There’s many narratives surrounding the Black Power era which began in the late 1960’s, these narratives shed a negative light upon the movement and claim it was rooted mainly on violence coming from the African American side. The reason for this claim comes from the rise of the Black Panthers who spoke up and promoted black nationalism In the United States, this eventually led the FBI to perceive them as a terrorist organization. What these narratives fail to notice is the overwhelming support for non violent protest throughout the movement from groups like the The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC),which supported peaceful protests despite of the harsh conditions that came with racism at the time and the numerous accomplishments that were achieved at the time. This narrative discredits the thousands of African Americans who participated in sit-ins, and peaceful protests. Additionally, the narrative is supported by racist white society which used violence against African Americans in multiple attempts to suppress the movement. My paper will provide evidence that proves the narrative of violence from African Americans false by revealing the overwhelming participation of blacks in non-violent action during the Black Power movement and also prove that movement wasn’t a threat to society as perceived by certain members of the government.
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was established in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seal. The party’s main stance was Black power, which essentially meant it was time for African Americans to rise from being oppressed to becoming better than the rest of white society. The way to achieve this equality was through the 10 Point platform made by Huey Newton and Bobby Seal, the platform “established the direction and goals of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense”. This showed the Black Panthers as a unified group that had goals for their movement, some of these goals and demands included freedom, employment, housing, and fair trials in court (Cross, Theorore). With the Black Panther party in place and gaining support from people who supported their ideals, white society felt threatened thus associating the narrative of violence with the movement. For example, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was concerned with the rise of party and created COINTELPRO, which was a covert operation that spied and tried to imobolize the party’s progress.“We were followed every-day, we were harassed, our phones were tapped, our families were harassed,”. The creation of COINTELPRO showed the constant hatred that came out of white society and the fear that black progress created within the government (Van Deburg, William, L). Lastly, in 1974 to add onto the ongoing false narrative of violence against the Black Panther party, bookkeeper Betty Van Patter who was a member of the party was found beaten and murdered, although no one was charged the blame automatically went to the party.
With the constant harassment from the government by tapping phones and constantly profiling African Americans, the Black Panther party was still able to keep the Black Power era alive at the time. An example of this is showed through the monitoring of police in Los Angeles, just like the civil rights movement where protesters were beaten and sprayed by fire hoses, violence against African men and women during the Black Power era was uncontrollable. This call to protect other African Americans showed how the party was opposing violence by using collaborative tactics to protect one another. The party also began the Free Breakfast For Children program, “The party saw a serious need to nurture black kids in disenfranchised communities”, these actions contradict the narrative of violence during the Black power era because it shows the Black Panther party working within its own community to help the younger generations that society isn’t going to give a chance to succeed due to the system setting them up for failure (Van Deburg, William, L). Education was another way the party strived to help better children in poor communities. The party educated kids about black history and not only on the history that they learned in the limited curriculums in segregated schools which had lacked resources. Ultimately the real injustice was coming from the white society that felt threatened by the term of Black Power.
Empowering black communities and informing the public of the injustice the black community was facing were some of the main goals of the Black Power era, many people especially in white society still didn’t see it that way, they viewed every action by the party as a threat. “Hoover feared any growth of the movement and especially feared young white allies who united with black activists to support the movement” this exemplifies the continuing segregation between whites and blacks (Cross, Theorore). Additionally the effects of encouraging whites to not associate with African Americans at the time can be seen today with stories like the shooting of Trayvon Martin and other African Americans who lost their lives because they looked “threatening”.Also with the Black lives matter movement, some people associate it with violence to undermine the true meaning behind the movement. The true meaning behind the movement is to bring attention to the killing of innocent black people in America by police. But with the narrative of violence from news outlets like Fox News, people forget the true meaning and only associate violence with the group. Another example of negative narratives being associated with movements for justice in black communities is Colin Kaepernick and other NFL athletes kneeling during the national anthem. The movements main message has already been forgetting and has been associated with disrespecting the flag rather than protesting police injustice toward African Americans in the United States. This relates to the Black Power era because when the FBI deemed the Black Panther party a terrorist organization, the main message of promoting black nationalism was forgotten.
