These notes have all key information on the Black Power Movement (part of Civil Society Protests) to help you achieve top marks in your finals. The notes cover all information outlined by the IEB examiners - with a focus on aims, methods and extent of success. Hope you enjoy!
Black Power Movement: Origins
and Influences
What it is
• A philosophy rather than a political organization,.
• Black Power as a concept was used to create a consciousness among black people of their inherent human rights and, specifically, Aims in common with CRM:
their ability to change their circumstances instead of waiting for white powers to improve it for them.
• End to racial oppression and black
Black Power Movement Beliefs
freedom.
• Equal political and civil rights.
• Its meaning is contested as it is a philosophy, but generally it includes the belief that African Americans should:
• Be economically and socially self-reliant, thereby rejecting dependence on white people. Aims Differing from CRM:
• Control the politics in their own communities.
• Emphasize pride in their own identity, culture and heritage. • Rather than integrating American
society, members wanted to
Factors leading to the Black Power Movement change it fundamentally.
• End to poverty.
1. Limitations of the Civil Rights Movement • End to police ill-treatment and
• Black people were frustrated by the reformist and integrationist approach of the CRM. brutality
• Many black people felt that the CRM was not achieving true liberation (economic, social and political) for the race as they still
waited for white people to take the lead in the CRM.
• Impatience and frustration at the slow pace of reform - largely felt by people living in the North.
• The CRM did not focus on bettering conditions in the North so much as ending segregation in the South.
• Despite the Civil Rights Act and Voters Rights Act - Black people were still far worse off than white people. Constitutional In comparison to white people, black people were
reforms had little impact on protecting their dignity. still (on average):
• Poorer
2. Poor conditions for African Americans living in the North • Less educated and receiving poorer schooling
• Inner-city ghettos (a ghetto is a poor urban neighbourhood usually housing one ethnic group). • In lower paid jobs and with fewer job
• High unemployment opportunities
• Poor housing and schools • More unemployed
• Living in squalor in poorer housing
3. Call for more radical tactics • Facing more crime and more police brutality
• In an effort to achieve equality, force was seen as justified.
• Instead of passive and peaceful resistance, a call was made to fight back in self defense (arose in the context of on-going
violence and brutality against black people NOT because it was a violent ideology, despite many white beliefs)
Important Terms
4. Cultural Pride
• Slavery and white dominance seen to have stripped African Americans of their identity and culture.
• Black nationalism: Political and social
• 'Black is Beautiful' campaign promoted development of a distinctive black identity. movement advocating for the
empowerment, self-determination, and
5. August 1964: MFDP unity of Black people and emphasizing
• Open confrontation with Pres. Johnson followed when the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party tried to challenge the racial pride and identity, and, in some
legitimacy of Mississippi's all-white delegation to Democratic Party convention. The MFDP was denied any seats because they cases, the establishment of a separate
were an interracial group. nation or state.
• A turning point in the CRM arose as black people realized that despite doing everything correctly, they were still not treated • Black separatism: Black power
equally. philosophy that rejected the pursuit of
• Fannie Lou Hammer was invited to address the Convention's Credentials Committee, where she made a speech recounting legal racial integration and argued that
issues faced by black people. Black communities could best solve
6. Uprisings their own problems if they remained
• Riots emerged in American cities during the mid 1960s due to poor living conditions and police brutality within ghettos. separate from White society.
• The riots served as • Black autonomy: The self-governance
and self-determination of Black
1. Watts, LA - Aug 1965 communities, allowing them to control
• First major racially fueled rebellion. their own social, economic, and political
• Arose from: 2. Detroit and Newark -1967 affairs.
• Strong sentiments of injustice and police brutality. • Large areas of cities were looted and burnt. • Reformist: Supporting reform rather
• Racial tension • The uprisings were violent and widespread. than revolution.
• Overcrowding
• Unemployment
• Inferior schools Kerner Commission (Presidential Commission)
• Ultimate spark was an instance of police brutality/ • Commission held on the urban uprisings identified the causes as:
• Impact: ○ White racism
• 6 day uprisings. ○ Police brutality.
• Mostly white-owned shops were looted and burnt (estimated ○ Poor living conditions
$100 million in properties destroyed). • It was decided that chronic poverty breeds chronic chaos and
• Estimated 34 killed (25 black), 1000 injured. the US was extremely divided by racial and socio-economic lines.
• Responses: • In 1967, 35% of African American lived below the poverty
• Militant African Americans saw it as un uprising line compared to 10% of white Americans
• Moderates saw it as senseless and self-destructive. • Mortality rate of African American babies was double that
• Conservative whites saw it as the CRM going too far. of white babies
3. King's Assassination - 1968
• Led to about 100 major African American urban rebellions across
the USA.
Black Power Movement Approach
• Radical and revolutionary
• Self-reliant
• Confrontational
• Africanist
Black Power Movement Activities
• Implemented community programmes.
• Advocated for black politicians.
• Armed black people and organized armed patrols as a manifestation of their right to bear arms.
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