What was the difference between the civil rights movement and the black power movement in the USA ?
Answers
The Civil Rights Movement: the Non-Violent Approach
March on Washington
Civil Rights Leader Rosa Parks
Fotograf: Bettmann
In the 1950s and 1960s, most of the African American population was concentrated in the South; thus it was in these states that racial inequality was most blatant. Since Brown v. Board of Education of 1954 did not stipulate any time limit, educational segregation existed well into the 1960s. This represented an almost insurmountable obstacle to economic opportunity for African Americans – and young African Americans were impatient for change.
African Americans had struggled for civil rights ever since Emancipation, but it wasn’t until the Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education, that the plight of African Americans was brought into the general public eye – not only in the U.S, but also internationally. Now the Civil Rights Movement emerged as an organized fight to secure basic rights and privileges for all U.S. citizens. It turned into a mass popular movement, including both African Americans and Whites; it encompassed a wide range of small, local groups and nation-wide organizations like the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference).
The Black Power Movement: The Violent Approach
Black Power
Black Power
Fotograf: The Granger Collection
While non-violence helped bring about such important legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many activists were becoming increasingly discontented with the slow pace of progress. Like the activists of the Civil Rights Movement, their goal was complete racial equality. The main difference between the two movements was that supporters of Black Power were prepared to use violent methods to achieve these goals.
Proponents of the Black Power Movement did not constitute a homogenous group. They divided themselves into two main groups: the pluralists and the nationalists. Those who believed in integration and that it was possible for all races to live together peacefully were called pluralists. The nationalists, however, believed that the dominant White culture was bound to oppress Black culture, therefore, they wanted to withdraw from American society and develop their own society. Some thought it would be a good idea to do this in Africa. Others hoped for a separate black nation within the USA. The man who popularized the term “black power,” Stokely Carmichael, started out as a pluralist, but eventually became a nationalist.