The Black Power Movement: The Civil Rights Movement

In the United States, these concepts were achieved through Jim Crow laws as well as the implementation of Ghettos. The inherent white supremacy that was present was constant and maintained through the perpetuation of cultural inferiority among African Americans, violence, and economic deprivation. The Black Power movement definitely took on a rather aggressive stance when it came to goals and defining the movement. They believed that without self-determination in the African-American community, the attempt to integrate inevitably became an issue of white supremacy and its effects rather than an issue of equality and rights for the black community. The overarching goal was liberation from racial colonialism however, it seems that the Black Power movement sought to emphasize that without self-determination, the goal to integrate becomes an aimless and insignificant feat. With this in mind, it could be said that the Black Power movement reiterated that the Black Community must be guided by their own determination to succeed rather than necessarily the idea that racial liberation would come to them by waiting and not acting. This was intertwined in one of Stokely Carmichael’s critiques of Martin Luther King Jr’s movement. Although he respected the man greatly, he emphasized that King’s argument was flawed because the United States did not have a true conscious, unlike King noted. As the United States had no conscious, it could be said that integration was not necessarily achieved fully through NVDA. The Black Power movement steered the issue away from whether or not African Americans should be nonviolent but rather projected the idea of whether or not white Americans can acknowledge the hundreds of years of racial violence that occurred towards African-Americans. The main political

Social movements are vital to the establishment of our societies, and they way we are governed. Social movements help the less privileged band together to create a stronger voice among a sea of political correctness and unlawfully rule that the public supposedly have to abide by without question. Movements create this new form of platform that, if done successfully, are able to create a worldwide frenzy where people from across all walks of life, including politicians, academics, the less fortunate, the homeless, doctors, etc, are able to come together to create change, or to start to create change on a matter that is close to their hearts. One of these matters that has come up in recent years that has been an ongoing battle for centuries upon centuries is Black Lives Matter (Although named various things throughout time such as black civil rights). Black Lives Matter is a movement that started back in 2012 after George Zimmerman was acquitted for his crime against a 17 year old boy named Trayvon Martin, and Trayvon was then put on trial for his own murder (Garza, A. 2014, p. 1.). This crime was just the tipping point for three women who wanted to see a change in the way black lives were/are treated. Black Lives Matter is one of the most important socio-political movements of our time, and this is why it is an important movement to connect with and understand. Throughout, I will be going through the strategies and the tactics Black Lives Matter advocates and cofounders have

Stokely Carmichael gave his most famous speech on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. His speech, “Black Power” addressed the issues of black racism in this country and gave strategies for advancing black civil rights. His use of ethos, pathos, and logos was successful in getting the audience to engage and connect with his speech.

African Americans of the Black Power Movement felt that their lives were being determined and manipulated by the whites who had control over American society. In the first declaration of The Black Panther Platform, they explain, “We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community. We believe that black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.” (Bloom and Breines, 146). The members of this movement believed that whites always had power over them because African Americans were never allowed the opportunities to show their full potential without the interference of the white community. In an SNCC essay, entitled The Basis of Black Power, Stokely Carmichael proclaims that, “Negroes in this country have never been allowed to organize themselves because of white interference. As a result of this, the stereotype has been reinforced that blacks cannot organize themselves.” (Bloom and Breines, 120). The Black Power Movement believed that the only way to break free of these ties and these stereotypes was to isolate themselves from the whites, including the whites involved in

Stokely Carmichael gave his most famous speech on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. His speech, “Black Power,” addresses the issue of black racism in America and gives strategies for advancing black civil rights. His use of ethos, logos, and pathos is successful in getting the audience to engage and connect with his speech.

The beginning of black militancy in the United States is said to have begun with the chants “Black Power” demanded by Stokely Carmichael and Willie Ricks during the 1966 March against Fear. While Carmichael and Ricks may have coined the phrase “black power”, the roots of the movement had been planted long before by Mr. Robert F. Williams. In Timothy Tyson’s book: Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power, Tyson details the life of a remarkable man who had the audacity not only to challenge racial injustice in America but also to contest the rarely disputed strategies of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Establishment.

One evening upon graduating high school, Stokely finally felt his calling to join the movement. Carmichael was watching a television newscast that showed young African Americans protesting the racial injustices. “When I first heard about the Negroes sitting in at lunch counters I thought they were a bunch of publicity hounds.” He watched as these people were knocked off stools, ketchup thrown in their hair, and sugar thrown in their eyes. After this he decided to join the Congress of Racial Equality.

