The Fight For Equality : The Black Power 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

Originating in the North, this movement took on a more radical stance: one that maintained racial separation and aimed to form a separate Black identity and encourage self-reliance and independence from whites (Source I). The Black Power Movement aimed to end institutionalised racism in the Northern states and call for social justice while improving the living conditions of Black people in urban areas who were living in poverty and often subjected to police brutality, although it can be noted that segregation laws were not in place in the North. (Source L). A prominent leader of the Black Power Movement was Malcolm X, who considered the Black Power Movement to be supportive of a nationalist ‘Black’ revolution which mainly focused on the accumulation of land and, as a result, independence as opposed to the ‘Negro’ revolution based on the Civil Rights Movement which focused on integration between races (Source

The emergence of the Black Power movements in the early 1960s coincided with the peak of success for the Civil Rights campaign - the legislation of 1964-65. Thereafter, the focus of campaigns had to move the practical issues related to social and economic deprivation, and the ability to exercise the rights that had been gained. By 1968 little had changed, and it is therefore easy to claim that Black Power movements achieved nothing, and in fact had a negative impact on black Americans.

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.

After the civil war, all of the slaves were freed; unfortunately, there were some stipulation behind their freedom. Black people were free, but not equal to the white race. They had very few rights and privileges. They could not vote, be elected, participate in juries, obtain an education, and more. Even with their new found freedom, they could not move about freely from one county to the next. Certain states required registration/pass along with a white guardian (who would corroborate the good behavior of free blacks). As time progress, blacks began to form organizations, schools, practices, communities, churches, and more in hope to redirect the ways of life (that most black were accustomed to) to achieve a better

One of the biggest problems Africans Americans faced in America is Segregation, discrimination, racism, prejudice, rebellion, religion, resistance, and protest. These problems have helped shape the Black struggle for justice. Their fight for justice marks a long sequence of events towards their freedom. Provisions of the Constitution affect the operation of government agencies and/or the latitude chief executives and legislatures in the creation and implementation of policies

The history of United States is drenched in the fight for equality in the society. From women to gay rights but it is undeniable that the black civil rights was the bloodiest and most violent among them. Two methods were used to bring message to the people: the violent or the non-violent way. Most activists and civil rights group like Martin Luther King Jr., NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) at that time chose for the latter but one did not follow that lead: the infamous Black Panthers Party. Each method had its effect on the history for the equality of African Americans.

BlackLivesMatter is a movement that has a goal to "see a country where all lives are dealt with equal measure, given the same benefits, held to the same laws" (Damiani, 2016). The term BlackLivesMatter was created after Trayvon Martin was murdered by Police in Florida in 2013 (rightsidenews). The term started off as a twitter hashtag and turned into a movement after becoming nationally recognized. It was created by three people named Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi (rightsidenews). Not long after BlackLivesMatter became such a huge movement a counter movement was created. It is called AllLivesMatter. This is a very controversial movement because people were offended that other people were saying BlackLivesMatter. The goal behind

Black power was a movement that had evolved from previous generations, which displayed struggles to acquire change and equality for black people in America. It was a very moving time for America where white people witnessed African Americans coming together and organizing movements against the government. Individuals such as Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Williams, Rosa Parks and many other influential individuals, who paved the way for a new generation to bring forth change to the black community. This was a period where laws and regulations such as Jim Crow, segregation, and voting discrimination became illegal and therefore overturned. This was the opportunity for African Americans to fight back and speak out to bring forth social changes to their communities as

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of many of the most significant events of the Black Freedom Struggle of the 1960s. Two years ago, we celebrated the March on Washington; last year we recognized the 1964 Civil Rights Act that ended Jim Crow apartheid in the South. This year, we have already seen commemorations of the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, and summer’s end will see the fiftieth anniversary of the Watts Rebellion in Los Angeles.

The war of equality for the African American was fought on many battlefields. Whether on American soil or the trenches of other countries, black men and women gave their every breath to be known as equal human beings. The white man of the south, on the other hand, rich or poor and uneducated alike wanted to insinuate their façade of superiority and hold the black community to their haven of slavery. Being put through unimaginable trials such as lynching, Jim crow laws, sharecropping did not stop African Americans from their endeavors, in reality, it gave them a reason to strive for their constitutional rights that have been forsaken for too long. Because going back to the days of slavery -although it seemed like they were treated that way

"When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom." - Martin Luther King Jr, 1958. This provocative statement, in reference to interracial matrimony during the fight for black civil rights in America is unfortunately once again significant, however this time in reference to marriage equality in Australia. The failure of the law to allow all couples regardless of sex to marry, and furthermore refusal to acknowledge marriages conducted overseas, is a disgrace to the nation supposedly know as accepting of difference and intolerant to discrimination.

1963- 1968 saw a profound shift in black political thought and activism, it is a radical shift for black seeking to fight against racial oppression, establishment of black politic, and the improvement of black economy. Blacks had been through many oppressions from the whites. They were treated as the second class citizens even though they were also American. Those oppressions were mostly formed from the racism matter. With no longer endure to the oppression, a big wave of the black’s political thought and activism created a big change in black community and American society as a whole. There were two events that we could see the shift in black political thought and activism; they were the black civil right movement and the campaign against war in Vietnam. From these two events, we were able to analyze the black’s evolution in making their lives better and finding themselves a place to stand and a voice to be heard in a white dominant society.

Though the conclusion of the American Civil War in 1965 marked the end of slavery in the United States, African-Americans would not see anything resembling true freedom from the segregation and isolation imposed by slavery until very recently, and only after decades of difficult struggle. Some of the most important achievements occurred during the 1960s, when a generation of African-American leaders and activists, including Martin Luther King Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and the Freedom Riders, fought against some of the last vestiges of explicit, institutionalized segregation, discrimination, and isolation in order to attain equality and civil rights. Only by examining the treatment of African-Americans throughout America's history can one begin to understand how the the ending of slavery, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and the contemporary issues facing the African-American community are inextricably linked. In turn this allows one to see how rather than existing as a single, identifiable turning point in the history of civil rights, African American's struggle for equality and an end to isolation must be considered as an ongoing project.

Race is defined as a category for humankind that share certain distinctive physical traits. Placing people in categories is nothing new. Throughout history race has been used to classify people, some as being better, or simply more deserving. In “Racial Formations”, Michael Omi and Howard Wining state that, “one of the first things we notice about people when we meet them is their race.” We do this because our automatic instinct is to stereotype. We classify a specific race with specific traits and behaviors. Classifying and placing people in categories have caused horrible consequences. In the past, race has been responsible for depriving people of their freedom, and more recently of the mistreatment and deaths of innocent people. We see proof of this in recent events leading to Alicia Garza’s #BlackLivesMatter movement. Tamir Rice and Michael Brown were shot and killed by police because of the color of their skin. In “A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter movement”, Garza explains that the movement goes beyond the superficial fact that black lives matter, she also wants to make it clear that besides fearing for their lives “black people are deprived of basic human rights and dignity.” Proof of this can be seen in the film, Ferguson: A Report from Occupied Territory, where after the death of Michael Brown the citizens of Ferguson state their daily struggles, living in fear in a white supremacist America. Together with Omni/Winant’s theory that, powerful forces put into