... The Civil Rights Movement undoubtedly had a strong impact on black power, black politics, as well as Pan-Africanism which in turn affected Black Nationalism. ... Perhaps the movement started on the day in 1943 when a black seamstress named Rosa Parks paid her bus fare and then watched the bus drive off as she tried to re-enter through the rear door, as the driver had told her to do. Perhaps the movement started on the day in 1949 when a black professor Jo Ann Robinson absentmindedly sat at the front of a nearly empty bus, then ran off in tears when the bus driver screamed at her for doing so. Perhaps the movement started on the day in the early 1950s when a black pastor named Vernon Johns tried to get other blacks to leave a bus in protest after he was forced to give up his seat to a white man, only to have them tell him, "You ought to knowed better. ... The four freshmen at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College were black, and this lunch counter was segregated. ...
PAN-AFRICANSIM
Among the persistent misconceptions of our times is that one never knows what goes on in the Africans mind. ... Casting aside subservience by Africans to foreign masters, as well as their confident assertion that African interests are paramount, is the fullest expression of Pan-Africanism. Although it is possible to talk about the way Pan-Africanism expresses itself, it is not so easy to give a concise definition of this relatively new recruit to the worlds political vocabulary. Pan-Africanism has come to be used by both protagonists and its antagonist as if it were a declaration of political principles. ... In one sense Pan-Africanism can be likened to socialism; in another sense it can be likened to world federation, Atlantic Union or federal Europe; each allows for great scope of interpretation in its practical application. And yet, in its deepest sense, Pan-Africanism is different from all these movements in that it is exclusive.
Pan-Africanism began not in the homeland but in the Diaspora. Pan-Africanism had its origins in the new world. ...
A background of history is needed in order to fully understand the evolution Pan-Africanism. ... The history of the Black man in his relation to European civilization falls into two divisions, the Black in Africa and the Black in America. ... Until that time it was the attempt of the Black man in the Western world to free himself from his burdens which have political significance in Western history. ... Today the position of Africans in Africa is one of the major problems of contemporary politics. ...
BLACK POWER
Black Power was a political movement that arose in the middle 1960s, that strove to express a new racial consciousness among Blacks in the United States. ... Williams used the phrase "Black Power" in the American political context. ... To some African Americans, Black Power represented racial dignity and self-reliance such as freedom from white authority in both economic and political arenas. ... Led in some ways by Malcolm X, who supplied the rhetoric, style, and attitude, the Black Power Movement encouraged the improvement of African American communities, rather than the fight for complete integration. The Black Panther Party was truly the vanguard of the Black Power Movement. In addition to Robert Williams, Stokely Carmichael played a key role in the formation of the ideas of Black Power. Carmichael made Black Power more popular, largely through his use of the term while reorganizing the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) so that whites would no longer possess leadership responsibilities. Some African Americans sought cultural heritage and history and the true roots of black identity as their part of the movement. This was thought of as the "consciousness" aspect of the Black Power Movement. The classic phrases belonged to the musicians: "Free your mind and your ass will follow" (George Clinton/Funkadelic) and "Say it loud, Im Black and Im proud" (James Brown). The recognition that standards of beauty and self-esteem were integral to power relations was also a significant aspect of the movement. One main point of the Black Power Concept was the necessity for Black people to define the world in their own terms. ... As the Black Power Concept began to grow, it also began to build resistance and condemnation from whites and from several African American organizations, including the NAACP, because of the anti-white message associated with Black Power. When the Black Panther Party began to grow in the late 1960s, it became the largest Black organization advocating Black Power. Eventually because of the continual condemnation of the theory of Black Power as a separatist and anti-white movement, along with the destruction of the Black Panthers in the early 70s, the Black Power Concept seemed to disappear. Yet, scholars of African American art and politics still see the idea of Black Power as a strong effect on the consciousness of Black America today, though its institutions have been destroyed and the radical politics largely discredited and defused. In essence, the focus on cultural autonomy and self-esteem of the Black Power Movement has survived and, not surprisingly, grown in strength.
BLACK POLITICS
In the 1950s, Mississippi was 45% black, but only 5% of voting age blacks were registered to vote. Some counties did not have a single registered black voter. ... It showed blacks that they could have political power. It raised the important issue of voting rights, reminding America that the recently-passed Civil Rights Act, which disappointed black leaders because it did not address the right to vote, was not enough.
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