A

BLACK POWER

Frustration Sets In

As the struggle for rights for African-Americans continued during the 1960s, many activists became convinced that the nonviolent strategies used by the movement in the early years of the decade had reached the limits of their effectiveness. Many blacks expressed frustration that the civil rights movement, as represented by sit-ins and Freedom Rides, did not give them the opportunity to express their anger at racism in America any more than they had been able to in the worst days of Jim Crow. Nonviolent protest, they felt, only gave racists the opportunity to victimize them further; increasingly, black activists wanted to take the rights they had as Americans, rather than waiting to be granted them. In September 1966, for example, after a fleeing black youth accused of auto theft had been shot and wounded by Atlanta police, Stokely Carmichael, an activist and veteran of the Freedom Rides, and several other members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC—called "snick") instigated a riot, urging demonstrating blacks to ignore the mayor's attempts to calm them. According to the Atlanta police chief, SNCC had become the "Non-student Violent Committee."

SNCC Gets Angry

By that time, under the influence of militant leaders such as Carmichael, SNCC had shifted its emphasis away from voter registration in the South. From its offices in Atlanta the organization concentrated on churning out angry propaganda, including its black power bumper stickers, which depicted a lunging black panther; SNCC's newspaper, the Nitty Gritty; and history pamphlets that stressed the teachings of black power advocate Malcolm X, who was assassinated in early 1965, not long after his message gained national prominence. This turn toward militancy created tension between SNCC and older civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., the most eloquent spokesman for non-violence and racial harmony. But for SNCC members participation in the white-dominated system meant endangering their racial identity. As Charles V. Hamilton wrote in 1968, "To be 'integrated' it was necessary to deny one's heritage, one's own culture, to be ashamed of one's black skin, thick lips and kinky hair."

The Birth of Black Pride

The main thrust of black power, then, was to make African-Americans proud, rather than ashamed, of their appearance and their common heritage. Black Americans, they stressed, were black first and Americans second, even those who seemed to have achieved some level of success in white society. The growing class of black professionals, who frequently seemed to consider the problems of lower-class members of their race irrelevant to them, was called upon to contribute its talents to the betterment of the whole race. While the civil rights leaders of the early 1960s had welcomed the participation of whites in the effort to integrate America, black power advocates tended to view even sympathetic whites with distrust. As Malcolm X wrote in his autobiography, "Even the best white members [of black organizations] will slow down the Negroes' discovery of what they need to do, and particularly of what they can do." Toward the rest of white society the movement was openly hostile. Although Carmichael claimed that he was not antiwhite, in his speeches he took a revolutionary stance: "When you talk of 'black power,' you talk of bringing this country to its knees. When you talk of 'black power/you talk of building a movement that will smash everything Western Civilization has created."

The Black Panthers

The most aggressive wing of the black power movement was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, organized in San Francisco in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. The Panthers drew the wrath of the Establishment by carrying loaded fire-arms to all of their public appearances. As far as they were concerned, they were at war with the white power structure. "It is not in the panther's nature to attack anyone first," they explained, "but when he is attacked and backed into a corner, he will respond viciously and wipe out the aggressor." The worst enemies of the Panthers, they proclaimed, were policemen, who serve as white America's army against blacks. "Every time you go exe-cute a white racist Gestapo cop, you are defending your-self," Newton told black audiences. A series of riots in the nation's large cities in 1967 and King's murder in 1968 only strengthened the Panthers' case in the black community. By the end of the decade the militant party still had considerable support, especially among young African-Americans.

Panther Hunt

The all-out race war the Panthers envisioned never occurred, however. The Panthers themselves became hunted: the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) kept intelligence files on them and planted agents within the Panther ranks to try to undermine the organization. Law-enforcement officials in cities where the party was active kept close tabs on them, and on several occasions deadly gun battles broke out between the militants and the police, including one in Chicago in which Panther leader Fred Hampton was killed in his sleep. Other leaders of the party faced jail terms: Seale was imprisoned for executing a Panther informer; Newton was sentenced to fifteen years for killing a policeman; and Eldridge Cleaver, who was the presidential candidate of the Peace and Freedom party in 1968, fled to Algeria rather than return to jail for parole violations. The Panthers claimed that the white government was out to get them, and many, more mainstream black leaders tended to agree.

Black Power Survives

If the influence of the Black Panthers dwindled, however, the commitment to black power among the African-American community remained strong. Natural, nonstraightened hair and African dashiki robes became fashionable, and blackness, which for so long had made African-Americans the objects of scorn, became a source of pride. The annual Conference on Black Power, organized by Adam Clayton Powell in 1966, started small but grew in leaps each year. In workshops black leaders carved out plans for a variety of projects, including a black national bank, a black theater, and a black militia to police the country's housing projects. While the more radical proposals only met with slight support among the nation's black population, there was overwhelming support for more black-owned businesses and for a greater pride and awareness of African and African-American heritage.