BLACK POWER

StokelyCarmichael
FROM:
CHARLESV. HAMILTON, BLACK POWER: THE POLITICS OF LIB-
ERATION IN AMERICA (1967), 44-56.
The adoption of the concept of Black Power isone of the most legiti-
mate and healthy developmentsin American politicsand race relationsin
our time. The concept of Black Power speaksto all the needsmentioned in
thischapter. It isa call for black people in thiscountry to unite, to recog-
nize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It isa call for black peo-
ple to begin to define their own goals, to lead their own organizationsand
to support those organizations. It isa call to reject the racist institutions
and valuesof thissociety.
The concept of Black Power restson a fundamental premise: Beforea
group can enter theopen society, it must first closeranks. By thiswe mean that
group solidarity isnecessary before a group can operate effectively from a
bargaining position of strength in a pluralistic society. Traditionally, each
new ethnic group in thissociety hasfound the route to social and political
viability through the organization of itsown institutionswith which to
represent itsneedswithin the larger society. Studiesin voting behavior spe-
cifically, and political behavior generally, have made it clear that politically
the American pot hasnot melted. Italiansvote for Rubino over O'Brien;
Irish for Murphy over Goldberg, etc. Thisphenomenon may seem dis-
tasteful to some, but it hasbeen and remainstoday a central fact of the
American political system. There are other examplesof waysin which
groupsin the society have remembered their rootsand used thiseffectively
in the political arena. Theodore Sorensen describesthe politicsof foreign
aid during the Kennedy Administration in hisbook Kennedy:
No powerful constituenciesor interest groupsbacked foreign aid. TheMarshall Plan
at least had appealed to Americanswho traced their rootsto theWestern European
nationsaided. But therewerefew voterswho identified with India, Colombiaor Tan-
ganyika[p. 351].
The extent to which black Americanscan and do "trace their roots" to
Africa, to that extent will they be able to be more effective on the political
scene.
A white reporter set forth thispoint in other termswhen he made the
following observation about white Mississippi'smanipulation of the anti-
poverty program:
Thewar on poverty hasbeen predicated on thenotion that thereissuch athing asa
community which can bedefined geographically and mobilized for acollectiveeffort
to help thepoor. Thistheory hasno relationship to reality in thedeep South. In every
Mississippi county therearetwo communities. Despiteall thepiousplatitudesof the
moderateson both sides, thesetwo communitieshabitually seetheir interestsin terms
of conflict rather than cooperation. Only when theNegro community can muster
enough political, economic and professional strength to competeon somewhat equal
terms, will Negroesbelievein thepossibility of truecooperation and whitesaccept its
necessity. En routeto integration, theNegro community needsto develop agreater
independenceachanceto run itsown affairsand not cavein whenever "theman"
barksor so it seemsto me, and to most of theknowledgeablepeoplewith whom I
talked in Mississippi. To OEO, thisjudgment may sound likeblack nationalism....
1
The point isobvious: black people must lead and run their own orga-
nizations. Only black people can convey the revolutionary ideaand it is
a revolutionary ideathat black people are able to do thingsthemselves.
Only they can help create in the community an aroused and continuing
black consciousnessthat will provide the basisfor political strength. In the
past, white allieshave often furthered white supremacy without the whites
involved realizing it, or even wanting to do so. Black people must come
together and do thingsfor themselves. They must achieve self-identity and
self-determination in order to have their daily needsmet.
Black Power means, for example, that in LowndesCounty, Alabama, a
black sheriff can end police brutality. A black tax assessor and tax collector
and county board of revenue can lay, collect, and channel tax moniesfor
the building of better roadsand schoolsserving black people. In such areas
asLowndes, where black people have a majority, they will attempt to use
power to exercise control. Thisiswhat they seek: control. When black
people lack a majority, Black Power meansproper representation and shar-
ing of control. It meansthe creation of power bases, of strength, from
which black people can pressto change local or nationwide patternsof
oppressioninstead of from weakness.
