The Black Power And The Black Panther Movement

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Recommended: History grade 12 civil rights movement

The lessons from the narrative of positive racial change in the United States from the 1890s through the 1960s tells us that social change in our nation relies on a convergence of interest from white elites and the goals of those seeking racial change. History illustrates that when the interest of white elites aligns with those seeking social change then (and only then) will significant gains be made for a social movement. The rise of the Black Power and Black Panther movement in the 1960s also teaches an important lesson about coalition building in order to impact social change. The Black Power movement began as a movement to create black nationalism – a notion that blacks did not have to receive white acceptance for their existence to be validated. (Robert Weisbrot, Freedom Bound: A History of American’s Civil Rights Movement p. 223) Although the Black Power movement was created to …show more content…

(Id.) This is demonstrated by the Ocean Hill community and the ousting of teachers that the community members felt were uneducated to teach the communities children. (Weisbrot p. 237) The United Federation Teachers president, Albert Shanker, attempted to create coalitions in the community between white, black, and Hispanic populations. (Weisbrot, p. 238) However, this proved to be unsuccessful: riots broke out among students and teachers were harassed. (Weisbrot, p. 239) This breakdown in coalition building created racial tensions in New York City. “This accelerated white flight to the suburbs, discouraged the entry of new businesses, and hastened the spread of violence throughout the public school system.” (Weisbrot, p. 241) The politics of the Black Power movement broke down important coalitions in the CORE and SNCC as well, eliminating a lot of the white allies

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