Civil Rights Movement Essay

The Civil Rights Movement and the Birth of the Black Power Movement

The Civil Rights Movement was crucial to the endeavor to achieve black liberation, but because it did not seem to adequately express the needs of the African American community, the black power movement was born. The African American community needed to be united, and passive resistance did not appear to have the intended effects. The SNCC, Huey P. Newton, Stokely Carmichael, and Martin Luther King Jr. were crucial in creating the black power movement and in expressing the aspirations and needs of black people. Although everyone involved in the black power movement shared the same objective of uniting and liberating black people, each individual and group had its own ideas and methods. Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, the SNCC, and Huey P. Newton were essential in forming the black power movement and articulating the desires and wants of the blacks. Despite having the same goal of unifying and liberating the blacks each person and organization had different ideas and approach around the black power movement.

Martin Luther King Jr. and his Strategy for Liberation

Martin Luther King Jr. believed that the key to attaining liberation for the blacks was to organize their strength into a compelling power such that the government could not elude their demands (King). He pointed the civil rights movement was not successful as it was substantially impoverished and spontaneous. King proposed a strategy of employing the levers of power which he identified as ideology, economic and political forces.

Ideology and Economic Forces

Ideology involved the black people penning down compelling essays to appeal to the few whites who cared to learn about the shame of America (King). King continued to argue that nonviolent direct action would bring more benefits than what the Civil Movement had achieved. In the economic sector, King observed that America had the biggest economy in the world yet the proportion that belonged to the blacks was so low it was immeasurable. He also found that black people played a big part in the development of the economy as they were workers and consumers. He, therefore, organized a consumer boycott of companies that were discriminatory (King). The blacks also boycott employment at companies that did not offer them equal opportunities as whites. King saw the power in numbers of the blacks. The birth rate of the African Americans was growing increasing their populations in the major cities. On the other hand, the whites were moving out of the towns to the suburbs. The blacks could, therefore, influence politics if only they showed interest in politics and if they formed a coalition with white reformists (King). King had a vision that by blacks forming profitable alliances they could nurture their leaders as powerful politicians.

The SNCC’s Different Ideologies

The SNCC, on the other hand, had different ideologies from Martin Luther King Jr. In their position paper on black power, the SNCC implied that the myth that the blacks cannot liberate themselves is lazy (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 448). They were of the opinion that blacks have not been able to free themselves as a result of constant interference by whites and therefore, the organization despised the alliances that Martin Luther King Jr. proposed. The SNCC constituted only blacks and the whites who wanted to participate worked on a voluntary level and never in policymaking (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 450). Contrary to SCLC by King which had both black and white staff. The SNCC wanted total alienation from whites as they tried to form their institutions, credit unions, cooperatives, and political parties. The student movement argued that socially the blacks have allowed the white liberalists to interpret the importance and the meaning of the cultural aspects of the society. They asserted that the whites had become critics to black people’s music, art, and literature. They argued that any point of interaction between the blacks and whites could automatically reinforce white supremacy (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 451).

Stokely Carmichael and a Shift Towards Black Power

The black community was getting tired of the slow pace in the nonviolent direct action. The peaceful means acted as a buffer zone between the angry blacks and the whites, and the African Americans now had little faith in it. Carmichael decided against the nonviolent methods of protests as blacks were losing lives in the peaceful demonstrations (Carmichael 443). According to Carmichael, black power would mean that, for instance, a black person gets elected as a sheriff, the leader could help put an end to the police brutality. Also, if a black man reaches the position of a tax collector, he can then channel the funds collected to developing the community, thus empowering both the political and economic arena for the blacks (Carmichael 445). Like the SNCC, Carmichael spoke against forming alliances with the whites, indicating that it would promote white supremacy. Socially, Carmichael wanted the whites who claimed to be liberalists also to live in the slums like the blacks and not appear to be liberal in political matters and leaving out poverty (Carmichael 447).

The Black Panther Party and Their Demands

Newton and Seale formed the Black Panther party. They endorsed the use of firearms as they thought the nonviolent approach of the SNCC and SCLC campaigns failed. They had a ten-point plan that listed their demands, most of which were fundamental human rights: food, education, shelter, employment, and freedom, among many others (Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defence 469). They also demanded that all the blacks that were in state custody receive a trial by a jury of the same peers, they demanded an end to police brutality like Carmichael, and decent housing fit for the shelter of humans. The Black Panther, however, did not survive long enough to accomplish its purpose, though it played a critical role in the Black Power Movement.

Works Cited

Charmichael, Stokely. “What We Want.” We Shall Overcome: 1954 -1975. n.d. 442 - 448.

“Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defence.” We Shall Overcome: 1954 -1975. n.d. 468 - 472.

King, Martin Luther. The Black Power Defined. 1967.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. “Position Paper on Black Power.” We Shall Overcome : 1954 - 1975. n.d. 448 - 453.