Groups and individuals that were eager to embrace the doctrine of Black Power, as it appeared to provide the most direct path to solidarity and mobility among African Americans, greeted the culmination of the nonviolent direct action Civil Rights Movement that created a legacy of getting results by remaining patient and using legal channels. Organizations such as The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and CORE found it suitable to change their “organizational visions” and embrace Black Power after viewing the Old Guard organizations as capitulating toward conservative ideas of racial equality (Lang 2004, 730). Furthermore, the “by any means necessary” philosophy of Malcolm X and the self-defense through armament espoused by Robert F Williams inspired many young Black Power activist. The aforementioned groups and individuals share some facets of Black Nationalism with the Black Panther Party of the Bay Area as well as different approaches to implementing the ideas within their groups.
SNCC experienced numerous changes after expanding their scope and understanding of the American black problem into a problem that mirrors many of the issues occurring in Africa. In order to bring about change in the American context of racial equality, SNCC found itself embracing Black Nationalism as a means to improve political involvement, beginning with their involvement in the voting mobilization efforts of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO). By involving the organization in the organizing efforts in Lowndes County, Stokely Carmichael created a direct link to Black Power that allowed the group to see their purpose as a national movement (Jeffries 2005, 156). The coalition between SNCC and the LCFO demonstrates the aspec...
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... of the aspects of black power, both leaders provide a substantial insight of individual ideas of Black Nationalism affecting an entire movement.
Works Cited
Farmer, James. "Integration or Desegregation." In Freedom-When?, by James Farmer, 109-122. New York, New York: Random House, 1965.
Jeffries, Hasan Kwame. "Organizing for More Than the Vote." In Groundwork Local Black Freedom Movements in America, edited by Jeanne Theoharis, & Komozi Woodward. 2005.
Lang, Clarence. "Between Civil Rights and Black Power in the Gateway City: The Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negroes." Journal of Social History, 2004: 725-754.
Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: the second Reconstruction and beyond in Black America. Third. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
Murch, Donna. Living for the City. Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press, 2010.
This had much strength and few weaknesses. The author obtains most of his research from citizens of the Tuskegee community, library and other supporters. It was a great influence and was a contribution to my knowledge of Southern Politics as it depicts a vivid picture how society as a whole was viewed at that time. It showed me how whites kept blacks out of political offices, kept them from voting, and from enjoying their rights as humans.
The first part of this book looks into African American political activity during the pre-Civil War and Civil War periods. He uses this part of the book to show that blacks, even while in slavery, used their position to gain rights from their slaveholders. These rights included the right to farm their own plots, sale of their produce, and to visit neighboring plantations. This was also the period
As an unabridged version of his other book, Eric Foner sets out to accomplish four main goals in A Short History of Reconstruction. These points enable the author to provide a smaller, but not neglectful, account of the United States during Reconstruction. By exploring the essence of the black experience, examining the ways in which Southern society evolved, the development of racial attitudes and race relations, and the complexities of race and class in the postwar South, as well as the emergence during the Civil War and Reconstruction of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and a new set of purposes, Foner creates a narrative that encompasses some of the major issues during Reconstruction. Additionally, the author provides
Neil McMillen’s book, Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow categorically examines the plight of African Americans living in Mississippi during the era of Jim Crow. McMillen, a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, describes the obstacles that African Americans dealt with in the fields of education, labor, mob violence, and politics. Supplementing each group with data tables, charts and excerpts from Southern newspapers of the day, McMillen saturates the reader with facts that help to understand the problems faced by black Mississippians in the years after Reconstruction.
Kellogg, Charles Flint. NAACP: A History of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1967.
The Strange Career of Jim Crow, by C. Van Woodward, traces the history of race relations in the United States from the mid and late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. In doing so Woodward brings to light significant aspects of Reconstruction that remain unknown to many today. He argues that the races were not as separate many people believe until the Jim Crow laws. To set up such an argument, Woodward first outlines the relationship between Southern and Northern whites, and African Americans during the nineteenth century. He then breaks down the details of the injustice brought about by the Jim Crow laws, and outlines the transformation in American society from discrimination to Civil Rights. Woodward’s argument is very persuasive because he uses specific evidence to support his opinions and to connect his ideas. Considering the time period in which the book and its editions were written, it should be praised for its insight into and analysis of the most important social issue in American history.
