Black Power

Black power was a political slogan that originated in the United States and united the various black radical movements. It emphasised racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural organisations. The groups involved in this movement are the Nation of Islam (NOI), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panthers. In this essay, I will argue as to whether these groups’ actions hindered the Black civil rights movement in the 1960s, which was being run alongside Martin Luther King and the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Committee). Overall, I think that these groups did hinder the movement and I will explain why now.

Firstly, I will argue as to why it did hinder the movement. One of the groups was the Nation of Islam. The NOI’s beliefs were that an evil scientist called Yakub, started selective breeding and created white people. The belief then goes onto say that the whites were morally weak and started enslaving non-whites. The NOI believed that black people were the superior race and that whites were inferior. This belief deterred many white people from joining the NOI and many stopped supporting the movement. This hindered the movement because it lost support for it. Malcolm X, a prominent man in the NOI, also criticised King. X called King a ‘twentieth century uncle tom’, which was a term for blacks that didn’t stand up for the rights when whites were mistreating them.

X also encouraged radicalisation of SNCC and CORE because he felt that blacks should stand up and fight. This led to people saying that blacks shouldn’t get the vote as they were ‘violent people’. The hatred of white supremacy by the black power movement also didn’t help, as this alienated white people and lost groups funding and as a result, hindered the movement. The Black Panthers, a group in the movement, were even seen as a terrorist organisation by the FBI. This made the movement seem dangerous and a harm...