It doesnot mean merelyputting black facesinto office. Black visibility
isnot Black Power. Most of the black politiciansaround the country today
are not examplesof Black Power. The power must be that of a community,
and emanate from there. The black politiciansmust start from there. The
black politiciansmust stop being representativesof "downtown" machines,
whatever the cost might be in termsof lost patronage and holiday hand-
outs.
Black Power recognizesit must recognizethe ethnic basisof Amer-
ican politicsaswell asthe power-oriented nature of American politics.
Black Power therefore callsfor black people to consolidate behind their
own, so that they can bargain from a position of strength. But while we
endorse the procedureof group solidarity and identity for the purpose of
attaining certain goalsin the body politic, thisdoesnot mean that black
people should strive for the same kind of rewards(i.e., end results)
obtained by the white society. The ultimate valuesand goalsare not domi-
nation or exploitation of other groups, but rather an effective share in the
total power of thesociety.
Nevertheless, some observershave labeled those who advocate Black
Power asracists; they have said that the call for self-identification and self-
determination is"racism in reverse" or "black supremacy." Thisisa delib-
erate and absurd lie. There isno analogyby any stretch of definition or
imaginationbetween the advocatesof Black Power and white racists.
Racism isnot merely exclusion on the basisof race but exclusion for the
purpose of subjugating or maintaining subjugation. The goal of the racists
isto keep black people on the bottom, arbitrarily and dictatorially, asthey
have done in thiscountry for over three hundred years. The goal of black,
self-determination and black self-identityBlack Powerisfull participa-
tion in the decision-making processesaffecting the livesof black people,
and recognition of the virtuesin themselvesasblack people. The black
people of thiscountry have not lynched whites, bombed their churches,
murdered their children and manipulated lawsand institutionsto main-
tain oppression. White racistshave. Congressional laws, one after the
other, have not been necessary to stop black people from oppressing others
and denying othersthe full enjoyment of their rights. White racistshave
1. Christopher Jencks, "Accomodating Whites: A New Look at Mississippi,"
TheNew Republic(April 16, 1966).
made such lawsnecessary. Thegoal of Black Power ispositiveand func-
tional to a free and viable society. No white racist can make thisclaim.
A great deal of public attention and pressspace wasdevoted to the
hysterical accusation of "black racism" when the call for Black Power was
first sounded. A national committee of influential black churchmen affili-
ated with the National Council of Churches, despite their obviousrespect-
ability and responsibility, had to resort to a paid advertisement to articulate
their position, while anyone yapping "black racism" made front-page
news. In their statement, published in the New York Timesof July 31,
1966, the churchmen said:
We, an informal group of Negro churchmen in America, aredeeply disturbed about
thecrisisbrought upon our country by historic distortionsof important human reali-
tiesin thecontroversy about "black power." What weseeshining through thevariety
of rhetoric isnot anything new but thesameold problem of power and racewhich has
faced our beloved country since1619.
... Theconscienceof black men iscorrupted becausehaving no power to implement
thedemandsof conscience, theconcern for justicein theabsenceof justicebecomesa
chaotic self-surrender. Powerlessnessbreedsaraceof beggars. Wearefaced with asitu-
ation wherepowerlessconsciencemeetsconsciencelesspower, threatening thevery
foundationsof our Nation.
Wedeploretheovert violenceof riots, but wefeel it ismoreimportant to focuson the
real sourcesof theseeruptions. Thesesourcesmay beabetted insidetheGhetto, but
their basic causeliesin thesilent and covert violencewhich whitemiddleclassAmer-
icainflictsupon thevictimsof theinner city.
... In short, thefailureof American leadersto useAmerican power to createequal
opportunity in lifeaswell aslaw, thisisthereal problem and not theanguished cry for
black power.
... Without thecapacity to participatewith power, i.e., to havesomeorganized politi-
cal and economic strength to really influencepeoplewith whom oneinteracts, inte-
gration isnot meaningful.
... Americahasasked itsNegro citizensto fight for opportunity asindividuals, whereas
at certain pointsin our history what wehaveneeded most hasbeen opportunity for
thewholegroup, not just for selected and approved Negroes.
