The Civil Rights Movement: The Black Power Movement

The Black Power Movement

During and after the days of Jim Crow, blacks in the United States were economically and

socially oppressed. Blacks still faced lower wages than whites, segregation of public amenities

and racial discrimination. At this time many groups were created to challenge these injusticces.

The Black Power Movement and the Civil Rights movement were similar because they both

fought for equal rights and equal treatment for African Americans. However, they sought to

achieve different goals and implemented different forms of action to achieve change. The Civil

Rights Movement fought for desegregation and believed in non-violence, while the Black Power

Movement rejected integration for racial
seperation (Jefferies, 2006). In this essay, I am going to

further discuss the tactics used by the Black Power Movement to gain change, and the

accomplishements they achieved.

Emerging after the civil rights movement of the 1950's, the Black Power Movement

was arguably one of the most influential and controversial movements of the 20th century.
“Black

Power” as a political idea originated in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committe (SNCC)

in the mid 1960's (Jeffereies, 2006). At this time a leader emerged by the name of Stokley

Carmichael. Upon gaining leadership, Carmichael ejected white members and believed that the

only way to bring about change for blacks was to have an all black union.Stokleley Carmichael

believed that Black Power would instill a fear in whites and love in blacks ( Carmichael, 1967).In

1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP) in

Oakland California. By the late 1960's, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

(SNCC) and the Black Panther Party for Self Defense began to gain momentum.

Martin Luther King Jr imitated Ghandi and his use of non-violebnce to gain India

independence from Great Britain. Because of the Civil Rights Momvement, in 1964 the Civil

Rights Act was passed and a year later the Voting Rights Act was passed, ending segregation and

ultimately gave blacks the right to vote (Muse,1968). However, non-violent protestors
were

being beaten, cut with razors and knives, hot cigarettes and cigars were burnt into their arms and

faces, they were spat upon and kicked to the floor, policemen locked them up by the thousands

into cramped unsanitary jails (Muse,1968). Even with the obvious progress, discrimination

could not be eliminated.
Many members of the SNCC grew tired of the non-violent approach used by King

and other groups within the Civil Rights Organization. Increasing members of the SNCC had come to reject the moderate path of cooperation, integration and assimilation of their elders (Ogbar,2005).

Divisions grew betweeen the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Movement. The

leaders of the Black Power Movement argued that assimilation or integration robs blacks of their

identity and dignity (Algernon, 2003). Malcom X, a member of the nation of Islam, believed that

Africans historically fought to protect their lands, cultures and freedoms from European Colonists,

and that to seek to integrate into a society that has stolen one’s people and their wealth is an act of

treason (Algernon, 2003). As a result, aggressively more radical voices came foward to challenge

racial discrimination. Black Power advocates began to insist the Blacks carry guns and receive

military training in order to protect themselves. Members of the Panthers openly carried
weapons

and made death threats towards police officers. The Black Panthers sought to oppose police brutality in African American neighborhoods. Police Officers were frequently followed by armed Black Panthers The Black Panthers staged violent protests which

often resulted in the death of Panthers and Police officers. From 1967 to 1969, nine police officers

were killed and 56 were wounded in confrontations with the panthers (Marine, 1969