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Civil Rights Movement Vs Black Power Movement

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Following the economically successful post-WWII period, the 1960s decade was characterized by the upheaval of American norms at the time. No longer would various groups of people conform to the legislation and social norms of the United States. The Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement best illustrated this resistance against the status quo. Although these movements were made up of similar people, their tactics were immensely different. The Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement provided a foundation for student activism on college campuses. The Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1960s) was a movement mainly in the American South, where segregation, discrimination, and injustices against African American communities were …show more content…

Thus, the Black Power Movement was similar to the Civil Rights Movement in that they were both fighting racism. However, the Black Power Movement was not a nonviolent group of black activists. Malcom X, born Malcom Little and the leader of the Black Power Movement, believed that black people should defend themselves against any form of assault. He promoted militant techniques, such as rifle groups, and stood for cultural pride. For example, he jeered at white Americans who tanned and curled their hair as if they were trying to be black. Furthermore, Malcolm X did not believe integration was possible, and, in fact, he advocated for maintaining black culture separate. After the murder of Malcolm X in 1965, the Black Panther Party was formed in Oakland, California by Huey B. Newton and Bobby Seal in 1966. Bobby Seale stated, "No more pigs in our community, off the pig, it 's time to pick up a gun." This became the inspiration for their techniques to deal with police brutality. This group remained faithful to the beliefs of Malcom X, using guns to deal with police brutality by following them as they tended to their police duties, watching to make sure the law was properly followed. In many ways, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement built a foundation for resistance that student movements …show more content…

Students were influenced by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 's peaceful methods. The CORE, Congress of Racial Equality, was established by students in 1942. They were a part of the black freedom struggle in the south, perusing nonviolent methods with Ghandi 's values as the inspiration. Additionally, Ella Baker led and guided black students in peaceful protests and formed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The SNCC continued to play an active role in the black freedom struggle and moved from Civil Rights to Black power after Stokely Carmicle first used the term "Black Power," and challenged nonviolence, followed by Malcom X coming into being at the forefront of the Black Power Movement. The college student activism movement onto college campuses in 1966 when the first black union was formed by San Francisco State University students. This union got a black studies program at their institution. At Cornell University in New York, students conducted a sit-in for three days in the administration building and marched out with rifles and shotguns, clearly mirroring Black Panther ideals. Students around the U.S. seemed to be inspired by these groups forming and joined together to be a generation of resistance. The black freedom struggle was the initial way for black and white college students to involve themselves in politics.

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Violent vs Nonviolent Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Whose philosophy made the most sense for America in the 1960s? The Civil Rights Movement began during the 1950s and ended in 1960. The entire reason why this movement was happening is because although the slaves had been free a while ago, they were not given the same rights as white people had and on top of that they were being violently beaten up to death if not sent to the hospital.

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Throughout the American 1960’s there was a Civil Rights Movement. This movement gained a lot of traction within a short amount of time through many people. There were two leaders with opposing tactics but had the same goal reined in the movement. One leader was Martin Luther King with the tactic of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience and integration. The second leader was Malcolm X with the tactic to fight back and to have the communities better themselves by being separate.

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On May 2, 1967, Huey P. Newton, the minister of defense of the Black Panthers, said that “the time has come for black people to arm themselves against this terror before it is too late” (Document F). The group had changed to a violent point of view after they saw nothing was happening when they were

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In contrary to peaceful protest and marches led by Martin Luther King there were other leaders who had more radical approaches to protest. Amongst these radical leaders are Malcolm X, Robert Williams, and the Black Panthers. The Black Panthers, a group created by in 1966, by Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale protected black communities patrolling areas with loaded firearms, monitoring police activities involving blacks. Since they were known for carrying loaded firearms FBI Director J Edgar Hoover considered the Black Panthers “the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States” (To Determine the Destiny of Our Black Community). The Black Panthers created the Ten-Point Program.

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The tactics used civil rights movement of both the 1950’s and 1960’s were different helped them succeed in different ways. During the late 1950s the tactics that were used were political, while in the early in 1960s they used social and political tactics to get their goals achieved, but in the late 1960s the tactics that were used were primarily economic and social, In the 1950’s, the civil rights movement was very successful because activist showed the level of racism and segregation in the south. The tactics and resistance made in this time period helped achieve desegregation because and the resistance that the activists dealt with just made them become more aware in the media and hopefully spread nation wide.

