Black Power, Revisited
African Americans rarely discuss it any more
Freedom, that’s what we wanted; [the] power to determine the destinies of our Black communities.”
— Elaine Brown, Chairman of the Black Panther Party, 1974
In the most classic documentary, Eyes on the Prize, one episode is devoted to “Black Power” and the birth of the ideology. Stokely Carmichael, a.k.a., Kwame Ture invoked the term “Black Power” in 1965 and it was a counter to Martin Luther King’s assimilationist approach to African American freedom in the U.S. It was a very rich period in the U.S. where many approaches in the Black struggle were waged. Carmichael’s ideals helped the struggle immensely.
Black Power
Carmichael didn’t invent the concept that is “Black Power.” It had been said before. But, Carmichael did become synonymous with its popularity in the Black struggle. Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton published Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in 1967. It is the gold standard now for understanding the concept.
Many contend that “Black Power” was inspired by Richard Wright’s book, Black Power. That is a book about Wright’s visit to Ghana after independence from colonial rule. At the time, Ghana was governed by the revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah had set Ghana on a path to…
