Black power
Black powerBlack Power
What did the phrase "black power" mean to African Americans who participated in the civil rights struggle? Booker T. Washington felt that black power meant financial power. During the movement that would soon be a landmark in our country's history, the black community lacked black owned businesses, black teachers, and black government representatives. Because blacks were without these things it was impossible for them as a group to attain financial power. The "Black Power" movement grew out of frustration with the slow progress and non-violence of the early civil rights demonstrations.
During the early sixties peaceful protests took place consistently through out America. Usually little was done to protect protesters, and police brutality was becoming all too common towards these non-violent demonstrators. During a march from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi a white police sniper shot a young black man named James Meridith who was simply trying to encourage other Negroes to vote. Meridith was the first African American to attend the previously all white University of Mississippi.
In another incident a gentleman named Robert F. Williams had, in his words, "organized a Negro community [meeting] in the South to take up arms in self defense against racist violence and use them!" When night
riders of the KKK and police cars approached his house where the meeting was held, Williams and others fired their guns until their oppressors left. Williams went on later to write (concerning the incident),"I accept this responsibility and am proud of it. It has always been an accepted right of Americans, as the history of our Western...
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