Black Power Essay, Research Paper

Black Power:

Problems, Goals, and Solutions

According to the book review at Barnes and Nobel.com,

“Black Power was one of the clearest manifestations of the

movement’s change of direction in the late 1960s.” Black Power

was a change set out by one man to give rights back to black

people and put an end to prejudice and imperialism. One of the

goals set out by Kwame Ture and Charles Hamilton, the authors of

Black Power was to make black people stronger and overcome the

subjection of a white society. Suppression by whites was the

central problem trying to be solved. Attempting to achieve a new

consciousness of the problem, by responding in their own way to

a white society, was the overall goal of the movement.

The main idea behind Black Power was to address the

problems at hand and find solutions to them in order to find

economic, political, and social justice. “It is about black

people taking care of business—the business of and for black

people” (Ture and Hamilton, 1967, XV). Economic problems

included not being able to afford a good education because of

low incomes and unemployment for months at a time. Social

problems such as lack of civil rights were the key motivator in

the Black Power movement. White extremist groups targeting black

people, such as the Klu Klux Klan, also fueled the ambition of

liberation of suppression. Politically, black men and women had

virtually no rights, they could not vote, or be elected into

office in a predominantly white political system. As Black Power

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infiltrated itself into society, however, more and more

political groups were being heard across the nation.

Politics was the best used method of spreading the goals

and intents of Black Power. Through political groups, like the

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or the SNCC, and

later the Black Panther Party, the idea was made known publicly.

The SNCC was one of the first organizations to promote Black

Power in the mid-1960s. “Many SNCC workers came to believe that

further progress depended on independent black political power.”

(Microsoft Encarta Online, 1999). Organizations such as these

gave people political power and helped the economic movement.

Through politics, the economic problems of education and jobs

could be attended to. Politics lead to giving more black people

civil rights, allowing such things as a wider range of public

school access (blacks and whites, not segregated). With black

people beginning to have a voice, it would be easier to get a

job when people saw you as someone who may be “important” to the

community. There would, however, still be discrimination in the

work place as well as everywhere else, increased by

organizations like the Black Panthers.

According to Black Power, the people must put this

discrimination and prejudice behind them and move on to achieve

their own hopes and goals so they may rise up above the hatred.

Many of the political organizations strived in the 1960s, and

the goal of establishing a voice in the public’s eye was

achieved. Economically some differences were made in education

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and employment, but these were not the main issues of the

movement. Gaining civil rights and fighting for freedom was the

main goal of Black Power. Through the use of politics, new civil

liberties were instituted for black people helping to achieve

many of the goals of the movement. While the movement may not

have succeeded in all aspects such as economically, and

racially, it was a pivotal action during the civil rights

movement and allowed many new civil liberties given to the

people and a halt to many injustices suppressing black people.

Black Power attempts to resolve the problems of the black

people by promoting to take action into their own hands and

overwrite the order of white male domination over society. It

stresses that black people cannot wait for help and must do for

themselves. These ideas were carried out with political, social,

and economic standpoints. Politics carried the Black Power

movement and allowed social goals to be set as well. Through

these three positions, Black Power centered on overcoming white

suppression and achieving a consciousness that there is a

problem and in order to solve that problem the enemy must in

turn be suppressed by them. Black Power was created to spread

the idea that black people must become stronger and unite to put

an end to prejudice, racism, and injustice in the black

community.