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In general, the non-violent protests orchestrated by Dr. Martin Luther King and other successful black political leaders were viewed as a success as the mistreatment of African Americans had improved. However, racism is viewed as deeply rooted and it was going away overnight or years to come. The whites were still finding ways in the law to discriminate against African Americans and believe the non-violent protest didn’t benefit them so, this sector of the African Americans led to existence of black power. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. Therefore, this new law outlawed segregation in public accommodations of every of every kind throughout the country (Robin D. G. Kelley, 2000, p. 236).

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The Civil Rights Movement promoted an ideology that hard work and sacrifice could mean the freedom of millions of people. An idea that scares many and inspires

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Focusing specifically on the opposition of racial segregation, The Civil Rights movement symbolized the need for change across America. Between the years of 1950 and 1960, events such as; the March on Washington, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, speeches, protests, and sit-ins, directly defined such opposition. Due to such events, two outstanding leaders of their time, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X emerged into the public eye and began to impact the Civil Rights movement. At a turning point of the century, the two men took charge and became icons across the world while resonating significantly with African American minorities. With such in mind, the two men had extreme differences in their morals, ideals, and religions; however, both deemed

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During the tumultuous period of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, the goal for bettering the lives of African-Americans was desired by many. However, the means of attaining that goal, varied greatly among the representatives of the movement. The African-American civil rights efforts were spearheaded by men of peaceful protest for integration, such as Martin Luther King Jr., and in contrast leaders such as Malcolm X who expressed separatist ideals. Other groups of civil rights advocated took an outright violent approach, such as the Black Panthers.

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The need for blacks to have their own so called justice against prejudice in a nation they felt were not supporting them in becoming an equal part of a world which had struggled for the rights of blacks since slavery. The Black Panther Party for Self Defense were perceived as a militant organization unlike the Ku Klux Klan. Many of those in political power felt that the panther’s organization was the next uprising for blacks following Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X for civil rights. Huey Newton followed the approach of Malcom X in trying to achieve that all black were self-contained and become a working product of society.

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1318 Words | 6 Pages

The African American Civil Rights movement existed at large between the early fifties and the late sixties in a society that was constantly on the verge of social destruction. The black rights movement existed politically, socially, and economically everywhere in the United States. As time progressed the movement developed and saw many changes along with schisms separating activists and how they approached getting their rights. In the early fifties there was a large non-violent integration based movement spearheaded by figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. However, as the time progressed, the movement started seeing a more aggressive leadership with figures such as Malcolm X, but eventually it turned into an extremist movement

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1510 Words | 7 Pages

The Black power movement was more than just a raised fist. It was an influential movement established in the 1960s, and began to slow down in the 70s, it promoted self-sufficiency among the black and African community, and they fought for equality and power among those who faced discrimination in society. The Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement were two different movements with very similar motives, but different ways of going about their fight for equality. Symbolism played a significant role in representing the Black Power Movement, and helped unify the group by using one symbol that all recognized. The movement began as a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement and continued into the 1970s as a force for good.

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874 Words | 4 Pages

Introduction The story of the Civil Rights Movements of African Americans in America is an important story that many people knew, especially because of the leadership Martin Luther King Jr. Black people in America, between 1945 and 1970 had to fight for rights because they had been segregated by white people, they didn’t have equal laws compared to white people. So they initiated the Civil Rights Movements to fight for getting equal civil rights.

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1064 Words | 5 Pages

The Black Panthers were a Black Power group that wanted equality for everyone. The Black Panther Party for Self Defense helped shape the Civil Rights movement immensely. Who they were, what their core beliefs were, and how they shaped the Civil Rights movement, and America today will be covered. The Black Panthers were originally started by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton.

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Could you ever possibly imagine a time where you couldn’t use the same bathroom as some of your classmates because the had a different skin color? This time in history was known as the Civil Rights Movement, a movement from 1954-1954, in which people fought against racism. Although the Civil Rights Movement mainly affected African Americans, but involved all of American society. Because most racism against ancient African Americans took place in southern United States, civil rights was extremely important to African Americans who lived in the south. Racism was so widely spread it even found its way into professional sports.

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