... Wemust not apologizefor theexistenceof thisform of group power, for wehave
been oppressed asagroup and not asindividuals. Wewill not find our way out of that
oppression until both weand Americaaccept theneed for Negro Americans, aswell as
for Jews, Italians, Poles, and whiteAnglo-Saxon Protestants, among others, to have
and to wield group power.
It isa commentary on the fundamentally racist nature of thissociety
that the concept of group strength for black people must be articulated
not to mention defended. No other group would submit to being led by
others. Italiansdo not run the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.
Irish do not chair Christopher ColumbusSocieties. Yet when, black people
call for black-run and all-black organizations, they are immediately classed
in a category with the Ku Klux Klan. Thisisinteresting and ironic, but by
no meanssurprising: the society doesnot expect black people to be able to
take care of their business, and there are many who prefer it precisely that
way.
In the end, we cannot and shall not offer any guaranteesthat Black
Power, if achieved, would be non-racist. No one can predict human behav-
ior. Social change alwayshasunanticipated consequences. If black racism is
what the larger society fears, we cannot help them. We can only state what
we hope will be the result, given the fact that the present situation isunac-
ceptable and that we have no real alternative but to work for Black Power.
The final truth isthat the white society isnot entitled to reassurances, even
if it were possible to offer them.
We have outlined the meaning and goalsof Black Power; we have also
discussed one major thing which it isnot. There are othersof greater
importance. The advocatesof Black Power reject the old slogansand
meaninglessrhetoric of previousyearsin the civil rightsstruggle. The lan-
guage of yesterday isindeed irrelevant: progress, non-violence, integration,
fear of "white backlash," coalition. Let uslook at the rhetoric and see why
these termsmust be set aside or redefined.
One of the tragediesof the struggle against racism isthat up to this
point there hasbeen no national organization which could speak to the
growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghettosand the
black-belt South. There hasbeen only a "civil rights" movement, whose
tone of voice wasadapted to an audience of middle-classwhites. It served
asa sort of buffer zone between that audience and angry young blacks. It
claimed to speak for the needsof a community, but it did not speak in the
tone of that community. None of itsso-called leaderscould go into a riot-
ing community and be listened to. In a sense, the blame must be shared
along with the massmediaby those leadersfor what happened in Watts,
Harlem, Chicago, Cleveland and other places. Each time the black people
in those citiessaw Dr. Martin Luther King get slapped they became angry.
When they saw little black girlsbombed to death in a church and civil
rightsworkersambushed and murdered, they were angrier; and when
nothing happened, they were steaming mad. We had nothing to offer that
they could see, except to go out and be beaten again. We helped to build
their frustration.
We had only the old language of love and suffering. And in most
placesthat is, from the liberalsand middle classwe got back the old
language of patience and progress. The civil rightsleaderswere saying to
the country: "Look, you guysare supposed to be nice guys, and we are
only going to do what we are supposed to do. Why do you beat usup?
Why don't you give uswhat we ask?Why don't you straighten yourselves
out?" For the massesof black people, thislanguage resulted in virtually
nothing. In fact, their objective day-to-day condition worsened. The
unemployment rate among black people increased while that among
whitesdeclined. Housing conditionsin the black communitiesdeterio-
rated. Schoolsin the black ghettoscontinued to plod along on outmoded
techniques, inadequate curricula, and with all too many tired and indiffer-
ent teachers. Meanwhile, the President picked up the refrain of "We Shall
Overcome" while the Congresspassed civil rightslaw after civil rightslaw,
only to have them effectively nullified by deliberately weak enforcement.
"Progressisbeing made," we were told.
Such language, along with admonitionsto remain nonviolent and fear
the white backlash, convinced some that that course wasthe only course to
follow. It misled some into believing that a black minority could bow its
head and get whipped into a meaningful position of power. The very
notion isabsurd. The white society devised the language, adopted the rules
and had the black community narcotized into believing that that language
and those ruleswere, in fact, relevant. The black community wastold time
and again how other immigrantsfinally won acceptance: that is, by follow-
ing the Protestant Ethic of Work and Achievement. They worked hard;
therefore, they achieved. We were not told that it wasby building Irish
Power, Italian Power, Polish Power or Jewish Power that thesegroupsgot
themselvestogether and operated from positionsof strength. We were not
told that "the American dream" wasn't designed for black people. That
while today, to whites, the dream may seemto include black people, it can-
not do so by the very nature of thisnation'spolitical and economic system,
which imposesinstitutional racism on the black massesif not upon every
individual black. A notable comment on that "dream" wasmade by Dr.
