Blackpower

The black power movement in the 1960’s was more central to the lives of African Americans that have been portrayed. It had more lasting cultural consequences that the civil rights movement. The black power movement grew out of the civil rights movement that has steadily gained momentum through the 1950’s and 1960’s. This movement marked a turning point in the black-white relations in the United States and also how blacks saw themselves. The black power movement instilled a sense of racial pride and self esteem in black. Black power advocates encourages blacks to form or join all black political parties that could provide a formidable power base and offer a foundation for real socioeconomic progress. For years, the movement leaders said, blacks had been trying to aspire to white ideals of what they should be. The movement generated a number of positive developments. The most noteworthy of these was its influence on black culture. For the first time, blacks in the United States were encouraged to acknowledge their African heritage. Blacks who had grown up believing that they were descended from a backwards people now found out that African culture was as rich and diverse as any other, and they were encourage to take pride in that heritage. The black arts movement connected to the black power movement flourished in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Young black poets, authors and visual artists found their voices and shared those voices with others. The same spirit of racial unity and pride that made the black power movement so dynamic also made it problematic, and for some dangerous. Many whites and a number of blacks saw the movement as a black separatist organization bent on segregating blacks and whites and undoing the important work of the Civil Rights movement. There no question that the black’s power advocates had valid and pressing concerns. For example, they suggested that blacks receive paramilitary training and carry guns to protect themselves. Though these individuals insisted this device was solely a means of self defense and not a call to violence, it was still unnerving to think of armed civilians walking the streets. Because the black power movement was never a formally organized movement, it had no central leadership, which meant that different organizations with divergent agendas often could not agree on the best course of action. The more radical groups accused the more mainstream groups of capitulating to whites, and the more mainstream accused the more radical of becoming too ready to use violence. By the 1970’s, the most of the formal organizations that had come into prominence with the Black power movement, such as the SNCC and the Black Panthers, had all but disappeared. The black power movement did not succeed in getting blacks to break away from white society and create a separate society. It did, however, help provide some of the elements that were ultimately necessary for blacks and whites to gain a fuller understanding of each other.