Black Power Movement
The Black Power Movement emphasized racial pride, economic empowerment, and the creation of political and cultural institutions.
A 1968 rally to free Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton
A Note about Malcolm X: Malcolm X began his activism as a member of the Nation of Islam, a Black Muslim organization. After traveling to Mecca for Hajj, he met Muslims of all races. He left the Nation of Islam and embraced Sunni Islam.
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Autobiography of Malcolm X
By: Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley Malcolm X tells of his journey from a prison cell to Mecca, describing his transition from hoodlum to Muslim minister. Here, the man who called himself "the angriest Black man in America" relates how his conversion to true Islam helped him confront his rage and recognize the brotherhood of all mankind. |
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Message to the Grassroots (speech)
By: Malcolm X Malcolm X encourages Black unity and critiques the Civil Rights Movement.
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Malcolm X Speaks
By Malcolm X, edited by George Breitman A selection of speeches from the last year of Malcolm X’s life. A dropout from school at age 15, he was imprisoned at age 25 and converted to Islam Muslim. He organized the first Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. After making two trips to Africa and the Middle East, he was assassinated in New York. |
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“The Ballot or the Bullet” Speech
By: Malcolm X By March 1964, Malcolm X had broken with the Nation of Islam, but remained a Muslim. In his speech, he explains his departure and his reason for establishing a separation between his religion and his politics. He also makes clear that those politics are still rooted in Black nationalism and that his opposition to the non-violent approach of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King is based on his belief that their efforts will delay and possibly deny forever complete Black liberation. |
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Black Consciousness
By: Janet Jemmot, Bob Parris, Dona Richards, Doug & Tina Harris (SNCC) What we must have is a "Black Consciousness" which will destroy the slave mentality of Africa's children. Wemust discover and understand our ''non-slave" pasts if we are to emerge as normal healthy human beings. |
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Black Disability Politics
By: Sami Schalk An exploration of how disability issues have been and continue to be central to Black activism from the 1970s to the present. |
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“Black Power” is Black Pride
By: Elliott Bovelle “Black Power” is the means by which Black people recognize their cultural achievements, beauty, and ability to create and develop to the same degree as any other people. Black Power is the idea of how to achieve equal rights and equal opportunities for Black people in America. |
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Want to Start a Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle
Edited by: Dayo F. Gore, Jeanne Theoharis, and Komozi Woodard Helping to create the groundwork and continuity for the movement by operating as local organizers, international mobilizers, and charismatic leaders, the stories of the women profiled in Want to Start a Revolution? help shatter the pervasive and imbalanced image of women on the sidelines of the black freedom struggle. |
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Black Women & Black Power
By: Rhonda Y. Williams This essay discusses 1) Black women’s relationships to nationally recognized Black Power organizations; 2) Black women’s grassroots activism in cities during the Black Power era; and 3) Black women’s radical responses to Black Power politics. |
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National Afro American Student Conference on Afro Youth
By: Afro American Student Movement Proposal for a Black Youth conference to teach global revolution and prepare Black youth to be the vanguard of the revolution. |
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Organized Struggle Against Racial and Political Repression
By: Angela Davis Angela Davis speech in which she details the failings of capitalism and the perceived rise of fascism in the U.S. Davis also discusses Boston’s racial struggles, including the crisis surrounding the desegregation of its public schools. |
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Speech Delivered by James Forman to the Black Caucus of NCNP Convention
By: James Forman A summary of SNCC and CORE’s participation in the UN Conference on Racism, Apartheid, and Colonialism. After the conference, SNCC members supported participation in other countries’ liberation struggles. |
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Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America
By: Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton This book presents a political framework and ideology which represents the last reasonable opportunity for this society to work out its racial problems short of prolonged destructive guerrilla warfare. That such violent warfare may be unavoidable is not herein denied. But if there is the slightest chance to avoid it, the politics of Black Power as described in this book is seen as the only viable hope. |
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Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles for Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)
By: Stokely Carmichael with Ekwueme Michael Thelwell The personal and political autobiography of Stokely Carmichael, the legendary civil rights leader, Black Power architect, head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), honorary prime minister of the Black Panther Party, Pan-African activist, and revolutionary thinker and organizer known as Kwame Ture. |
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Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)
By: Daren Salter, Black Past Stokely Carmichael is best known for popularizing the slogan “Black Power,” which in the mid-1960s, galvanized a movement toward more militant and separatist assertions of Black identity, nationalism, and empowerment and away from the liberal, interracial pacifism of Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He was a supporter of Palestinian liberation. |
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Stokely Carmichael, “Black Power” (1966)
Soon after he was named chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Toure) began to tout the slogan and philosophy of Black Power. In his speech, he explains Black Power to an audience at the University of California, Berkeley.
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The Basis of Black Power
By: SNCC The myth that the Negro is somehow incapable of liberating himself, is lazy, etc., came out of the American experience. The reasons that whites must be excluded is not because we are anti-white, but because Black people feel intimidated in the presence of white people and cannot succeed in reaching their goals. |
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The Roots of “Black Power”
By: SNCC Black Power has many different definitions, but all include the concept of Black exclusiveness for the Civil Rights Movement. Also, all definitions include the assumption that Black people are a separate and distinct group in our society. |
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The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings
By: James Baldwin Baldwin discoursing on, among other subjects, the possibility of an African-American president and what it might mean; the hypocrisy of American religious fundamentalism; the black church in America; the trials and tribulations of Black nationalism; Zionism; the blues and boxing; Russian literary masters; and the role of the writer in our society. |
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"That Was My Decision"
By: Peter Hossli Sprinter Tommie Smith talks about his silent protest against racial discrimination at the 1968 Olympic Games. |
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The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life’s Journey
By: Muhammad Ali and Hana Yasmeen Ali Former boxing legend Muhammad Ali, one of the best-known and best-loved celebrities and an international good-will ambassador, offers inspiration and hope as he describes the spiritual philosophy that sustains him. |
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Muhammad Ali: Heavyweight Champion
By: Jack Rummel Chronicles the life of the heavyweight boxing champion, from his early years to his draft resistance through his astounding boxing career which established him as one of the greatest fighters of all time. |
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Die N***** Die!: A Political Autobiography of Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin
By: H. Rap Brown More than any other Black leader, H. Rap Brown, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and a member of the Black Panther Party, came to symbolize the ideology of Black revolution. This autobiography is much more than a personal history, however; it is a call to arms, an urgent message to the Black community to be the vanguard force in the struggle of oppressed people. [Note: “n*****” is a derogatory word for Black people, considered too offensive to say. Instead, it is referred to in the U.S. as “the n word.”] |
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Guerrilla Ganja Gun Girls: Policing Black Revolutionaries from Notting Hill to Laventille
By: W. Chris Johnson This article maps transatlantic connections among Black liberation movements in Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom through the political biography of three sisters. Their biography stretches to include two generations of freedom fighters within one transnational family; Althea, Jennifer and Beverley Jones battled patriarchy, poverty and police violence in the decolonising Atlantic World. |
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