Black Power

Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies aimed at achieving self-determination for people of African descent. It is used by African Americans in the United States. It was prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, emphasizing racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests and advance black values.

"Black Power" expresses a range of political goals, from defense against racial oppression, to the establishment of social institutions and a self-sufficient economy.

The earliest known usage of the term is found in a 1954 book by Richard Wright entitled Black Power. New York politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr. used the term on May 29, 1966 during an address at Howard University: "To demand these God-given rights is to seek black power."

The first popular use of the term "Black Power" as a political and racial slogan was by Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture) and Willie Ricks (later known as Mukasa Dada), both organizers and spokespersons for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). On June 16, 1966, in a speech in Greenwood, Mississippi, after the shooting of James Meredith during the March Against Fear, Stokely Carmichael said:

This is the twenty-seventh time I have been arrested and I ain't going to jail no more! The only way we gonna stop them white men from whuppin' us is to take over. What we gonna start sayin' now is Black Power!

Stokely Carmichael saw the concept of "Black Power" as a means of solidarity between individuals within the movement. It was a replacement of the "Freedom Now!" slogan of Carmichael's contemporary, the non-violent leader Martin Luther King. With his use of the term, Carmichael felt this movement was not just a movement for racial desegregation, but rather a movement to help end how American racism had weakened blacks. He said, "'Black Power' means black people coming together to form a political force and either electing representatives or forcing their representatives to speak their needs."

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