BLACK POWER

Camila Freire
Micaela Minga
Cristina Pozo
Andrea Ynez

Black Power, as a term, is most associated with

Stokeley Carmichael
Black Power had been used as a civil rights phrase by
Willie Ricks, before Carmichael used it

Some African Americans saw it as a cry against the

whites who held all the resources in a white-dominated
society. All forms of power, but especially political power,
lay with whites
way of elevating the status of African Americans in
society
it was believed that African Americans could advance
themselves in American society

The supporters of this belief wanted no integration with

whites whatsoever. They wanted a purely black society
in which white people were not allowed to trespass
Black Power was seen as a way of resurrecting Black
Pride and African-American culture
keep whites away from blacks

It followed that if whites could not be trusted,

then blacks would have to do everything for
themselves if they were to control their own
political and economic destiny

CAUSES

Slavery
The term "Black Power" was used in a different sense in the 1850s
by Black leader Frederick Douglass as an alternative name for the
Slave Power, that is the disproportionate political power at
the national level held by slave owners in the South.

NO JUSTICE
Brown v. Board was a landmark decision of
the U.S. Supreme Court that declared state
laws establishing separate public schools for
black and white students unconstitutional
even on transportation
Reverend George W. Lee was hit with three
shotgun blasts while sitting in his car in
Belzoni, Mississippi.No charges were ever
brought for the agressors
pay the poll taxes imposed on poor blacks to prohibit
voting, and he worked hard to register other black
voters.

TILL CASE
14-year-old Emmett Till, from Chicago
Flirting a white girl
Photographs of Emmett's corpse were
published in Jet magazine and the Chicago
Defender, and were circulated around the
country. They drew intense public reaction.

This movement believed that the

Kings non violence tactics were not
functioning well.
In 1960, Eisenhower signed another
Civil Rights Act, a weak bill that
established federal inspection of local
voter registration polls and
introduced penalties for obstructing
attempts at registering or voting.

INDIVIDUAL
MOVEMENTS

Most early 1960s civil rights leaders did not believe

in physically violent retaliation. However, much of
the African-American rank-and-file, and those
leaders with strong working-class ties, tended to
compliment nonviolent action with armed selfdefense.
The Black Panther Party. Founded by Huey P.
Newton and Bobby Seale, it made attempts to
improve the lives of the blacks in Oakland, CA,
where it was based.
"land, bread, housing, education, clothing, and
justice", the most publicized of which were
armed neighborhood patrols to show the police
that they were not to be stepped on or beat
unjustly any longer.

Music influence
An early manifestation of Black Power in popular culture was the
performances given by Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall in March
1964.Simone mocked liberal nonviolence ("Go Limp"), and took a
vengeful position toward white racists.
Huey Newton articulated the demands of the Black Panther Party,
which opens onto both parts

BLACK POWER
LEADERS

Stokely Carmichael
(Kwame Tour)

STOKELY CARMICHAEL
(KWAME TOUR)
Born in Port of Spain , Trinidad and Tobago , Stokely Carmichael
moved to Harlem , in New York, New York , in 1952 at the age of
eleven, to rejoin his parents.
They had emigrated when he was aged two, leaving him with his
grandmother and two aunts. He had three sisters.
He studied in Howard University, a historically black university in
Washington, DC.
(1961) he participated in the Freedom Rides of the Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE) to desegregate the bus station restaurants
along US Route 40 between Baltimore and Washington, DC and was
frequently arrested, spending time in jail

Carmichael became chairman of SNCC (Student

Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ) in 1966, taking
over from John Lewis , who later was elected to the US
Congress.
A few weeks after Carmichael took office, James Meredith
was shot and wounded by a shotgun during his solitary
March Against Fear
Carmichael joined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , Floyd McKissick
, Cleveland Sellers and others to continue Meredith's march.
He was arrested during the march and, upon his release, he
gave his first " Black Power " speech, using the phrase to
urge black pride and socio-economic independence:

It is a call for black people in this country to

unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense
of community.

