What was the goal of the Black Power movement of the 1960s?

Black power movement was a movement among African Americans originating in the 1960s and emphasizing racial pride and social equality through the creation of black political and cultural institutions. This movement grew out of the Civil Rights Movement which had gained momentum in the mid-twentieth century. The Black Power Movement had a range of goals, from defense against racial discrimination to the establishment of social institutions and a self-sufficient economy. However, it is not considered as a formal movement as the Civil Rights movement.

Although the Civil Rights Movements aimed to eliminate racial discrimination and disparity between black and white people, not all black people, especially students were content with it. Despite the Civil Rights Movements, African Americans experienced various injustices such as racial discrimination, lower wages, and higher crime rates in their neighborhoods. Some African-Americans, especially the young generation felt that the Civil Rights movement was based on the white perceptions of civil rights, not on the black perceptions. The Black Power Movement arose out of this dissatisfaction. Thus, it can be said that the Black Power Movement was a continuation of the struggle commenced by the Civil Rights Movement. This movement had various forms of activism – some peaceful and some violent.

 The term Black Power was a popular slogan of this campaign, and it was popularized by Stokely Carmichael.

What was the Purpose of the Black Power Movement

Stokely Carmichael defined Black Power as “a call for black people… to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community.” The main purpose of the Black Power Movement was to create and express a new racial consciousness among African Americans and to unite them in solidarity and make them self-reliant. Self- reliance was, in fact, a main feature of this movement; this movement did not allow any white people to join, unlike the Civil Rights Movement.

Goals of the Black Power Movement

The goals of the Black Power Movement can be listed as follows;

• Obtaining freedom from white authority in both politics and economics
• Exploring and expressing black identity, cultural heritage and history (known as Black consciousness)
• Defining the world in their own terms, not by the terms dictated by the white people

Consequences of the Black Power Movement

The black power movement can be termed as a political and cultural revolution that changed the African American society.  This movement encouraged black people to be proud of their skin color, history, culture and heritage and challenged the accepted white notions. It did not only change the mindsets of people, it also changed the lifestyles of people. 

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This week’s readings focused on the Black Power movement of the mid to late 1960’s.  This movement was dominated by college students and young people; however they encouraged participation from all blacks.  While the Black Power movement may seem to be an extension of the Civil Rights movement and the fight for desegregation, it was much more than that and the goals of the movement were much loftier.   The Black Power movement wished to gain several things, including economic equality and a decrease in police brutality.

Economic equality was a main goal of many activists during the Black Power movement.  In particular, the Black Panther Party discussed it in their political platform.  They called for, “full employment for our people…an end to the robbery by the capitalist…decent housing…” (Bloom and Breines, 131 and 132).  These requests play into economic equality.  If blacks are prevented from entering jobs with high wages, than they will never make as much money as their white counter-part.  If they are not making enough money, then they cannot afford decent housing and are forced to live in poor neighborhoods with poor school systems.  This means that their children will not receive as high quality education as white children and they too will be at a disadvantage when they try to find a job, so the cycle will continue.

The Black Power movement also called for an end to police brutality.  Police brutality had become rampant at this time.  At North Carolina A&T, police and the National Guard were called in to break up protests.  However, they also randomly searched dorms in the middle of the night, and started shooting at the dorms.  One student, Willie Grimes, was actually killed during the attack, and several other students were injured.  No one was ever charged with his murder, and the National Guard did nothing to rectify their actions (Cohen and Snider, 265).  It was attacks like this that prompted the Black Power movement to call for an end to police brutality, often through retaliation and fighting back (Cohen and Snider, 260).

Malcom X in his speech to supporters in Cleveland supported this view saying, “We will work with anybody…tackling the problem head-on, nonviolently as long as the enemy is nonviolent, but violent when the enemy gets violent.” (Breines, 112).   This was a different view than of the non-violent protestors of the civil rights movement, who did not retaliate when attacked by police or onlookers.

The new goals of the Black Power movement were different than those of the civil rights movement.  Black protesters now wanted economic equality, not just desegregation, and they wanted an end to police brutality.  Civil Rights protestors had stood calmly in the face of police brutality and refused to fight back.  Black Power activists called for an end to police brutality and fought back when they were attacked.  Many of their protests turned violent on both sides, unlike the Civil Rights protests, which had only one-sided violence.  

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