Black power emerged as a result of the efforts made by African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s in the clamor for equal representation and opportunities in all the spheres of the public American life. The concept led to the rise of the black power movements across the United States of America. Chief among the black power movements is the civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King. King focused on accomplishing the mission of achieving equal rights for African American so that they could participate in the social, economic and political affairs without discrimination (Joseph 90). With other people, Martin Luther engaged in some of the most significant battles in the civil rights movement. In the Birmingham campaign of 1963, the nonviolent philosophy was subjected to one of the most severe tests, as they engaged in sit-ins to protest against discrimination in hiring and other injustices.
In writing of the political memoir, Junius Williams had a great belief in the power of the story to educate and provide a vivid description of the Black Power in the United States. The author provides a personal reflection on his life in politics, together with the costs of chasing power through endurance.Junius Williams paints the black power as a call and response nature of any movement in its quest for power. The author acknowledges that the concept emerged as an attempt for recognition in the management of the affairs in the American society. The black power was an attempt to make demands on the collective interests of the African Americans. The concept was primarily about the acquisition of both the economic and political power, the main forces that control America.
The black power concept depicts resistance of the black people in America to resist the manipulation of the members, leading to the rise of leaders such as Martin Luther King in creating a black power movement (Ellis-Williams 107). Due to miseducation, the government had for long succeeded in keeping the Americans divided and hence it was unclear what the African Americans had in common. The author highlights what happened in the empowerment quest by the black community. Junius Williams used his life history to explore the principles and practices that are crucial for any group of people keen to acquire power in America, so that the color, social status, and economic standing donor hampers the effort (Hamilton and Kwame 65). The author made an attempt to tell his story from the perspective of a black power generation that had witnessed the efforts by black movements to take power in cities through the election of the black people.
The black power in the 1960s and early 1970s was about self-determination and an end of racism so that the African Americans could achieve economic security. It ensured that small and unpredictable grass root organizations became larger coalitions that changed from the confrontations in the streets to direct actions with professional and technical expertise aimed at campaigning for black people to city government positions (Ellis-Williams 107). The movement created a new political class, but unfortunately, the class imitated the white predecessors and forgot the fundamental goal of seeking the inclusion of the marginalized people, and ideas on development matters.
Amiri Baraka entered the scene in the initial years of the independence struggle in the third world countries.The period was the decade between 1949 and 1959 which witnessed the Chinese and the Cuban revolution respectively. The unfolding events in the world made a significant mark on the author's black power nationalism. He supported castors Cuban revolution and the African socialist movements in Ghana initiated by Kwame Nkrumah. Kwame's group that supported the views of authors such as Aimé Césaire in Martinique and Ngugi WaThiong'o from Kenya. The authors dug out information about black liberation amidst the occurrences taking place in the world at the time. Barak was arrested in 1961 at the United Nations as he protested the killing of Lumumba in the Congo.
The African Americans actively supported the African liberation by a handful of activists inspired by freedom struggles in Congo, Egypt, Ghana, and Nigeria. In the 1970s, there were efforts by African nationalists in support of the African freedom which also depicted the wishes of the majority of the African Americans who had grown up in the black power groups from North to East Africa (Hamilton and Kwame 60-61). In the same period, aggressive struggles of the freedom were supported by some of the greatest leaders of the Chinese revolution. The Chinese supported a search for liberation in stages. The national liberation was the first stage while social transformation marked the second stage. Baraka's group in the movement advocated for action in phases in a bid to achieve black freedom. He borrowed from the West and East Africans black power movement patterns.
Works cited
Ellis-Williams, Antoinette. "Discovering the possibilities: A study of African American youth resistance and activism." The Journal of Educational Foundations 21.1/2 (2007): 107.
Hamilton, Charles, and Kwame Ture. Black power: Politics of liberation in America. Vintage, 2011.
Joseph, Peniel E. Waiting'til the midnight hour: A narrative history of Black Power in America. Macmillan, 2007.
