Black power movement

Black power movement
Part of the counterculture of the 1960s
Black Panther at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, June 1970
Date1966–1980s
Location
United States
Caused by
Resulted in
  • Worldwide spread of black power ideals
  • Establishment of Black-operated services and businesses
  • Decline by the 1980s

The black power movement or black liberation movement was a branch or counterculture within the civil rights movement of the United States, reacting against its more moderate, mainstream, or incremental tendencies and motivated by a desire for safety and self-sufficiency that was not available inside redlined African American neighborhoods. Black power activists founded black-owned bookstores, food cooperatives, farms, media, printing presses, schools, clinics and ambulance services.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

The movement was partially inspired by ideologies and individuals who were outside of the United States, such as American expatriates in newly independent Ghana.[7] It also impacted others outside of the United States, such as the Black Power Revolution in Trinidad and Tobago.[8]

By the late 1960s, black power came to represent the demand for more immediate violent action to counter American white supremacy. Most of these ideas were influenced by Malcolm X's criticism of Martin Luther King Jr.'s peaceful protest methods. The 1965 assassination of Malcolm X, coupled with the urban riots of 1964 and 1965, ignited the movement.[9] New organizations that supported Black Power philosophies ranging from the adoption of socialism by certain sects of the movement to black nationalism, including the Black Panther Party (BPP), grew to prominence.[8]

While black American thinkers such as Robert F. Williams and Malcolm X influenced the early black power movement, the Black Panther Party and its views are widely seen as the cornerstone. It was influenced by philosophies such as pan-Africanism, black nationalism and socialism, as well as contemporary events including the Cuban Revolution and the decolonization of Africa.[10]

  1. ^ Davis, Joshua Clark (January 28, 2017). "Black-Owned Bookstores: Anchors of the Black Power Movement – AAIHS". Aaihs.org. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  2. ^ Konadu, Kwasi (January 1, 2009). A View from the East: Black Cultural Nationalism and Education in New York City. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 9780815651017.
  3. ^ Klehr, Harvey (1988-01-01). Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 9781412823432.
  4. ^ "Black Power TV | Duke University Press". Dukeupress.edu. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  5. ^ "The Black Power movement and its schools | Cornell Chronicle". News.cornell.edu. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  6. ^ Nelson, Alondra (January 1, 2011). Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination. U of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9781452933221.
  7. ^ Gaines, Kelly (2000). "From Black Power to Civil Rights: Julian Mayfield and African Expatriates in Nkrumah's Ghana, 1957-1966". In Appy, Christian (ed.). Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 257–70.
  8. ^ a b "Black Power Movement". Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  9. ^ "Malcolm X: From Nation of Islam to Black Power Movement". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  10. ^ Komozi Woodard, "Rethinking the Black Power Movement", Africana Age.