Percy Julian, the black scientist and director of the Julian Research Insti-
tute in Chicago, a man for whom the dream seemsto have come true.
While not subscribing to "black power" ashe understood it, Dr. Julian
clearly understood the basisfor it: "The false concept of basic Negro inferi-
ority isone of the cursesthat still lingers. It isa problem created by the
white man. Our children just no longer are going to accept the patience we
were taught by our generation. We were taught a pretty little lieexcel
and the whole world liesopen before you. I obeyed theinjunction and found
it tobewishful thinking." (Authors' italics)
2
A key phrase in our buffer-zone dayswasnon-violence. For yearsit has
been thought that black people would not literally fight for their lives.
Why thishasbeen so isnot entirely clear; neither the larger society nor
black people are noted for passivity. The notion apparently stemsfrom the
yearsof marchesand demonstrationsand sit-inswhere black people did
not strike back and the violence alwayscame from white mobs. There are
many who still sincerely believe in that approach. From our viewpoint,
rampaging white mobsand white nightridersmust be made to understand
that their daysof free head-whipping are over. Black people should and
must fight back. Nothing more quickly repelssomeone bent on destroying
you than the unequivocal message: "O.K., fool, make your move, and run
the same risk I runof dying."
When the concept of Black Power isset forth, many people immedi-
ately conjure up notionsof violence. The country'sreaction to the Dea-
2. TheNew York Times(April 30, 1967), p. 30.
consfor Defense and justice, which originated in Louisiana, isinstructive.
Here isa group which realized that the "law" and law enforcement agen-
cieswould not protect people, so they had to do it themselves. If a nation
failsto protect itscitizens, then that nation cannot condemn those who
take up the task themselves. The Deaconsand all other blackswho resort
to self-defense represent a simple answer to a simple question: what man
would not defend hisfamily and home from attack?
But thisfrightened some white people, because they knew that black
people would now fight back. They knew that thiswasprecisely what they
would have long since done if theywere subjected to the injusticesand
oppression heaped on blacks. Those of uswho advocate Black Power are
quite clear in our own mindsthat a "non-violent" approach to civil rights
isan approach black people cannot afford and a luxury white people do
not deserve. It iscrystal clear to usand it must become so with the white
societythat therecan benosocial order without social justice. White people
must be made to understand that they must stop messing with black peo-
ple, or the blackswill fight back!
Next, we must deal with the term "integration." According to itsadvo-
cates, social justice will be accomplished by "integrating the Negro into the
mainstream institutionsof the society from which he hasbeen tradition-
ally excluded." Thisconcept isbased on the assumption that there isnoth-
ing of value in the black community and that little of value could be
created among black people. The thing to do issiphon off the "acceptable"
black people into the surrounding middle-classwhite community.
The goalsof integrationistsare middle-classgoals, articulated prima-
rily by a small group of Negroeswith middle-classaspirationsor status.
Their kind of integration hasmeant that a few blacks"make it," leaving
the black community, sapping it of leadership potential and know-how. As
we noted in Chapter I, those token Negroesabsorbed into a white
massare of no value to the remaining black masses. They become mean-
inglessshowpiecesfor a conscience-soothed white society. Such people will
state that they would prefer to be treated "only asindividuals, not as
Negroes"; that they "are not and should not be preoccupied with race."
Thisisa totally unrealistic position. In the first place, black people have
not suffered asindividualsbut asmembersof a group; therefore, their lib-
eration liesin group action. Thisiswhy SNCCand the concept of Black
Poweraffirmsthat helping individual black people to solve their prob-
lemson an individual basisdoeslittle to alleviate the massof black people.
