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Black Power Ideologies: An Essay in African-American Political Thought PDF

265 Pages·1992·43.43 MB·English
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Black Power Ideologies Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material Black Power Ideologies An Essay in African-American Political Thought JOHN T. McCARTNEY Temple University Press Philadelphia Copyrighted Material Temple University Press, Philadelphia 19122 Copyright © 1992 by Temple University. All rights reserved Published 1992 Printed in the United States of America @ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McCartney, John T., 1938- Black power ideologies : an essay in African-American political thought / John T. McCartney. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87722-914-7 1. Afro-Americans-Politics and government. 2. Black power United States-History. 3. Political science-United States History. l. Title. E185.615.M334 1992 323.1'196073-dc20 91-21747 Copyrighted Material Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii CHAPTER I: The Background to Black Power 1 Imbalances and Injustices Against African-Americans 1 Theories About Why Inequality Persists 5 The Context of Black Protest 13 CHAPTER II: Black Nationalist Thought in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 15 The Colonization Movement: A Profile 15 Reactions to and Criticisms of Colonization 19 The Ideology of the Colonization Movement 21 The Tactics of the Pan-Negro Nationalists 28 Pan-Negro Nationalism and Beyond 30 CHAPTER III: The Abolitionist Movement 32 Early Abolitionism, 1645 to 1807 32 Abolitionism from 1807 to 1870 35 The Ideology of the Abolitionist Movement 36 Frederick Douglass: A Profile 38 The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass 40 The Tactics of the Abolitionists 49 Abolitionism and Beyond 51 CHAPTER IV: The Politics of Accommodation 54 Booker T. Washington: A Profile 55 Booker T. Washington's Philosophy of Education 57 The Social and Political Thought of Booker T. Washington 60 v Copyrighted Material vi Contents The Tactics of Booker T. Washington 64 Opposition to Booker T. Washington 66 CHAPTER V: Marcus Garvey and the Resurgence of Black Nationalism 74 Racial Equality by Integration: A Survey 74 Garvey's Early Career 76 Garvey's Later Career and the Garvey Movement 78 The Political Thought of Garvey 80 Garvey's Organization and Tactics 86 Minor Expressions of Black Nationalism 88 CHAPTER VI: Martin Luther King and Moralism 91 The Moralist Approach: A Profile 93 King's Background and Intellectual Influences 96 King's Philosophy of Nonviolence 102 The Political Thought of King 103 King's Tactics 108 King and the Black Power Challenge 110 CHAPTER VII: What Is Black Power? 111 The Range of Usages of the Term Black Power 111 Reshaping the Categories of Black Power 116 Commonalities in the Usage of Black Power 119 Martin Luther King, Jr., and Black Power 127 CHAPTER VIII: The Counter-Communalists: A Comparison and Analysis 133 Huey Newton's Background and Intellectual Influences 134 The Political Thought of Huey Newton 136 Huey Newton and the Tactics of Counter-Communalism 145 Other Counter-Communalists on Tactics 147 CHAPTER IX: The Black Power Pluralists: A Comparison and Analysis 151 Shirley Chisholm's Background and Intellectual Influences 152 The Political Thought of Shirley Chisholm 153 Other Pluralists on the American System 155 Copyrighted Material Contents vii Shirley Chisholm on the Obstacles to True Pluralism in the United States 156 Other Pluralists on the Obstacles to Democracy 159 Shirley Chisholm and the Case for Black Power Pluralism 160 Other Pluralist Visions of the Good Society 163 The Tactics of Pluralism 164 CHAPTER X: The Black Power Separatists: A Comparison and Analysis 166 Elijah Muhammad's Background and Career 166 The Political Theology of Elijah Muhammad 168 Elements of Elijah Muhammad's Political Theory 172 The Tactics of Separatism: The Black Muslims 177 Other Separatists on Tactics: Imamu Baraka and Imari Obadele I 178 CHAPTER XI: A Critical Assessment of the Black Power Ideologies 181 The Paradoxes in the Goals of the Black Power Ideologies 181 Malcolm X and the Dilemmas of Black Power 183 The Life of Malcolm X and Its Meaning for the Black Power Movement 185 Black Power and Individualism 186 Black Power and the Intellectual 187 Permanent Contributions of the Black Power Ideologies 187 Notes 191 Bibliography 227 Index 241 Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material Preface The decade of the 1960s was a period of great unrest in America. Dur ing that time the country experienced not only a very costly war in Vietnam but also a series of domestic disturbances (termed "riots" by some and "rebellions" by others), especially in the urban centers and universities. Because many of these events involved African-Ameri cans, and because they came at a time when the call for Black Power was receiving national attention, many black and white Americans erroneously identified the concept of Black Power with violence and lawlessness. As a result, the deeper significance of this movement was missed. For students of political theory who witnessed these happenings, however, the disorderly atmosphere did not obscure the deeper signif icance; they knew that societal turmoil and debate frequently repre sent the birth of new ideas and views about politics and society. An individual living in Europe at the time of the investiture controversy of the eleventh century must also have assessed the times as chaotic, as government and church officials were locked in a vicious and seemingly endless controversy over what constituted "right order" in the world. In the struggle, the populace witnessed not only military confrontations but also the excommunication of kings, the dismissal of popes, the interdiction of kingdoms, and the presentation of bulls and decretals of condemnation by papal legates traveling all over the Christian world. But out of this seeming chaos came theories about the relationship between church and state, the limits of monarchy, and the meaning of social justice. The contest may also have presaged modern-age political propaganda and the development of ideological political thought. As Gerd Tellenbach expresses it; "The Investiture Contest was the first medieval crisis to call forth a considerable propa ganda literature, in which the aims of the two parties were reflected. It provided a running commentary on practical politics, and in it the theoretical principles are often formulated more clearly than they are in the actions of the great men of the time."1 Similarly, during the English Civil War of the Seventeenth cen tury, Oliver Cromwell and the English Parliament struggled with the ix Copyrighted Material

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In a systematic survey of the manifestations and meaning of Black Power in America, John McCartney analyzes the ideology of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and places it in the context of both African-American and Western political thought. He demonstrates, though an exploration of historic an
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