Question

1. What conditions fostered the blossoming of the black power movement?

2. How did the various black power organizations and leaders help shape the black power ideology? What philosophies and attitudes did they promote?

Answer 1

Black Power Moment:(expl)

The Black Power Movement that began in the United States in the 1960s is often misunderstood. This is partly because national media portrayed it in a negative light in an attempt to discredit it.

The heart of the Black Power philosophy was the idea of self determination. African Americans in the United States wanted a movement that was their own work and where they formed the leadership, so the movement could act in the interests of African Americans without being diluted by politics. The single most prominent event that led to Black Power's blossoming was the shooting of James Meredith during his solo march from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1966. After he was shot, many people flocked to Mississippi to continue the march for him, and some of the marchers latched on to the phrase Black Power.

Black Power Movement Growth:

With a focus on racial pride and self-determination, leaders of the Black Power movement argued that civil rights activism did not go far enough.

King and Carmichael renewed their alliance in early 1968, as King was planning his Poor People’s Campaign, which aimed to bring thousands of protesters to Washington, D.C., to call for an end to poverty. But in April 1968, King was assassinated in Memphis while in town to support a strike by the city’s sanitation workers as part of that campaign.

In the aftermath of King’s murder, a mass outpouring of grief and anger led to riots in more than 100 U.S. cities. Later that year, one of the most visible Black Power demonstrations took place at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where black athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised black-gloved fists in the air on the medal podium.

By 1970, Carmichael (who later changed his name to Kwame Ture) had moved to Africa, and SNCC had been supplanted at the forefront of the Black Power movement by more militant groups, such as the Black Panther Party, the US Organization, the Republic of New Africa and others, who saw themselves as the heirs to Malcolm X’s revolutionary philosophy. Black Panther chapters began operating in a number of cities nationwide, where they advocated a 10-point program of socialist revolution (backed but armed self-defense). The group’s more practical efforts focused on building up the black community through social programs (including free breakfasts for school children).