AAs Black Power

Question 1

Malcolm X ideals

Answer 1

He argued for pride in African American heritage and rejected the idea of relying on white support to gain rights

Question 2

Malcolm X rights focus

Answer 2

Unlike King, he did not focus so much on political rights as on social and economic change

Question 3

Malcolm X support base

Answer 3

He spoke for poor African Americans in the North and stressed the distinctive nature of their African heritage

Question 4

Malcolm X opinion in violence

Answer 4

He also rejected non-violence and believed in self-defence

Question 5

Malcolm X break from NOI

Answer 5

In 1964 he was dismissed from the Nation of Islam - he was no longer satisfied by the insularity and exclusiveness of Muslims, and increasingly disagreed with the ideology of Elijah Muhammad

Question 6

Malcolm X after 1964

Answer 6

After travelling in Africa and Asia he came to believe more in co-operating with the mainstream civil rights movement

He was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam in 1965, before the effects of this change could be felt

Question 7

OAAU

Answer 7

Formed the OAAU in 1964 - similar to the UNIA and asserted the right of African Americans to self defense, but never had more than 900 members

Question 8

Malcolm X attention

Answer 8

Drew significant attention to the poverty facing Northern blacks and effectively pointed out weaknesses in the civil rights movement

Became a figurehead for dissatisfied youths who had been hostile or indifferent to King’s ideology

Question 9

Malcolm X inspiration

Answer 9

Inspired a new generation of black leaders as the first really prominent advocate of separatism

Question 10

Malcolm X - lack of organisational effectiveness

Answer 10

Criticised activists like King but never established organisations as effective as the SCLC

Question 11

Failure to halt disillusionment

Answer 11

Disillusionment among young black continued to increase, as was demonstrated by waves of race riots

Question 12

Watts riot, riots in general

Answer 12

Watts riot in LA cost $40 million in damages and led to 34 deaths and 1000 injuries

238 other race riots in over 200 US cities 1964-68

Question 13

Malcolm X - criticism by King

Answer 13

King argued his methods would ‘reap nothing but grief’

Question 14

Causes of Black Power

Answer 14

The ideas of Malcolm X in opposing the over-reliance of the civil rights movement on white support

Anti-colonialism theories and the example of African nationalists in forming new independent nations

An interest in previous separatist movements like that of Marcus Garvey

Disappointment with the effects of political changes and the wave of riots in 1965

Question 15

Black Power - lack of aims

Answer 15

Black Power did not have unified aims and it did not focus on either co-operation with white progressives or the achievement of political goals

It was made up of various groups and individuals focused on a different way of thinking about the progress of African Americans

Question 16

Black Power support base

Answer 16

It did not have so much of a base in the South, but spread throughout the USA and even influenced other countries - for example, Jamaica and Britain

Question 17

Black Power rejection of previous methods

Answer 17

It did not focus on non-violence and perceived a need for African Americans to be prepared to defend themselves with weapons

It rejected co-operation with white Americans, who were not included in many of its groups and activities

Question 18

NOI - foundation

Answer 18

Founded in 1930, main leader was Elijah Muhammad

Aimed to provide blacks with an alternative to the white man’s Christian religion, increase black self-esteem and encourage blacks to improve their economic situation

Question 19

NOI - membership

Answer 19

Membership - exclusively black and concentrated initially in poor ghettos in urban centres

As high as 100,000 in 1960, possibly 250,000 by 1969

Question 20

NOI newspaper

Answer 20

Muhammad Speaks had a wide circulation of 600,000 by mid-1970s

Question 21

NOI businesses

Answer 21

Elijah Muhammad and his son Wallace created many businesses, symbolising black success and giving employment opportunities to ghetto dwellers

Question 22

NOI unrealistic

Answer 22

Some solutions such as returning to Africa or creating a separate black state were unrealistic

Question 23

NOI failures and decline

Answer 23

Many of the NOI’s teachings exacerbated tensions between blacks and whites

Departure of Malcolm X damaged it; his assassination further decreased its popularity among blacks

Question 24

Black Panthers - formation and leadership

Answer 24

Formed in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale

Developed a ‘shadow government’

Question 25

Negative view

Answer 25

Undid the progress made by the NVDA movement.

