Amiri Baraka Research Paper Outline

Ever since our first arrival to the new world, black thought and way of life has been under attack from outside forces whose only goal was and is to keep the African American community from progressing. Imprisonment, murder, deportation, bombings, illegal wiretapping, and fraud are just some of the schemes that have been leveled at black power organizations since J. Edgar Hoover first took the helm of the Bureau of Investigation, the predecessor to the present day FBI. Examining what happened to the Black Panthers, particularly the murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, and Marcus Garvey and the UNIA, will give us a clear picture of the strategies used to destroy black political and social organizations in the United States of America.

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, is one of the greatest advocates for race in the nation. However, his opinion of the state of racial issues in our country, and what can be done to solve them. Trials throughout Malcolm’s life of personal opinions and events that have occurred have shaped his outlook on the issue. Alex Haley’s autobiography novel, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, reveals Malcolm’s changing views on the solution of race in this country through the shaping stages of experiences in his life.

Malcolm X’s brutal childhood influenced him to become a significant activist in the Civil Rights Movement and his passion for equality. According to “Say It Plain, Say It Loud - American RadioWorks”, after Malcolm X’s family

When there is a significant shift in culture and society, members of any community are influenced in their identity. This can be observed in the rise of Black Nationalism, a political and social movement prominent in the 1960s-70s. (Levine, 1996). The movement traces back to Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association of the 1920s that focused on infusing a sense of community within the African-Americans. Many supporters of Black Nationalism were youths of the community who sought to maintain and promote their separate identity as a people of black ancestry as well as generating a sense of pride among the black community (Altman, 1997). As this movement spread, the identity of the African-American community developed and consolidated as they began to develop their style of fashion, music and embrace activities such as rap culture and basketball respectively. Their development since the 1960s highlights

“ But for those who had been paying closer attention to him, Malcolm X was an uncompromising advocate for the urban poor and working class black America,”(Zaheer). He didn’t just support “non-violence” but self defense, instead of urging integration he embraced black self-determination. His tactics reserved the morals of people who entrusted in social justice. “Malcolm X has often been described as one of the most influential African Americans in history,”(Assassination of Malcolm X).

Leroi Jones, also known as Amiri Baraka, founded the Black Arts Movement in Harlem, New York in 1965. The movement was officially established in 1965 when Baraka launched the

Beginning with abolishment of slavery in the United States, which found many women as allies for the movement, black people in the United States began a long journey of liberation for themselves that transcends centuries. Black liberation works to overcome the obstacles that are in the way of black people and freedom, and there are two main divisions that work to achieve this: the integrationist or assimilationist approach, and the separatist or nationalist approach. While there are two distinctions of black liberation, it is not uncommon for many to take from both divisions in terms of the movement. The Civil Rights movement was an important time for both people in the integrationist and separatist movements. Fighting for desegregation and the right to vote dominated the 60s, with progress made in U.S. law. Similar to women’s liberation, black liberation consists of actions that persist through time. In terms of the separatist movement, ideas of Black Power were created to combat the internalized racism that plagued the black community, commonly referred to as “double” or “black” rage (Ball, et al., 237). Mentioned by psychologists as well as documented by prominent black authors and poets, black rage deals with the black person’s mind: living in a culture that favors white people over them, they develop an internal hatred of themselves as well as a hatred for the white person. This results in the black people

W.E. B Dubois was a very significant political activist, socialist, and writer during the Harlem Renaissance. His writings and influence played a big role in how and why the Harlem Renaissance literary aspect got a shove in the right direction, him along with many others. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Dubois grew up to become the first black student to graduate from Harvard University, as well as study at many other universities, making him an intellectual way before his time. “Dubois studied with some of the most important social thinkers of his time and then embarked upon a seventy-year career that combined scholarship and teaching with lifelong activism liberation struggles.” Dubois gained recognition in the black community

From George Washington to Rosa Parks, JFK, and countless others, the world has been blessed and challenged by various leaders. In the national bestseller, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley” we have the experience of being introduced into the life of a leader of such category; Mr. Malcolm X, Malcolm Little, Detroit Red, or rather El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Throughout his autobiography, Malcolm went through several stages of his life that ultimately allowed him to clearly see the struggle of the African American man in the early 20th century. He used his experiences as a Harlemite and street hustler to gain knowledge and understanding of life as an African American male. Malcolm ultimately

Malcolm “X” Little has had an excellent impact on the lives of many young black Americans. Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925 Malcolm became “ controversial figure” during The Civil Rights Movement. Growing up Malcolm has watched his parents struggle, his father was a Baptist Minister and passed away when Malcolm was a little boy. Malcolm’s mother grew into a great depression and figured using drugs to end her stress, the over exposing herself would kill her later on. Seeing his mother like this made Malcolm become distant to his black roots. “Many black people have been relegated to dilapidated, low-income housing units located in food deserts across the country. Life in low-income enclaves in tandem with other factors has created dismal health outcomes for black people”. ("Malcolm X's Influence on the Black Panther Party's Philosophy", 2016).

Black cultural nationalism was an international, less organized extension of the Black Nationalist movement. The movement focused on the embracing of African culture and values through various artistic forms, including poetry, drama, and music. Emphasizing the need to embrace one’s blackness, cultural nationalism was able to gain much mainstream attention because of the prominence of many of its members. The earliest organized display of cultural nationalism associated with Africa began with the concept of Négritude, “which was developed by French-speaking Negro intellectuals” (Irele 321) that had “developed far beyond the concept of the ‘African personality’…

The Black Power Movement took place during the 1950’s into the early 60’s. The point of the movement was to achieve civil rights for African Americans. Martin Luther King was a major influence during the early stages of the movement. Many people turned to the Black Panthers, founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, because they felt that nonviolence was not the answer to achieving civil rights. The Black Power Movement unsuccessfully tried to change the economic and social inequalities of blacks, because today many blacks are still treated socially and economically inferior to whites.

The often fierce ideological exchanges between Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois are interesting, not as much because of the eloquence of their expression, as because of the fact that although outwardly contradictory, these ideologies were often unified at their foundation. This unity was not simply in terms of the broad and obvious intent to better the conditions of “black folk”, it was in terms of the very details that defined the trajectory and means of the advancement of blacks in America and all over the world.

Published in 2006, Peniel Joseph’s first comprehensive account of the history of the Black Power movement in the United States was written against a historiographical backdrop that paid little or selective attention to the distinct ideological and activist roots of the Black Power advocates who rose to influence in the late 1960s. Addressing a narrative that at best illustrated the young activists as naïve and mislead, and at worst as criminal and self-centered demagogues to be blamed for the dissolution of the interracial civil rights coalition, Joseph centers his works around the emergence of a rather apolitical Black Nationalism that turns its focus increasingly toward a more activist stance. Concurrent with the evolution of Malcolm X, the politics of Black Power, Joseph argues, became more and more politicized, culminating in separate parties, which, independently of the political mainstream, pursued a politics of African American self-determination. In contrast to those scholars who consider the Black Power phase as part of the long civil rights movement, Joseph defines it as a distinct form of radical African

• Black: black people whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state, is affirmed by the existence of the