Depth Study: Malcolm X and Black Power

Pros

• Promoted self reliance and self defense
• Interest in AA history, culture, music, courses starting be run at universities on AA culture
• 'Black is beautiful' - promoting African hair and fashion
• 1968 Olympics AA atheletes raised Black Power salute, but later banned from competing
• Shift to 'identity politcs' which impacted other groups

Cons

• Lack of unified aims
• Divisions between white and black pople increased fears and weakened the movement
• Associations with seperatism, violence and radicalism alienated moderate opinion
• King critical of the movement, Malcolm X called him a '20th c. Uncle Tom'
• Police repression used against radical leaders- FBI Dirty Tricks Campaign

Pros

• Encouraged unions to abandon racist practises
• Legislation e.g. Economic Opportunity Act 1964 may have been influenced by movement
• Focused attentions on poverty and influenced Johnson's Great Society
• May have encouraged Nixon's Affirmative Action policy
• Practical help given for people living in ghettos

Cons

• Violence lost support for AA rights among whites and other AAs
• Create divisions in labour movement by emphasising differences
• Emphasised culture more than economy, so didn't much improve economic position
• Economic position only one point on the Ten Point Programme, not a major concern
• Emphasising black solidarity not worker unity 

Similarities Black Power

• Emergence of AIM - period of militancy among NAs
  
• Black Power promoted unity, may have encouraged NAs to abandon tribal divisions
• Actions of AIM more aggressive than other groups in 1960s-70s
• Encouraged NAs to abandon NCAI as Black Power abandoned NAACP
• Emphasised pride in NA culture

Differences to Black Power

• NA protest movements began before Black Power - more united after WW2
• NA pressure groups successful in establishing Indian Claims Commission
• Militancy already present e.g. in National Indian Youth Council
• More in repsonse to conditions of living e.g. urban areas- easier for pressure groups

Pros

• Encouraged to be proud of culture- beauty of hair and clothes rather than trying to intergrate
• 2/3 Black Power movvement female in 1970s e.g. Elaine Browne and Safiyah Burkhari
• Women often trained alongside men and shown as revolutionaries in propoganda
• Supported in healthcare, education and housing
• 'Revolution first, sister second' inspired women to be active
• Questioning of wider social attitudes e.g. gender politics, influencing second wave feminism

Cons

• Only in supporting roles, not decision making ones and in caring for families/ other women
• Feminism seen 'as a white woman's thing'
• Seperatist organisation opposed birth control, Black Panthers called pill 'black genocide'
• Violence seen as male, macho attitudes 'authentically African', Stokeley Carmichel: 'the only position for women in SNCC is prone'
• Angela Davis critisided by male Black Panthers
• Provoked conservative attitudes and therefore may have helped prevention of ERA