Peaceful Protest vs. Black Power
Non-Violent Protest
As the sixties began, a new social awareness developed in America. The Vietnam War, the deprevation of womens equality and racial prejudices in all aspects of American life, plunged a new generation into activicism. For the young white and black protesters, the injustices of the past and the ongoing injustices, the unpopular war uas well as currentand present, deemed the government as a sanctimonious and hypocritical establishment. This was white America's young, were vivacious in voice and determination to stand up against the establishment. For the community, who had managed to carry their own cause into the twentieth century, still suffered because of their color. The constant presence of Jim Crowe and segregation made the struggle more arduous and their fate for freedom began to deteriorate. In 1954 however, black attorneys for the N.A.A.C.P. made a major dent, in the fight for freedom, with the landmark Supreme Court decission in Brown vs. The Board of Education, dissolving the "seperate but equal" decision and outlawing segregation all together. This was a enormous victory for the black cause. But Jim Crowe was still a mighty force deep in the heart of Dixie and segregation would not go down easily. Shortly after the decision, violence spread and white segragationalists took drastic measures by, burning and desecrating Black churches, or even mow down a black person who dared to violate the longs standing white-ways in the South. The death of the young, Emmitt Till in 1954, shortly after Brown v. Board decision, lead to a string of violence through white resistance in order to keep the Negro in his place. Suprisingly, the will of the African Americans was stronger still, despite the impending dangers all around them. The primary reason for the iron will, was the emergence of a young Baptist minister, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. His Ghandi type tactics of peaceful protest would present the struggle of the Civil Rights Movement into the lime-light. King, adopted the non-violent method from another activist, who in 1942, helped found the Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) Bayard Rustin, was an major influence in Kings oranization strategies throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Kings sudden involvment came at a pivital time, with the arrest of Rosa Parks and the victory in the Montgomery boycott. Finally, freedom seemed possible. Their desire soon turned into a fevered pitch and it was King who helped direct this overwhelming energy towards a safer and more positive direction. The Studen Non-Violent Coordination Committee, (SNCC) organized sit-ins at in restaraunts, and the Freedom riders, that drove black citizens to the voting booth. Many of his followers beleived King came from divine intervention, and an answer to the unending prayer for deliverance. For thing, solace was still primarily, within the Black church and its uplifting songs. King was a minister and a mighty believer in the same God who delivered Mose' people, out of Egypt, was the same God. This can be seen in his many writings. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, he parallels Mose' deliverance to the present struggle in the South, " The Bible tells the thrilling story of how Moses stood in Pharaoh's court and cried, 'Let my people go'...The present struggle in the United States is a later chapter in the same story...The United States Negro is moving with great urgency towards the promised land of racial justice" (King 1972). Moreover, King, gave African Americans a long awaited sense of identity. In The New Negro, King explains, the significance of the Montgomery protest, which was forty-two thousand strong, as the beginning of a new identity: "our non-violent protest in Montgomery is important because it is demonstrating to the Negro, North and South, that many of the stereotypes he has held about himself and other Negroes are not valid...and is ushering in concrete manifestations of the thinking and action of the new Negro (King 76). With the Civil Rights Act and the successful March to Washington in 1964, where King delivered the infamous "I Have a Dream" speech, It appeared change, was finally at the door step. Young people all across the country were becoming more social savy and measured the establishment as hypocritical. Students and young adults, boldly rotesting the Vietnam war, womens rights and the racial injustices.
Black Pride
Black power embodied the same ideologies held by white supremists. Self-preservation, economic stability and awareness of their race. The Civil Rights Movement, authored by Jack E. Davis, describes the coming of Black Power "was born out of the mounting black frustration of the slow pace of change in American race relations. (205). Stokely Carmichael, popularized the phrase, "Black Power," out of his seemingly disolutioned state, after a "March against Fear," he, along with Martin Luther King, Jr. had participated in. Shortly after his release, Carmichael gave the first Black Power speech, calling on Black youth to become socio-economically independent. Black people must do the work on their own, The fact is that all black people often question whether or not they are equal to whites, because every time they start to do something, "white people are around showing them how to do it. If we are going to eliminate that for the generation that comes after us, then black people must be seen in positions of power, doing and articulating for themselves, for themselves" (Carmichael 1966) His "Black Power speech, revealed his new and more radical perspective of the Black movement. Carmichael, was for sometime deeply involved in the Student Non-violent Coordination Committee, (S.N.C.C.) began to distance himself from King and others involved with the Gahndi tactics.
Still, it would be the the founders of the Black Panthers party, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale who employed the "black power" as a way of self-defense by social agitation as away to demand equality. Malcom X, a follower of Elijah Muhamad, went further, with his dauntless and unflinching prejudice against the white society. In Race, religion and the continuing American Dilemma, author, C. Eric Lincoln says, "The Black Muslims, offered America's restive black youth a cryptic promise to 'treat the white man the way he should be treated,' and Malcom X, their fiery polemicist, dominated black interest ...on the teachings of Elijah Muhammad's doctrine... lex talionis, 'an eye for an eye...a tooth for a tooth.'" (110).
King and Malcom X, were poles apart in ideologies, Nonetheless, both played a major role in the bringing Civil Rights to top of the pile of governmental issues. Their very presence supported a people too long in bondage and servitude. However, their assassinations, seemed to fill the black man with utter determination and lack of fear in the process. Black Power became a thematic enfusion of the young and old alike. In the arts, it seemed W.E.B. Dubois's dream of embelishing the African heritage as a part of American heritage began. African Americans Voices of Triumph, discusses the African American artist contribution to our heritage, "Today, internationally known African American musicians, filmmakers, painters, sculptors, poets, playrights and novelists help shape the culture not only of the United States but of the World." (6).
From 1968 to the present, black artist fearlessly speak their minds. Music, from the spirituals to blues, from gospel to funk, were all essential venues for expression and the late 60's to the present, this expression was embraced by all Americans.
Sly and The Family Stone
Formed in San Francisco, Sly and The Family Stone, was the first desegregated band of the sixties, with women, black and white all
The Staple Singers
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.