretation)
1) With Robert F. Williams and in race relations in WWII (Tyson).
2) Term “black power” used by Paul Robeson in 1950s, used by Richard Wright in 1954.
3) Seen in the 1961 actions of Maya Angelou, LeRoi Jones (who becomes Amiri Baraka), and Mae
Mallory when they protest on the floor of the United Nations against the murder of Patrice
Lumumba, prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
4) Roots seen in Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) in 1962 which was a California-based
organization where many who later are in the Panthers get their start (including Bobby Seale).
5) Watts riots in ’65 end the Civil Rights Movement and begin Black Power.
6) King refocuses to the North and begins to broaden the perspective to be anti-war and anti-
poverty.
7) Started in 1966 when Stokely Carmichael took over SNCC, Floyd McKissick took over CORE, and
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale found the Black Panther Party in Oakland, CA. Black Panther
Party
What was the impact?
1) Ended the Civil Rights Movement and upended progress that was made.
2) Created a white backlash (i.e., the triumph of Nixon/Ford/Reagan, Bakke Case).
3) Created chaos and fear – but was short-changed because of intense surveillance which caused
suspicion internally in the movement and ended progress.
4) Created positive local change (i.e., the mayoral races).
5) Established a new cultural identity for African Americans.
6) Created a black feminist movement.
7) Changed the higher education system by creating Black Studies.