The Civil Rights Movement and Black Power 1. Factors Influencing the Civil Rights Movement 2. Civil Rights Movement: Progressive Narrative 3. Civil Rights.

The Civil Rights Movement and The Civil Rights Movement and Black PowerBlack Power

1. Factors Influencing the Civil Rights Movement

2. Civil Rights Movement: Progressive Narrative

3. Civil Rights Movement: Tragic Redemptive Narrative

Protest as a Historical Continuum

Progressive Narrative Tragic Redemptive Narrative

DU BOIS GARVEY

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR MALCOM X

BARACK OBAMA BLACK PANTHERS

SOUTH NORTH

WALTER RODNEY

Factors Influencing the Civil Factors Influencing the Civil Rights MovementRights Movement

1. Increased number of blacks in north;2. Impact of World War II;3. Increased access to education;4. Widespread access to television;5. Growth of a black culture industry;6. Anti-colonialist movements in Africa & Caribbean; and7. Changes in US and global politics.

King’s Progressive NarrativeKing’s Progressive Narrative

Christian

Non-violent

Multiracial and Integrationist

Media centered

Student organized

NAACP as legal representative

X and a Tragic Redemptive X and a Tragic Redemptive NarrativeNarrative

Northern

Separatist

Africa as source of inspiration

Slavery as ongoing

Community based

Confrontational

Definition of Black PowerDefinition of Black Power

“It is about taking care of business—the business of and for black people . . . If we succeed we will exercise control over our lives, politically, economically and psychically. We will also contribute to the development of a viable larger society; in terms of ultimate social benefit there is nothing unilateral about the movement to free black people” (Toure and Hamilton, Black Power 1967)

The Watts RiotThe Watts RiotA large-scale race riot lasted for six days in Los Angeles, California in August 1965. 34 people were killed, 1,032 injured, and 3,952 arrested.

Black Panther Party for Self-Black Panther Party for Self-DefenceDefence

Protection from police brutality

Ten-point program of community empowerment

Black nationalist

Kerner Commission (1968)Kerner Commission (1968)

US divided, along racial and socio-economic lines, intotwo societies: 40% of non-whites lived below the federal government's poverty line;

Black men were twice as likely to be un-employed as whites and three times as likely to be in low-skill jobs;

The commission viewed this poverty as the cause of crime and civil unrest.

Walter Rodney and Black Power in Walter Rodney and Black Power in a Caribbean Contexta Caribbean Context

Historical continuity with Garvey

Challenged white cultural Referents and valorized blackness

Drew language and metaphors from Rastafarianism

Critical of educational system and middle class Unable to address issues of Indian ethnicity