English 1

ENGL 1103
The Black Power Movement was a direct response to the underwhelming success of the
Civil Rights Movement

The American civil rights movement constitutes a nearly century long fight for freedom

carried out by hundreds if not thousands of diligent fighters for the cause of equality after the

United States had failed the wants of minorities even after the nationwide abolition of slavery in

1865. The programs of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal which were supposed to provide

relief for citizens who were plunged into unemployment because of the Great Depression left

much of the African American population out of this aid which only magnified the unequal

distribution of wealth amongst whites and minorities. The Civil Rights Movement gained most

of its success towards the center of the 20th century and utilized many tactics in its struggle for

equal treatment. Among the most effective approaches used were maintaining peace and

nonviolence according to the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. and collaboration with white

activists. First coming into fruition at the mid-1960s, The Black Power Movement was much

more invested in self-determination as a means of improving the conditions of Black Americans.

The rhetoric of leaders such as Stokely Carmicheal, Malcolm X, and Angela Davis called for the

advancement of an independently prosperous Black society rather than acceptance into long

standing White institutions. These brave spokesmen and spokeswomen believed that Black

America would never be able to thrive in a society built upon a foundation of blatant and violent

racism.

The Black Power Movement is cited to have begun in 1966, two years after the Civil

Rights Act ended legal segregation of public places and employment discrimination based on

sex, race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Act came as a result of the hard work of
 English 1

countless activists throughout the fifties and sixties who created a force that moved Capital Hill.

Supreme Court had previously deemed segregation of public schooling a violation of the

Fourteenth Amendment ten years before making the decision (Rosenburg 1150). This gap in

legislation caused many Black Rights advocates to question the actual morality and effectiveness

of the Civil Rights Act. Like the abolishment of slavery nearly one hundred years before, it was

all too possible that the Civil Rights Act wouldn’t be accompanied by any major improvement to

the Black American condition. Skepticism began to rise as police brutality and hate crimes

continued to go unpunished. It became increasingly possible that the Civil Rights Act mainly

served to pacify the movement and decrease the negative attention which the civil turmoil

brought to the country, especially with the arms race at full force. Regardless of the true

meaning of the act, it showed no immediate results, black rights would have to be seized through

different means, and the next generation of freedom fighters were not as patient as those before

them. There would be no bus boycotts, no absence of retaliation, and no apologies Black Rights

would have to be seized through revolution, and revolutions are rarely nonviolent.

The use of nonviolence when protesting heavily contributed to the success of the Civil

Rights Movement. It also helped reduce the successful villainization or negative portrayal of this

group. The rise of live television allowed the whole nation to watch as college aged and young

adult protesters were sicced on by dogs, bruised, and beaten by armed police. Faced with such

atrocities firsthand, those who considered themselves allies were no longer allowed to be passive

in the fight for freedom, supporting the African-American became more personal once this

brutality when the people you claim to support are crying for help on your own television screen.
 English 1

Although southern media was still popularly pro-segregation, figures like George Wallace were

often villainized in the northern press (Nelson 4). Although violence might have been justified

in some cases, it definitely ineffective as it made it very easy to paint this organization and

affiliated organizations, such as the Black Panther Party, as radical and anti-white. At the time,

any dissent against the yoke of subservience that constrained Blacks and all minorities was

deemed unacceptable. In this fashion, any sort of violence committed by self proclaimed

pro-Blacks at the time, even in self defense, was also deemed unacceptable. This fact rang

especially true when the very people who were supposed to protect, did the most damage. In

addition to turning a blind eye to hate crimes against minorities all across the country, the police

frequently perpetrated these “floggings, intimidation, and murders” (Harris 413). The infamous

Black Panther party took it upon themselves to combat the oppressive regime that was American

law enforcement at the time. Founded by Huey Newton in 1966 in Oakland, the panthers

remained active until they eventually dissolved in 1982. “You tell all those white folks in

Mississippi that all the scared niggers are dead” (Elder 14), was the famous line spoken by

