Black Power

(noun)

A political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies aimed at achieving self-determination for people of African descent. In the United States, it was particularly prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, emphasizing racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests and advance black values.

Related Terms

Examples of Black Power in the following topics:

  • Black Power

    • Black Power emphasized racial pride, the creation of political and social institutions against oppression, and advancement of black collective interests.
    • Black Power meant a variety of things.
    • Though Black Power at the most basic level refers to a political movement, Black Power was also part of a much larger process of cultural change.
    • The 1960s composed a decade not only of Black Power but also of Black Pride.
    • Malcolm X, a black power leader, asks a crowd a series of questions.

  • Racial Tensions and Black Lives Matter

    • Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an activist movement originating in the African-American community that campaigns against violence and institutionalized racism toward black people in the United States.
    • The Black Lives Matter movement was co-founded by three black queer women who are active community organizers: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.
    • BLM claims inspiration from the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power movement, the 1980s Black feminist movement, Pan-Africanism, Anti-Apartheid Movement, Hip hop, LGBTQ social movements, and Occupy Wall Street.
    • Garza wrote a Facebook post titled "A Love Note to Black People" in which she wrote: "Our Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter."
    • Cullors replied: "#BlackLivesMatter."

  • The "Nadir of Race Relations" and the Great Migration

    • Many came to believe that only white people had the power to destroy white supremacy and the racist economic, political, cultural, and social networks that supported it.
    • This perspective argued that African-American demands for justice were ill-informed and illegitimate, since the competition between black people and white people over resources and power was a zero-sum game.
    • African Americans commonly experienced racism in the context of territorialism, often from ethnic Irish people defending their power bases.
    • In some regions, black people could not serve on juries.
    • Ferguson, the Court ruled that "separate-but-equal" facilities for black people were in fact constitutional.

  • The Freed Slaves

    • In the 1870s, Democrats gradually returned to power in the Southern states, sometimes as a result of elections in which paramilitary groups intimidated opponents, attacking blacks or preventing them from voting.
    • White Democrats had regained political power in every Southern state.
    • That same year President Andrew Johnson, supported by Radical Republicans, vetoed a bill for an increase of power for the bureau.
    • As a result, political participation by most blacks and many poor whites began to decrease.
    • The insurgent Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was formed in 1865 in Tennessee (as a backlash to defeat in the war) and quickly became a powerful secret vigilante group, with chapters across the South.

  • Neglected Americans and the New Deal

    • Already as the president, he made many critical decisions driven by the need to please white Southerners, who held substantial power in Congress.
    • Many of them belonged to would be known as the Black Cabinet - a group of black experts and professionals who, analogically to Roosevelt's white advisers who formed his Brain Trust, gathered to advise the president on matters relevant to black communities. 
    • Around 10% of the youth program beneficiaries were black.
    • Despite Roosevelt's refusal to support the black civil rights struggle and the mixed results that the New Deal programs produced for black Americans, many black voters changed their political loyalty and shifted towards Democrats.
    • The latter were mostly women, both black and white.  

  • Conclusion: The Effects of Reconstruction

    • A third school blames the failure on the freedmen not receiving land so they could have their own economic base of power.
    • The conditions of black Americans would not improve until the civil rights era of the 1950s and 60s.
    • The "Reconstruction Amendments" passed by Congress between 1865 and 1870 abolished slavery, gave black Americans equal protection under the law, and granted suffrage to black men.
    • Reconstruction was never forgotten among the black community and remained a source of inspiration.
    • The system of sharecropping allowed blacks a considerable amount of freedom as compared to slavery.

  • Woodrow Wilson and Race

    • Despite promises made to black voters during the election of 1912, Woodrow Wilson gave into the demands of white Southern Democrats, fired a number of black Republican politicians, and supported racial segregation.
    • The film also helped popularize the second incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan, which gained its greatest power and influence in the mid-1920s.
    • While President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, Wilson discouraged black people from applying for admission, preferring to keep the peace among white students rather than face an outcry if black students were admitted.
    • Black leaders who supported Wilson were angered when segregationist white Southerners took control of Congress and Wilson appointed many Southerners to his cabinet; Wilson and his cabinet members fired a large number of black Republican office holders in political-appointee positions, though they also appointed a few black Democrats to such posts.
    • Watson, believed he did not go far enough in restricting black employment in the federal government.

  • War of Black Liberation

    • The Civil War is sometimes referred to as The War of Black Liberation because the Civil War resulted in the end of slavery.
    • Many Republicans, including Abraham Lincoln, considered the decision unjust and as proof that the Slave Power had seized control of the Supreme Court.
    • Blacks, both slave and free, were also heavily involved in assisting the Union in matters of intelligence, and their contributions were labeled Black Dispatches.
    • Although black soldiers proved themselves as reputable soldiers, discrimination in pay and other areas remained widespread.
    • Explain why the Civil War is often referred to as the War of Black Liberation.

  • Ceramics in the Greek Archaic Period

    • On one side of the krater's neck are scenes from the Calydonian Boar hunt, in which several men and a powerful woman named Atalanta hunted and killed a monstrous boar sent by Artemis to terrorize the region of Calydon after the king offended her.
    • Black slip was painted with a brush to add detail.
    • Athenian Black-figure amphora.
    • Athenian black-figure volute krater.
    • Black-figure side of a bilingual amphora.

  • Jackie Robinson

    • Jackie Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player in the United States.
    • The Sporting News, which had opposed blacks in the major leagues, gave Robinson its first Rookie of the Year Award in 1947.
    • His impressive running speed, powerful hitting, and strong fielding made Robinson a key player on a team with many stars.
    • The Dodgers succeeded well with such black stars as Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Don Newcombe.
    • Jackie Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player in the United States