The Advocacy for Equality
The Black Power Movement was based on a social and political foundation that aimed at creating equality for all black people and people of African origin. The initial activities of the Black Power Movement were based on peaceful and diplomatic systems. However, members of the Black Power Movement realized that non-violent means bore little fruits in the fight for equality. The Black Power Movement then started engaging in violent and unlawful activities in a bid to have their views considered and equality of the black people given the attention it needed. The legacy of the Black Power Movement was generally based on racial pride, black equality, and self-sufficiency.
The perception of black panthers was based on a group of stone-faced black men who wore leather jackets and moved around with rifles under the claim of black equality. Generally, the black views were perceived differently by different people, although the main aim was on revolution. The Black Power Movement was formed in the 1960s with Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, who was concerned with the violence that had become rampant among the police. Although the history of the Black Power Movement has been seen as a failure, the strength of the black community has grown significantly. The movement did not rise to reach its initial goals, but the introduction of equality and self-sufficiency has maintained the organization’s reputation among people who have lived to bring to light the interests of the organization. Newton and Seale were concerned that the authorities had a negative attitude against the blacks and that the police were being used to implement the discriminative policies that the authorities had imposed on the people. Moreover, the Black Power Movement existed as a different organization of the Civil Rights Movement that was arguing for the same purpose as the Black Power Movement.
Readers have been giving different interpretations of the roles played by the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movements towards creating equality. The blacks had, for a long time, been treated as inferiors, and an immediate solution was needed to bring racial equality. However, leaders with different opinions on the effective solution came up; Martin Luther King and Malcolm X with King, preferring a gradual and diplomatic approach to sensitize the whites on the need to treat the blacks equally. Malcolm X, on the other side, believed in violence as a way of providing the solution that the blacks had waited for a long time. The positions held by King and Malcolm X gave them different perceptions from scholars. King was seen as a diplomat while Malcolm X was seen as an evil leader who was the leader of a sinister organization. Peniel Joseph, in his book, however, presented a different perception of the two leaders in his book, “Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour,” and presented King and Malcolm X as leaders who had similar objectives on black equality (Joseph, 2007). The perceptions of readers change upon interacting with Joseph’s work to see that the Black Power Movement was based on the intentions of improving the lives of the blacks. Moreover, the misunderstanding that has revolved around the Black Power Movement has continued to call for the intervention of scholars with evidence on the real aims of the movement.
The Black Power Movement has grown to become one of the most misunderstood movements in its time. Most people believed that equality could be found by employing diplomatic approaches and allowing time to change the situation around discrimination. In “The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution,” the Black Power Movement is presented as a movement that received a lot of criticism despite being believed to be one of the most active campaigns aimed at bringing equality among the blacks. Although the movement involved extremism and violence from leaders such as Newton and Seale, other members were determined to advocate for liberty in whatever way that promised solutions (Shih & Williams, 2016). Furthermore, the determination of the members against the challenges involved in the fight for equality should be viewed as a reason behind a positive reputation. Peniel Joseph, Bryan Shih, and Yohuru Williams presented pictures and portraits of the surviving black panthers and had a message for the readers. The surviving Panthers had several scars that evidenced their difficulties in surviving through the struggle to bring equality among everyone and fighting against the discrimination against the blacks. Generally, the Black Power Movement was motivated by love for humanity and not the desire for violence, as most people used to understand. Moreover, Black Power has changed the nation significantly to have a society where each group believes in having superiority.
The history of racial discrimination has been based on a superior group that forces inferior groups either directly to submit to its policies. The Black Power Movement was started at a time when civil rights movements were on their climax towards winning their war on inequality. However, the war on inequality was taking a process that did not promise immediate results. The Black Power Movements came in as an alternative for the civil rights movements that were founded on peaceful and diplomatic approaches (Carson, Garrow, Gill, Harding & Hine, 1991). The civil rights movements were based on peaceful strategies to have the whites accept treating blacks with respect and dignity. However, pioneers of the blacks’ movements such as Malcolm X saw the attempts by the civil movements as surrendering to the power of the Whites. For example, Martin Luther King was accused of accepting to be used by the whites to curb the violent activities of the black movement members. The Black Power Movement, therefore, believed that seeking negotiations was proof that the blacks had surrendered to the whites. Generally, the Black Power Movement changed the nation in that minority groups could gather and fight for their rights from a position of power and not weakness as the case was before the Black Power Movement. Moreover, the difference between civil rights movements and the Black Power Movement was based on ideologies, which led to philosophical tensions.
A society that is faced with a challenge of inequality will generally engage in the available approaches to bring sanity and equality. The fight for equality led to different ideologies that came out due to different approaches that gave different approaches. Generally, equality activists were based on two blocs where one side comprised of race thinkers who advocated for full citizenship through peaceful approaches while another bloc decided to confront the white supremacists whenever the impacts were felt. The “The Black Power Mixtape” of 1967-1975 presented the shifts that occurred in the struggles faced by advocates of equality. The mix-tape provided a forgotten history of times when the two groups with different ideologies worked towards achieving similar goals. Moreover, the difference in the perception of equality advocacy has not changed over time.
The growth of civil rights movements and Black Power Movements has not changed over the years. The supremacy battle has continued to exist with different people preferring different approaches as long as they promise immediate results (Olsson, 2011). The civil rights movements have continued to prefer diplomacy while their black power counterparts have maintained that violence is the best approach towards the creation of equality. However, the activities of black power movements have continued to suffer more challenges as laws have been developed to ban violence as a way of presenting grievances. Therefore, civil rights movements have remained vigilant, although the impacts of the Black Power Movement continue to appear evident in the advocacy for equality.
In sum, the legacy of the Black Power Movement was generally based on racial pride, black equality, and self-sufficiency. Generally, the Black Power Movement existed as a contrasting organization of the Civil Rights Movement that was arguing for the same purpose as the Black Power Movement. Scholars have been giving different interpretations of the roles played by the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movements towards creating equality. Moreover, Black Power has changed the nation significantly to have a nation where each group believes in having superiority. Also, the difference between civil rights movements and the Black Power Movement was based on ideologies, which led to philosophical tensions and led to the emergence of the various leaders for the different groups. Generally, civil rights movements have remained vigilant, although the impacts of the Black Power Movement continue to appear evident in the advocacy for equality.
References
Carson, C., Garrow, D. J., Gill, G., Harding, V., & Hine, D. C. (1991). The eyes on the prize civil rights reader (p. 36). New York: Penguin Books.
Joseph, P. E. (2007). Waiting’til the midnight hour: A narrative history of Black power in America. Macmillan.
Olsson, G. H., & Olsson, G. (2011). The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975. New York: MPI Media Group.
Shih, B., & Williams, Y. (2016). The black panthers: portraits from an unfinished revolution. Bold Type Books.