Black Nationalism In African American History

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African American history has revolved around the struggle for overcoming negative social forces whether it is in regards to slavery or post-slavery. Throughout most of American history, laws and folkways have been formed. These laws forced African Americans into seeking other alternatives that would allow them to envision their potential by seeking opportunities for economic, intellectual and autonomy. Black Nationalism was a call for Black power. It brought about independence from the society and emphasized the collective action of African Americans based on shared heritage and common concerns. This has been the strongest advocate of a racial identity in African American history when it involves the options of integration and Black radicalism.
Nationalism can be defined as the nation as an “imagined” political community. The idea of a nation exists in the imagination before it exists with political structures. There is in the mind of people the sense that they belong to a nation with political limits, sovereignty and community. Black nationalism is referred to as the effort of African Americans to create a sovereign nation-state and formulate an ideological basis for a concept of a national culture. The ideas attached to it include inherited tribal ties, occupied land and cultural norms.
There are different components that sum up the concept of Black Nationalism. They are as follows:
• Racialism is race as a biological essence possessing specific traits.
• Shared experience of expression speaks specifically of African American experience with transatlantic slave trade, lynching, Jim Crow and all other events leading up to Black American struggles.
• Goal of self-determination believes you can control your own desti...

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...“What A Black Man Wants,” Douglass argued in favor of suffrage for Blacks, as well as equality rather than generosity. His speech empowered many, as well as Abraham Lincoln, whom he served as advisor to.
Integration called for the right of African Americans to be full citizens of the United States of America. The most surprising new critics of integration are found in traditional civil-rights groups like the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Although the organizations still support integration, their dissident members are dissatisfied with the outcomes produced by government policies. They note that while the African American middle class is expanding, nearly 26 percent of all African-Americans still live below the poverty line.
Radical behavior has often changed the political and social landscape for African Americans. Black Radicalism

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