Black Power
By: Learic Beatty
Background
- African Americans wanted to have equal rights
- Part of the Civil Rights movement
- Involved African American activist in the late 1960s
- James Meredith made the slogan "black power" in Mississippi
- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- National conference of African Americans explore black power held in Newark, N.J. July 1967
- Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) also adopted black power
- Had many different meanings for black power
- Black Panthers were a black- liberation political party
- Black Panther Party of Self-Defense (BPP) was founded in Oakland, California in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby G. Seale
The Black Power Movement
- Many people protested with out violence
- BPP political organization espoused armed resistance defense of blacks in the neighborhood to defend them from police harassment
- Many people made speeches to the public
- Joined forces with the white radical Peace and Freedom party
- BPP elected Oakland's first black mayor in the city
- Growing militancy in African American community signaled outbreak violence in urban black neighborhoods in the mid-1960s
- Race riots in Los Angeles, California, Newark, New Jersey, Detroit, Michigan
- Blacks attempted harness widespread frustration by establishing black nationalist organizations Black Panther party
- Black Panthers local group drew large national attention resulting violent Newton's 1967 imprisonment for manslaughter resulting violent confrontation with Oakland police
- Malcolm X broke ranks with the Nation of Islam later advocated racial harmony brought threats his former colleagues
- The next year Malcolm X was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam
The Aftermath
- Movement declined in the 1970s after many black nationalists were arrested or killed in confrontations with the police
- The term black power continued to signify pride and cohesiveness within black urban communities
- Brought many black people together for a common goal which brought national support for their protest for equal rights
- Made the Congress see that their was an equality difference that was being recognized
Their Beliefs
- Many black people believed that they should have equal rights and every man is equal
- Some groups wanted to influence a nonviolent protest
- They were tried of racial discrimination between whites and black and designated areas between the two
The Black Power Movement