Very small membership numbers - evidence that it did not represent the interests of the majority of African Americans, and notes that it was mainly urban, young, black men who engaged with Black Power.

Gained the wrong sort of publicity for African American civil rights, served only to enhance a sense of fear and alienation between African Americans and whites

Question 26

Lack of Black power progress

Answer 26

Shown in key areas of civil rights, such as de facto desegregation of facilities, housing, education and services and persistent racial inequality in terms of economic rights and political representation.

Question 27

Murphy, Cooper and Waldron

Answer 27

Call the Black Panthers the “most extreme manifestation of Black Power”

Question 28

10-point progranne

Answer 28

Radical and nationalistic

Their 10-point programme said “we want all black men to be exempt from military service”

Question 29

Black Panthers ideology

Answer 29

The Black Panthers were an openly Communist Party, and handed out Mao’s Little Red Book

Question 30

Black Panthers links

Answer 30

From 1969 to 1970 they forged links with foreign liberation movements, and aligned themselves with the Mexican ‘Brown Berets’ and Puerto rican and Chinese-American radicals

Question 31

Black Panthers uniform

Answer 31

They adopted a black paramilitary uniform, with berets and leather jackets

Question 32

Black Panthers Capitol attack

Answer 32

In 1967, Black Panthers surrounded and entered the California State Capitol Building in Sacramento, accusing the legislature of considering repressive legislation

Plotted to blow up major department stores in New York City

Question 33

SNCC leadership changes

Answer 33

On becoming leader of the SNCC in 1966, Carmichael began excluding whites

Taken over in 1967 by extremely militant Brown, who stirred up a race riot in Cambridge, urging armed blacks to take over white-owned stores in the ghettos

Question 34

CORE radicalization

Answer 34

McKissick became leader in 1965, and at their annual convention the following year they endorsed ‘black power’ and declared non-violence inappropriate if black people needed to defend themselves

In 1967, they excluded ‘multiracial’ from their constitution, and in 1968 excluded whites

Question 35

Problem of radical leadership

Answer 35

Carmichael and McKissick were both Black Power radicals who could not gain the same insider status with the government King managed to attain

Question 36

End of CRM

Answer 36

The death of King in 1968 is often marked as the end of the civil rights movement

Question 37

Lack of Black Panthers members

Answer 37

They never had more than 5000 members

Question 38

Black Panthers eradication

Answer 38

Their existence was very short-lived - in 1969, 27 Panthers were shot by police and 750 were arrested by the FBI, obliterating their movement

Question 39

General lack of support for Black Power

Answer 39

Few AAs supported the movement - in Detroit in 1968, only 1% of blacks supported separatism

Question 40

Positive view

Answer 40

Impact Black Power had on creating a sense of class consciousness between black and white workers and on addressing the correlation between social class and race in America.

More positive interpretations would point to the ability of Black Power to engage grassroots support and its success in raising awareness of issues like police brutality.

They would also see a link between NVDA and Black Power, in that its radicalism made white politicans and more leaders more likely to ‘do business’ with the more peaceful end of the Civil Rights movement.

Question 41

Shift in politics

Answer 41

The shift from conventional politics to ‘identity politics’ introduced a new type of democratic discussion

Question 42

Black Power at the Olympics

Answer 42

Black Power gained much publicity - in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics 2 AAs gave the Black Power salute

Question 43

Black Panthers chapters

Answer 43

They had 30 chapters, mostly in ghettos in the West and North, where they won a great deal of respect

Question 44

Black Panthers ghetto clinics

Answer 44

They set up ghetto clinics to advise on health, welfare and legal rights

Question 45

Black Panthers free breakfast

Answer 45

The Panthers set up the Free Breakfast for School Children Program for inner city youth, which fed around 10,000 children every day

In 1970, the Southern California chapter of the programme served over 1700 meals weekly to the ghetto poor

Question 46

Black Panthers police monitoring

Answer 46

Black Panthers monitored police, limiting their brutality and exposing incidents when they occured

Question 47

Black Power promoting black culture

Answer 47

Black culture became celebrated - Afros became common and black people such as Louis Armstrong became popular figures