Secondly, while color blindnessmay be a sound goal ultimately, we must
realize that race isan overwhelming fact of life in thishistorical period.
There isno black man in thiscountry who can live "simply asa man." His
blacknessisan ever-present fact of thisracist society, whether he recognizes
it or not. It isunlikely that thisor the next generation will witnessthe time
when race will no longer be relevant in the conduct of public affairsand in
public policy decision-making. To realize thisand to attempt to deal with
it doesnot make one a racist or overly preoccupied with race; it putsone in
the forefront of a significant struggle. If there isno intense struggle today,
there will be no meaningful resultstomorrow.
"Integration" asa goal today speaksto the problem of blacknessnot
only in an unrealistic way but also in a despicable way. It isbased on com-
plete acceptance of the fact that in order to have a decent house or educa-
tion, black people must move into a white neighborhood or send their
children to a white school. Thisreinforces, among both black and white,
the idea that "white" isautomatically superior and "black" isby definition
inferior. For thisreason, "integration" isa subterfuge for the maintenance
of white supremacy. It allowsthe nation to focuson a handful of Southern
black children who get into white schools at a great price, and to ignore the
ninety-four percent who are left in unimproved all-black schools. Such sit-
uationswill not change until black people become equal in a way that
meanssomething, and integration ceasesto be a one-way street. Then inte-
gration doesnot mean draining skillsand energiesfrom the black ghetto
into white neighborhoods. To sprinkle black children among white pupils
in outlying schoolsisat best a stop-gap measure. The goal isnot to take
black children out of the black community and expose them to white mid-
dle-classvalues; the goal isto build and strengthen the black community.
"Integration" also meansthat black people must give up their identity,
deny their heritage. We recall the conclusion of Killian and Grigg: "At the
present time, integration asa solution to the race problem demandsthat
the Negro foreswear hisidentity asa Negro." The fact isthat integration,
astraditionally articulated, would abolish the black community. Thefact is
that what must be abolished isnot the black community, but thedepen-
dent colonial statusthat hasbeen inflicted upon it.
The racial and cultural personality of the black community must be
preserved and that community must win itsfreedom while preserving its
cultural integrity. Integrity includesa pridein the sense of self-accep-
tance, not chauvinismin being black, in the historical attainmentsand
contributionsof black people. No person can be healthy, complete and
mature if he must deny a part of himself; thisiswhat "integration" has
required thusfar. Thisisthe essential difference between integration asit is
currently practiced and the concept of Black Power.
The idea of cultural integrity isso obviousthat it seemsalmost simple-
minded to spell thingsout at thislength. Yet millionsof Americansresist
such truthswhen they are applied to black people. Again, that resistance is
a comment on the fundamental racism in the society. Irish Catholicstook
care of their own first without a lot of apology for doing so, without any
dubiouslanguage from timid leadership about guarding against "back-
lash." Everyone understood it to be a perfectly legitimate procedure. Of
course, there would be "backlash." Organization begetscounterorganiza-
tion, but thiswasno reason to defer.
The so-called white backlash against black people issomething else:
the embedded traditionsof institutional racism being brought into the
open and calling forth overt manifestationsof individual racism. In the
summer of 1966, when the protest marchesinto Cicero, Illinois, began,
the black people knew they were not allowed to live in Cicero and the
white people knew it. When blacksbegan to demand the right to live in
homesin that town, the whitessimply reminded them of the statusquo.
Some people called this"backlash." It was, in fact, racism defending itself.
In the black community, thisiscalled "White folksshowing their color." It
isludicrousto blame black people for what issimply an overt manifesta-
tion of white racism. Dr. Martin Luther King stated clearly that the protest
marcheswere not the cause of the racism but merely exposed a long-term
cancerouscondition in the society.
We come now to the rhetoric of coalition aspart of the traditional
approach to ending racism: the concept of the civil rightsmovement asa
kind of liaison between the powerful white community and a dependent
black community. "Coalition" involvesthe whole question of how one
approachespoliticsand political alliances. It isso basic to an understand-
ing of Black Power that we will devote an entire chapter to the subject.