In 1965 80 percent of Lowndes County, Alabama was African American though only a few Blacks were exercising their right to vote. This resulted in a lack of political representation in the area. I believe that Carmichael saw this event as an opportunity to assist Alabama Black Citizens gain representation in a dangerous area. Stokely’s actions in Lowndes County were the backbone of the Black Power Movement is forming. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, prohibiting legal barriers at national and local elections that prevented Black Americans from using their freedom to vote. It took a push from local communities for local officials to allow non-discriminatory voting. This was frequently the case in the south because of frequent acts of violence toward Blacks. In Lowndes County, also known as “Bloody Lowndes,” whites would forcefully prevent their African American citizens from voting by threatening their lives with guns, mobs, and simply not educating the black community of their ability to vote. Stokely Carmichael arrived in Lowndes County in 1965, and he walked from door to door explaining that in 1965 a law was passed, giving all Black American citizens the right to vote without the fear of racial discrimination. Carmichael made an effort to put emphasis on the

Beginning with the moment Stokely Carmichael issued his call for Black Power during the “March Against Fear” in June of 1966, people have agreed to disagree about the implications of the term and its relevance to the ongoing struggle for racial equality. Since that time, scholars, pundits, and the public have shared their various interpretations of the event/term and its long-term implications. While some of these statements were better informed than others, few people in 1966 would have suggested that the call for Black Power was not a clear departure from the previous phase of the struggle for civil rights, with which most Americans, thanks to the broad media attention it received, had been fairly familiar. Over the following years, the media’s focus shifted toward the photogenic yet

Stokely Carmichael gave his most famous speech on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. His speech, “Black Power,” addresses the issue of black racism in America and gives strategies for advancing black civil rights. His use of ethos, logos, and pathos is successful in getting the audience to engage and connect with his speech.

The Civil Rights Movement, which turned ten in 1964, grew worse as the 1960s neared the halfway mark. It was at this time where rivalries were mad, only to be pushed aside so groups can work together to get to one goal: gaining civil rights African-Americans have been fighting for since the Black Codes were put into place in the 1870s. With this, Student Nonviolent Coordinate Committee (SNCC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and many other organizations created under one of these group’s members worked together to pave way for African-American civil rights during these times. While they did have the nonviolent strategy through and through, the only

For those who can’t recognize the disadvantages blacks have, any movement that call for equal rights and black mobility may be seen as an extreme action trying to cause conflict. For leaders who advocated for change like Malcolm X or Jesse Jackson were labeled in negative terms, but they were trying to obtain the same rights that whites have. In the case of Malcolm X, he said “We assert the right of self-defence by whatever means necessary, and reserve the right of maximum retaliation against our racist oppressors, no matter what the odds against us are” (Malcolm X, 747). What Malcolm X is advocating for reminds me of Sylvester Carrier actions in the movie Rosewood. Sylvester was viewed as an out of control black man with a gun during the shootout at his house. In truth, he was trying to protect his family

In the October 1966 speech given by Stokely Carmichael, we are faced with a variety of terms involving racism and racist remarks. Just the year prior to this speech “blacks” had earned the right to vote on national ballots. The speech was given at the University of California Berkeley. Stokely Carmichael was born on June 29th, 1941, and he moved to the United States of America in 1951. This means at the time of his speech he was 25 years old. He was a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) later called the Student National Coordinating Committee. The significance of Mr. Carmichael giving the speech at the University of California Berkley was he was talking to the “youth” of the United States

The movement, using the slogan “Black Power,” followed the teachings of Malcolm X, an African American leader who died the same year and who promoted that African Americans separate from white society in favor of forming their own community. The Black Panther Party, a militant organization that viewed themselves as soldiers warring against the white hierarchy, arose from such ideals. Despite the challenge that “Black Power” proposed to the nonviolent movement, civil rights activists continued persevered in finding the end of black discrimination legally. They found success in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which both contributed to legally naming minorities as equal citizens, as well as protecting the same from discrimination. Although the strength of the civil rights movement dissipated after the 1960s, activists continue to make efforts to end entirely the racial discrimination within America’s economic and social policies.

Since the term “black power” did not have a concise definition some whites interpreted the term as an “expression of a new racism.”47 On the other hand, blacks defined it as a signal to whites that blacks would no longer tolerate their violent treatment. Due to the tension the movement created Rustin deemed the Black Power movement as a threat to the civil rights movement. Rustin said that the Black Power movement “diverts the (civil rights) movement from a meaningful debate over strategy and tactics, it isolates the Negro community, and it encourages the growth of anti-Negro forces.”48 This tension would hinder the civil rights movement from moving forward.