Black Power Movement

Description

Introduction

During the 1960's great changes occured for African Americans. At the time African-Americans were able to transform the way they saw themselves and expected others to see them. The cultural landscape of America reflected the presence of African-Americans in a way to show that they are more than background characters in a white drama. How could a country with explicit white supremacist policies at the federal, state and local levels for most of its history make significant changes in such a short time? What brought about such wide-reaching cultural transformation?

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Who was Involved

In order to understand the Black Power Movement two groups must be acknowledged. The Nation of Islam (NOI) and the Black Panter Party (BPP) are two of the main and biggest organizations that did the most to forment the cultural shifts that reconfigured politics and identity in America.Both organizations built on the traditions of the black freedom struggle, which had deep roots, but the Panthers and Muslims in the 1960's forced conflicted discussions within the black community, which gave rise to Black Power and expanded radical discourse. To read more about the Black Panther Party and the NOI please click below.

                       The Black Panther Party|The Nation of Islam

Many individuals added to the strength and determination of the BPM. Leaders of the Black Power Movement

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What did they want out of the Black Power Movement

This Platform & Program articulated the fundamental wants and needs, and called for a redress of the long­standing grievances, of the black masses in America, still alienated from society and oppressed despite the abolition of slavery at the end of the Civil War. Moreover, this Platform & Program was a manifesto that demanded the express needs be met and oppression of blacks be ended immediately, a demand for the right to self defense, by a revolutionary ideology and by the commitment of the membership of the Black Panther Party to promote its agenda for fundamental change in America. The Ten Point Plan

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Black Panther Community Survival Programs

From 1966 - 1982, the Black Panther Party created more than 60 programs that aided, protected and provided for African-Americans and their communities. These programs were also created due to the government not helping African-Americans in need. To view a list of the Community Survival Programs, please go to Black Panther Survivial Programs

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The effects of the Black Power Movement

This movement affected African American identity and politics as much as any speech, march, or legal victory of the civil rights movement. Its thrust was "black nationalism", though Black Power was not necessarily nationalist. Black Power employed--even co-opted--the activism typified in civil rights struggles and operated on basic assumptions of rights and privileges. In essence, it demanded inclusion while advocating autonomy and self-determination. It asserted black access to full citizenship rights while conspiciously cultivating pride in much that was not American.

Two fundamental themes, however, were widely celebrated among proponents: black pride and black self-determination. From the traditions of black nationalists (and some integrationists) there developed a fundamentally new system of beliefs that shaped the political currents of the late 1960's and beyond.

Source: Ogbar, Jeffrey. Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.