The constant racism through Jim Crow toward African Americans, proved that the real hateful and violent group wasn’t the Black Panther party but the people in power and white supremacy groups. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan(KKK) that still exist today, lynched and carried out acts of violence toward African Americans out of hate before and during the Black power era, but such groups weren’t deemed as terrorist groups like the Black Panther party was. Which goes to show violence coming from whites, was ignored and got no attention as much African Americans did. “Hoover publicly identified the Black Panther Party as the no. 1 threat against the United States” With this type of structure in place achieving equality seemed impossible. “Black Panthers said that the FBI manipulated police, who raided homes and sparked shootouts that led to the arrests of countless black men and women” the constant violence coming from racist white society ruined many families and made neighborhoods worse than they already were (Carmichael, Stokely, and Charles V. Hamilton).
In the midst of the violence against African Americans during the Black Power era, the Black Panther party wasn’t the only activism group around.The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), SNCC was formed to give younger blacks more of a voice during the movement. The organization was known for its strong stance for non-violent action, although it was founded during the civil rights movement it’s influence was still around during the Black Power movement. Stokely Carmichael, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was a supporter of the movement and "his use of the phrase black power at a rally in Mississippi grabbed the nation's attention” this popularized the phrase and conflicted many people because the term was affiliated with the Black Panthers who were known to be “violent” (Bates, Karen Grigsby). SNCC’s participation in non-violent protests goes to prove that narrative of violence during the Black power movement was false.
All the misinterpretation of the Black Power movement ignored how the movement instilled pride among African Americans, It was seen as a time African Americans embraced being black. The movement encouraged Blacks to improve their living situations they were put into by the white man. Black Power supporters encouraged others to form and join black only political parties that could help build socioeconomic progress. Leaders of the movement were done trying to achieve white ideals and forming a black agendas was the thing to do if African Americans were to create their own identity. An example of this was getting rid of the term “negro” and substituting it with “black” because the word negro was connected to slavery times.
Progress was made to increase black identity throughout the country. By embracing their identity African Americans were able to accomplish a lot, for example, Historic black colleges and universities were still being founded at this time which contributed to the betterment of all blacks who were able to attend them, “We want an education which teaches us our true history and our role in the present day American society”. Black identity was continuing to grow even more at this time and the advancement in art also growing (Bates, Karen Grigsby). The way art was distributed was through newspaper, “The paper portrayed moving artwork which depicted the resilience of black lives.” this strategy helped spread the message to the rest of the world, which was vital due to many African Americans being silenced and not being able to voice their opinions (Cross, Theorore). The artistic revolution during the Black Power movement was aimed at black audiences unlike earlier movements like the Harlem Renaissance.
The Black Power movement represented a change of mindset, black is a beautiful was a concept that appealed to many blacks at the time. “It reflected a new portrayal of self for black people in the 1960s in a way that attracted many young black kids to want to join the party some even wrote letters to Newton asking to join.” The main advocates for this stance were the Black Panther, this was important because the more members they gained, meant more people were finally starting to embrace being black in a country that was against them (Carmichael, Stokely, and Charles V. Hamilton). Additionally, the music industry also supported this stance, in Songs like “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” by James Brown(1968), and the Temptations’ “Message to a Black Man,” (1969) created a new wave that the generation could express themselves through. The Black Power era which was influenced by the Black Panther party and other organizations, worked to create a strong black identity and gain progress in a system that didn’t favor African Americans, the movement received a lot of hate from higher ups in the country to due feeling threatened by progress. But through the resilience and support for black identity, the visions of numerous activists were achieved even though injustice against African Americans still exists today.