While Black Power was not a new concept,

Carmichael's speech brought it into the
spotlight.
Everywhere that Black Power spread, if
accepted, credit was given to the prominent
Carmichael.
According to Carmichael: Black Power meant
black people coming together to form a
political force and either electing
representatives or forcing their
representatives to speak their needs [rather
than relying on established parties]
Strongly influenced by the work of Frantz
Fanon and his landmark book Wretched of the
Earth , along with others such as Malcolm X ,
Carmichael led SNCC to become more radical.

COMPARE WITH OTHER SIMILAR

MOVEMENTS IN THE WORLD

NGRITUDE
This was developed by francophone African intellectuals, writers,
and politicians in France during the 1930s
It sought to dispel denigrating myths and stereotypes linked to
black people, by acknowledging their culture, history, and
achievements, as well as reclaiming their contributions to the world
and restoring their rightful place within the global community.
Then some people consider this as an isolated concept that
improves the differences between black and white people

BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT

it is an economic political movement of anti - apartheid activists,
appeared in South Africa in mid- 1960 to fill the political vacuum
created by the punishment of the leaders of the African National
Congress who were imprisoned
Apartheid : This system consisted in creating separated residential,
studies and recreation locations , for different racial groups in the
exclusive power of the white race to vote and to ban marriages or
sexual relations between white and black people .
deeply rooted in Christianity.
They refused to engage white liberal opinion on the pros and cons of
black consciousness, and emphasised the rejection of white monopoly

CHAMPIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Martin Luther King
North American clergyman, activist, humanitarian, and leader in
the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for
his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil
disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of US
progressivism in 60s
Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the same year King
himself was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.

EF

Effects

Impact on politics

It helped organize scores of community self-help groups and institutions that did
not depend on Whites.
It was used to forceblack studiesprograms at colleges, to mobilize black voters
to elect black candidates, and to encourage greater racial pride and self-esteem.
In this way, it can be argued that the more strident and oppositional messages of
the Black Power movement indirectly enhanced the bargaining position of more
moderate activists. These activists capitalized on the nation's recent awareness
of the political nature of oppression, a primary focus of the Civil Rights
Movement,
developing
numerous
political
actioncaucusesandgrass
rootscommunity associations to remedy the situation.

The National Black Political Convention at 1972 was significant in black

of the Black Power era. The delegates created a National Black
Political Agenda with stated goals including the election of a
proportionate number of black representatives to Congress,
community control of schools, national health insurance, etc. and left
participants buoyed by a spirit of possibility and themes of unity and
self-determination.
The Black Power movement started a debate within the black
community and America as a nation over issues of racial progress,
citizenship, and democracy, namely "the nature of American society
and the place of the African American in it.

By igniting and sustaining debate on the nature of American society,

the Black Power movement created what other multiracial and
minority groups interpreted to be a viable template for the overall
restructuring of society by opening up discussion on issues of
democracy and equality.
The Black Power movement paved the way for a diverse plurality of
social justice movements, including black feminism, environmental
movements, affirmative action, and gay and lesbian rights.
The Black Power movement emphasized and explored a black identity,
movement activists were forced to confront issues of gender and
class as well. Many activists in the Black Power movement became
active in related movements. This is seen in the case of the "second
wave" of women's right activism, a movement supported and
orchestrated to a certain degree by women working from within the
coalition ranks of the Black Power movement.

Impact on African-American identity

The liberation and empowerment experienced by African Americans
occurred in the psychological realm. The movement uplifted the black
community as a whole by cultivating feelings of racial solidarity, often
in opposition to the world of white Americans, a world that had
physically and psychologically oppressed Blacks for generations.
Black Studies and African studies in both national and international
institutions. The respect and attention accorded to African
Americans' history and culture in both formal and informal settings
today is largely a product of the movement for Black Power in the
1960s and 1970s.

Soon, African American students began to celebrate African

American culture boldly and publicly. Colleges teemed with young
blacks wearing traditional African colors and clothes.
The peaceful Civil Rights Movement was dealt a severe blow in the
spring of 1968. On the morning of April 4, King was gunned down by a
white assassin named James Earl Ray. Riots spread through American
cities as African Americans mourned the death of their most revered
leader. Black power advocates saw the murder as another sign that
white power must be met with similar force. As the decade came to a
close, there were few remaining examples of legal discrimination. But
across the land, de facto segregation loomed large. Many schools were
hardly integrated and African Americans struggled to claim their fair
share of the economic pie.