Stokely Carmichel which served as a mission statement, so to speak, for the party, a group of

men and women fed up with standing idle while their people were habitually harmed by those

whose sole purpose was to keep them safe. The organization was founded upon a ten-point

platform that promoted education, economic prosperity, decent housing, and several more human

rights that African-Americans have never been able to help themselves to. In many cases, the

party was very effective in achieving these goals (Harris 412). On the contrary, they were also

known to respond to police brutality with violence of their own, which is sadly what they

became known for. This proved fatal several times, one being the killing of a Philadelphia police
 English 1

officer in 1981 by Mumia Abu-Jamal (a former Black Panther). Such events caused the Federal

Bureau of Investigation to raise an eye, as they accused the Party of several terrorist acts and

even killed two party leaders in 1969 for reasons that remain unknown (Harris 414). Although

serious, the violence committed by the Black Panthers never reached the scale of white

nationalist organizations such as the Klu Klux Klan, who rarely ran into any problems with law

enforcement. The Black Panthers weren’t criminalized solely because of the violence, it was

because they had the audacity to rise above complacency and take an active stand against the

racism that for so long has been characteristic of American society.

Malcolm X paved the way for many advocated for fighters of liberation after him and his

views laid the groundwork for the movement. Malcolm X’s stance on the American Civil Rights

issue was quite unapologetically pro-Black. He would oftentimes promote the self-sufficiency of

the black race and opposition of integration. Which would seem to be an easy way to achieve

success for the movement because so many white citizens held the same stance on integration,

but the reasons behind these views could not be more different. Those associated with the Black

Power movement who opposed integration did so because they believed that such a move would

simply provide another opportunity for the Black race to sit at the bottom of the social ladder yet

again, however, if the races were to stay segregated the black race could flourish economically

with programs, businesses, and most importantly educational systems with the genuine interest

of improving the Black condition in the United States. This genuine belief in the fact that the

condition of the African American race could only be improved by the African American race

itself could be easily mistaken for arrogance, and even more so this self sufficiency and

cooperation among the Black race which was a fundamental belief of the Black Power
 English 1

movement had strong socialist undertones which were quite dangerous during a time period so

soon after McCarthyism and the Red Scare and literally in the midst of the Cold War when

irrational fears of communism were higher than they have ever been. Although not as prominent

as it was made to seem, the violent tendencies of the Black Panther Party made the group very

easy to be used as a scapegoat by opposing politicians, but even without violence, the diction

alone of the Black Power movement made it easy to villainize the group, from protests that

promoted African Liberation to the namesake of the movement itself, it was much too easy for

the media as well as political opposition to undermine any of the actual goals of the movement.

From the end of the Second World War to the passing of the Civil Rights act, there were

several approaches to the issue of acquiring equality for the Black race in the United States. The

more fundamental approach, which is still praised today, believed that this could be done through

nonviolent means as well as in cooperation with the white population of America while the

Black Power approach clinging to the idea that these rights would be claimed by self sufficiency

among the race which coincided with the infamous, “By any means necessary,” Malcolm X

quote (stated in 1964 at the founding rally of the organization of Afro-American unity) which

meant that this equal status would have to be achieved with or without the help of the

government or white America in general. This approach proved unsuccessful in the long run and

was not taken seriously in the eyes of the media and the majority of the US population as a

whole.
 English 1

Works Cited
Joseph, Peniel E. “Historians and the Black Power Movement.” ​OAH Magazine of
History​, vol. 22, no. 3, 2008, pp. 8–15. ​JSTOR​, ​www.jstor.org/stable/25162180​.
Nelson, Jack. “The Civil Rights Movement: A Press Perspective.” ​Human Rights,​ vol. 28,
no. 4, 2001, pp. 3–6. ​JSTOR​, ​www.jstor.org/stable/27880281​.
Harris, Jessica C. “Revolutionary Black Nationalism: The Black Panther Party.” ​The
Journal of Negro History,​ vol. 86, no. 3, 2001, pp. 409–421. ​JSTOR,​
www.jstor.org/stable/1562458​.
Elder, Sean. "Right Then! Right Now! Right On!." ​Newsweek Global,​ vol. 167, no. 14,
14 Oct. 2016, pp. 32-40. EBSCO​host,​
proxygsu-scob.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=t
rue&db=fth&AN=118549910&site=eds-live&scope=site
Rosenburg, Gerald. “The 1964 Civil Rights Act: The Crucial Role of Social Movements
in the Enactment and Implementation of Anti-Discrimination Law.” Chicago Unbound,
vol. 49, no. 1147, 2004, pp. 1148–1154.