Black Americans have entered a new phase in the Civil Rights Movement. First they struggled for their legal rights. Then they struggled for equality, which meant integration and implementation of their legal rights. Now they struggle for power—“black power”. “Black power” is a metaphor which became part of the English language less than two years ago. Because of its newness, it has not been clearly defined nor its purposes clarified and evaluated. This paper is A Clarification and Evaluation of Black Power. Black power serves as a rallying call for unity and self-help among black people. But the words are more than a slogan. They stand for a mood and a program. The mood is one of worthiness—black is good, black is beautiful—not the inferiority of past generations. The program, although not well defined or organized, has three types of goals. They are cultural, economic, and political. The basic cultural goal is unity. The basic economic goal is to raise the black standard of living. Control or rightful share of control is the basic political goal. The masses of Black America are engaged in this Struggle for Power. They have lived through a “revolution of expectations”. Now they want tangible results. They want socio-economic gains, including, better jobs, housing, and education. They now believe the best way to achieve these ends is to work together as a group, not separately as individuals. They feel they were oppressed as a group, so they must leave the oppression as a group. As the group closes ranks, it is accused of racism and escapism. Actually, the separatism, which blacks are now advocating, is a realistic solution to a pluralistic society. Violent action and/or the threat of violent action are very real forces in America today. The ideology of black power does not call for this violence, but some of the advocates do. They see violence as a means to an end. It is unfortunate that black power has become so closely linked with violence, since this tends to mitigate its constructive value. The ideology and practice of black power needs to be clarified and evaluated, not by an academic, but by black people. The time for ambiguity is past. Black people need to define their goals. Then they need to organize their individual strengths into group action. A united Black America, with strong leadership and organization, may well be able to raise its standard of living and seize its rightful first class citizenship. The ideology and practice of black power does offer to black people an opportunity to raise their standard of living. Perhaps more important, however, black power allows black people to think well of themselves, which is, of course, psychologically healthy. Time may prove me wrong, but this writer feels history will pass a favorable judgment on the Struggle for Power—Black Power.

Thesis--University of Missouri. / Vita. Includes index. Photocopy of typescript. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, 1979.--22 cm. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 415-421).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2006. / Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 332 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2009. / Mode of access: Internet. Title from PDF title page; viewed on March 15, 2010. Major professor: Tom Trice. "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of Arts in History." "December 2009." Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-77).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

It is the purpose of this paper to present the historical record of Negro service on grand and petit juries in the United States, as that record is revealed by decisions of both state and federal courts; particularly the decisions of the United States Supreme Court. It is the desire of this treatise that such record shall be presented fairly. Finally, it is the aim of this document to present this historical record of cases in such a manner as to allow the prediction of certain potential developments visible in the course of justice. This then is a presentation of the record of the systematic exclusion of the Negro race in the matter of service on grand and petit juries in the United States, and with especial attention to the State of Texas.

The purpose of this study is to reexamine the assumption in American historiography that the United States Supreme Court's monumental decision in the Civil Rights Cases striking down the 1875 Civil Rights Act represented the end of the Nineteenth Century commitment to "equality under the law" and the civil rights issue. The evidence shows that while the decision had overwhelming support, much of this was support for the Court’s view that such legislation was not within the scope of Federal power. Eleven states responded to the Supreme Court’s decision by rapidly enacting civil rights legislation. The research centered on gathering data (legislative journals, proposed bills, and newspapers) to examine the depth and nature of this response. The evidence does seem to suggest that the legacy of "equality under the law" did continue into the 1880’s. Also the great degree, of partisan behavior displayed by some toward the bills and the caution in defining positions shown by others indicates that politicians were very concerned with the power of the black voter. The black man's rights and the black man's vote were not forgotten by the politicians in the 1880's.

Scholars of American politics often assume World War II liberalized white racial attitudes and prompted a liberal shift in the federal government's position on civil rights. This conjecture is generally premised on the existence of an ideological tension between a war against Nazism and the maintenance of white supremacy at home, particularly the southern system of Jim Crow. A possible relationship between the war and civil rights was also suggested by a range of contemporaneous voices, including academics like Gunnar Myrdal and civil rights activists like Walter White and A. Philip Randolph. However, while intuitively plausible, this relationship is generally not well-verified empirically. Using both survey and archival evidence, I argue the war's impact on white racial attitudes is more limited than is often claimed, but that the war shaped and constrained the executive branch's civil rights agenda in ways institutional scholars have generally ignored. The evidence is presented in two parts: First, I demonstrate that for whites in the mass public, while there is some evidence of slight liberalization on issues of racial prejudice, this does not extend to policies addressing racial inequities. White opposition to federal anti-lynching legislation actually increased during the war, especially in the South. There is some evidence of racial moderation among white veterans, relative to their counterparts who did not serve. However, the range of issues is limited in scope. Second, the war had both compelling and constraining impacts on the Roosevelt and Truman administrations' actions on civil rights. The war increased the probability of any change at all occurring, but in doing so it focused the civil rights agenda on issues of military segregation and defense industry discrimination, rather than a more general anti-segregation and job discrimination agenda. In summary, World War II had myriad impacts on America's racial order. It did not broadly liberalize white attitudes, but its effect on the White House was a precursor to the form of "Cold War civil rights" that would emerge in the 1950s.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, College Park, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 407-417).

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