The Civil Rights Movement and Black Power 1. Factors Influencing the Civil Rights Movement 2. Civil Rights Movement: Progressive Narrative 3. Civil Rights Movement: Tragic Redemptive Narrative

Protest as a Historical Continuum Progressive Narrative Tragic Redemptive Narrative DU BOIS GARVEY MARTIN LUTHER KING JR MALCOM X BARACK OBAMA BLACK PANTHERS SOUTH NORTH WALTER RODNEY

Factors Influencing the Civil Rights Movement 1. Increased number of blacks in north; 2. Impact of World War II; 3. Increased access to education; 4. Widespread access to television; 5. Growth of a black culture industry; 6. Anti-colonialist movements in Africa & Caribbean; and 7. Changes in US and global politics.

King’s Progressive Narrative Christian Non-violent Multiracial and Integrationist Media centered Student organized NAACP as legal representative

X and a Tragic Redemptive Narrative Northern Separatist Africa as source of inspiration Slavery as ongoing Community based Confrontational

Definition of Black Power “It is about taking care of business—the business of and for black people... If we succeed we will exercise control over our lives, politically, economically and psychically. We will also contribute to the development of a viable larger society; in terms of ultimate social benefit there is nothing unilateral about the movement to free black people” (Toure and Hamilton, Black Power 1967)

The Watts Riot A large-scale race riot lasted for six days in Los Angeles, California in August people were killed, 1,032 injured, and 3,952 arrested.

Black Panther Party for Self- Defence Protection from police brutality Ten-point program of community empowerment Black nationalist

Kerner Commission (1968) US divided, along racial and socio-economic lines, into two societies: 40% of non-whites lived below the federal government's poverty line; Black men were twice as likely to be un-employed as whites and three times as likely to be in low-skill jobs; The commission viewed this poverty as the cause of crime and civil unrest.

Walter Rodney and Black Power in a Caribbean Context Historical continuity with Garvey Challenged white cultural Referents and valorized blackness Drew language and metaphors from Rastafarianism Critical of educational system and middle class Unable to address issues of Indian ethnicity