Black Solidarity During The Civil Rights Movement

In a speech given by Former Nation of Islam leader, Malcolm X, he states “There can be no black-white unity until there is first some black unity.... We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.” Black solidarity was essential for African Americans to gain social and political acceptance in the United States, throughout history, there were attempts of African American solidarity as well as countervailing forces that have made it difficult. Although during the Civil Rights Movement, the goals were similar in all black organizations like the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and BBP to eliminate legalized racial segregation

In order to preserve black solidarity, there should be a precise identification of group members, loyalty and common goals and values. Throughout the Civil Rights Movement, there were common goals and values between African American organizations like integration, advancement opportunities rights to full citizenship. Examples of black solidarity during the Civil Rights Movement were the March on Washington in 1963, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which helped to produce civil liberties. In the film “Making a way out of no way” African American leader, Booker T. Washington, argued that slaves should unite with each other and whites to obtain an education to enhance the conditions of the South. In President Obama’s speech “ A More Perfect Union,” he states, “we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union,” to emphasize the importance of unity in the American society. In the film “Eyes on the Prize: A Nation of Laws”, Black solidarity is essential to Black America; however the concept of group identification and loyalty was abandoned during the civil rights movement as different organizations held distinctive strategies to obtaining social and political

Dr. King relied on patience, while the violence organizations wanted immediate changes. Of course, the violent escalated violent from the antagonists like the police and other government officials; however, the peaceful demonstrators also were brutally attacked. Eugene Robinson explains another example of disintegration in the modern black community in the book “Disintegration”; the author argues a social disintegration in the black community. He begins by introducing that the black America as we once knew it, has shifted from one to four. Robinson divides black American into four groups: the mainstream middle class, the abandoned minority with less hope and access to resources, the transcendent elite with wealth and power and the emergent group. Similar in race, these groups differ from each other dramatically due to their income status and level of power. The book often blames the abandoned for not taking advantage of the opportunities like the other groups; however, Robinson fails to provide suggestions on how they can sustain a better life in this society built on racial difference and hidden racial