The Black Panther Party’s initial success came about without having to address these roots, but, as the Party expanded and wished to move ahead, the Party’s shifts in policy can be directly attributed to the wishes and needs of the community. Murch profiles the Oakland Community School and the People’s Free Food Program, which were social institutions created by the Black Panther Party to address the needs of the community; though these approaches were used to bring about more members and to garner support, these tactics worked because of their correlation to the needs of Oakland’s African American community.
The 1960’s were a time of freedom, deliverance, developing and molding for African-American people all over the United States. The Civil Rights Movement consisted of black people in the south fighting for equal rights. Although, years earlier by law Africans were considered free from slavery but that wasn’t enough they wanted to be treated equal as well. Many black people were fed up with the segregation laws such as giving up their seats on a public bus to a white woman, man, or child. They didn’t want separate bathrooms and water fountains and they wanted to be able to eat in a restaurant and sit wherever they wanted to and be served just like any other person.
Nabrit, James M. Jr. “The Relative Progress and the Negro in the United States: Critical Summary and Evaluation.” Journal of Negro History 32.4 (1963): 507-516. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004
(Block 27). The notoriety of Black Nationalism stemmed from the controversy it caused when compared to Dr. Kings methods of nonviolence. Dr. King and his goals for an integrated society came to be considered the best and most moral options for the black struggle against white supremacy. Black Nationalists, esp...
The methods that the Panthers employed to secure Black liberation was quite feasible. This group of activists created a collective subjectivity. Thus in order to obtain all that they sought to achieve, the creation of a “revolutionary culture” was crucial to the panthers’ efforts to influence Black Americans’ consciousness, which aimed to defy the political and social powers of the United States (Rhodes, 2007, p. 92). Through the process of communication, and the use of guns as a means of intimidation, the Panthers were able to disseminate their beliefs and rituals towards a global audience. These messages relied heavily on the proliferation and buttressing of Black culture.
For my Black Georgian assignment, I will be discussing the life and activism of one African American minister, educator, leading black voice, and former Morehouse College President, Benjamin Elijah Mays. Mays was an African American born into a new generation of freedom. However, throughout his life, he would experience the hardships and hindrances known to affect the black community in the 1890’s – 1900’s. Mays served his community as a leading advocate for racial equality, ending segregation, and the strengthening of young black men (and women) in their quest for equality. This paper aims to describe the life, works, views, actions, and influence that Benjamin Mays exhibited.
Garrow, David J. Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. New York: New Haven and London Yale University Press. 1978
Historically, the Civil Rights Movement was a time during the 1950’s and 60’s to eliminate segregation and gain equal rights. Looking back on all the events, and dynamic figures it produced, this description is very vague. In order to fully understand the Civil Rights Movement, you have to go back to its origin. Most people believe that Rosa Parks began the whole civil rights movement. She did in fact propel the Civil Rights Movement to unprecedented heights but, its origin began in 1954 with Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was the cornerstone for change in American History as a whole. Even before our nation birthed the controversial ruling on May 17, 1954 that stated separate educational facilities were inherently unequal, there was Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 that argued by declaring that state laws establish separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. Some may argue that Plessy vs. Ferguson is in fact backdrop for the Civil Rights Movement, but I disagree. Plessy vs. Ferguson was ahead of it’s time so to speak. “Separate but equal” thinking remained the body of teachings in America until it was later reputed by Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, and prompted The Montgomery Bus Boycott led by one of the most pivotal leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. After the gruesome death of Emmett Till in 1955 in which the main suspects were acquitted of beating, shooting, and throwing the fourteen year old African American boy in the Tallahatchie River, for “whistling at a white woman”, this country was well overdo for change.