Taylor Bennett

History 1700
11/25/14
Writing Assignment #3

During the 1960s, a phrase called Black Power swept over the African American
community. The term was originally used by Willie Ricks, with the hopes of bringing the black
community strength during the era of Civil Rights. The goal of Black Power was to help promote
the movements and protests. The slogan was created to help blacks gain equal rights. Though it
started with a general goal, Black Power developed many variations. Some believed it to be a cry
against the whites, as some thought it was a label that would help them advance in the American
society. Some also took the phrase as a non-integration stand, dividing blacks and whites even
more. Some believed that the African American people should write their own histories, and
form their own establishments, like political parties, and credit unions. Black power was a twist
to the already exciting approach, non-violence. It developed new forms and some meant that it
was necessary to protect oneself, even if it resulted to violence.
One leader who strongly believed in Black Power was Malcolm X, (formerly known as
Malcolm Little) who was a popular figure during the Civil Rights era. Malcolm believed in selfreliance, rather than integration. Malcolms goals were to achieve human and equal rights. He
strived to rid all discrimination of Blacks during the mid-1900s. Malcolm exemplified the Black
Power philosophy in some speeches, stating "Our objective is complete freedom, justice and
equality by any means necessary."1 Malcom believed that any means of defense was expectable.
Like many speeches, and encouraging talks in the past, Malcom began another speech and was
shot 15 times, killing him in 1965.

Another Civil Rights Leader who promoted Black Power was Stockeley Carmichael, also
known as Kwame Ture. He was arrested during an attempt to integrate a "whites only" lunch
room in Jackson, MI, becoming the youngest person imprisoned for his participation at age 19.
When Carmichael was younger, just out of high school, he saw shots of a protest on television,
compelling him to join the fight. In May, 1966 Carmichael was elected national chairman of the
SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). Carmichael believed that It is a call for
black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community.
It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.2 Though
Black Power had helped the black community to gain strength and reinforce them to keep
fighting toward human rights, not all Civil Rights Leaders agreed with the slogan. One who did
not agree, was Martin Luther King stating that it is "unfortunate because it tends to give the
impression of black nationalismblack supremacy would be as evil as white supremacy.3
Another who did not believe in the motto was Vice-President Hubert Humphrey testifying
"racism is racism - and there is no room in America for racism of any colour."4 Humphrey
believed that, if Black Power continued its path, whites and blacks would separate even more,
causing blacks to form racist views on whites, becoming an unbreakable cycle.
While Carmichael was the chairman of SNCC, he and James Meredith assembled a
crowd in Greenwood, Mississippi with the cry, We want Black Power! in June 1966. This was
the rst time that Black Power had been used as a public slogan in the Civil Rights era. The
SNCC became a widely known protesting group after their first sit-in, in North Carolina. The
famous sit-in began when a group of African American students sat in a local restaurant and
asked to be served. The group was refused any services and was asked to leave. The group
remained seated until the restaurant closed, setting an example and later leading to about 50

similar sit-ins throughout the South. Another famous protest was the Freedom Rides of 1961.
The protest was against the segregation still forced upon public transportation. Six Whites, and
Seven Blacks boarded a bus in Washington D.C.. The bus was headed for segregated areas in the
South, and once arriving, they were bombarded with violence and jail sentences. Though the
group was sentenced to time in jail, their protest inspired many new freedom rides throughout the
South.
Through the end of WWII, non-violence was the dominant form of black protesting.
Once Black Power was introduced, non-violence started to lose it grasp, and Black Power took
hold. Before non-violence was overpowered, it achieved Civil Rights Acts that were passed in
1964 and 1965. The Civil Rights Law passed in 1964, outlawed any discrimination based on
race, sex, religion, color, and nationality. The Civil Rights Act passed in 1965 prohibiting any
racial discrimination involving voting. Originally Black Power was meant to bring strength to the
black community to encourage them to keep fighting toward equal rights. When it became a
social slogan, it began to take on various forms. Black Power was not as successful as nonviolence approaches. As the non-violence protests gained new laws, Black Power gained a wide
gap between blacks and whites. Once the two were more divided, it became even harder for
equal rights to be achieved.

by Malcolm X, By Any Means Necessary, http://www.malcolm-x.org/quotes.htm

by History.com Staff, Stockeley Carmichael, http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/stokely-carmichael
3&4
"Black Power" HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web. www.historylearningsite.co.uk/black_power.htm
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