To what extent did the Black Power movement create an African American cultural identity?

By Ellie Holmes, Third Year History Student

Black Power symbolised a turn away from nonviolence, a disregard for liberal reform and an end to dreams for a colour-blind society. It saw the radicalisation of the black freedom struggle, bred out of the frustration with power abuses that continued as well as with the problems the Civil Rights movement failed to solve. This included the radicalisation of groups like The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and The Student Nonviolent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC), as well as the formation of the Black Panther Party (BPP) by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in 1966. Although like the Civil Rights movement Black Power also aimed for freedom, it is known for its emphasis on black nationalism, self-definition, and black separatism. The historiography surrounding the cultural implications of the movement has been limited, with the cultural rather than the political aspects only being explored following Vincent Harding’s 1990 book Hope and History which complained of the state of historiography on the topic, supported by B. Ward. Since then, works by W. Van Deburg, B. Savage and R. Kelley have delved into this area. Van Deburg’s work has been an important point of reference in this essay, as well as the work of S. Tuck, who has spoken of the importance of ‘soul culture’ within the movement.

There are two elements of cultural identity that are important for understanding the term. Firstly, understanding what makes up cultural identity. Sociologist J. Van Stekelenburg has explored collective identity, defining it through shared experiences, ideologies, and solidarity, which can be derived from a shared culture. In this context, for instance, African-Americans shared race, as well as experiences through a long history of racial oppression – culture would be defined by the distinctions that have risen from this. The second element is who decides cultural identity. Friedrich Hegel wrote of ‘identity-in-difference’, whereby individuals and groups define themselves against others – a feeling of “us” versus “them”. However, who decides cultural identity is not restricted to those within the group. J. Boykoff has assessed the importance of successful collective action in creating a cultural identity, upholding the importance of positive media coverage in success, by determining what is acceptable and what is extremist. The following assessment will consider how cultural identity was created from three standpoints in order to address the question, and as this topic is vast, a number of specific case studies will be used as a criterion for judgement. The first section will understand cultural identity through public perceptions using the instance of the BPP’s attempts to change existing stereotypes of black men, which will demonstrate how ideas of identity depend on the perspective. Then, cultural identity will be considered through ways in which the movement created solidarity, relating to identity through a sense of coming together, looking into the Black Power social philosophy and the BPP’s community programmes. Lastly, cultural identity will be understood through distinctions against whites, looking at the example of soul talk and how consumerism posed a threat to African American identity. The conclusion can then be made that a cultural identity was most certainly created by the Black Power movement, in consideration of the three standpoints.

Black Power took the common stereotype of black people as emasculated savages, whilst also victims incapable of resistance, and went some way in transforming it within a journey of recreating black identity through public perception. This posed as a counterculture that conceives of itself as fighting back against the oppression of the mainstream; a resistance to injustice through shaping their own cultural identity. A way in which this was attempted was through BPP’s militant look to create a new image of black men as headstrong and in control – J. Rhodes has upheld that they were able to do this considerably with this tactic. She looks at the example of the march of the California State Assembly in mid-1967, in protest of the Mulford Bill which attempted to prevent public display of loaded guns. The Panthers stormed the building heavily armed as a planned media event, which attracted widespread media attention conflicting with the existing view of African Americans whilst creating fear among whites. Within the black community, The Black Panther newspaper, circulating around 100,000 nationally at its peak, showcased iconic artwork of the Minister of Culture, Emory Douglas and spread political messages. The paper encouraged militant behaviour this way by promoting the use of guns. A clear example of this is a July 1967 edition which uses the phrase ‘Guns, baby, Guns’ on the front cover. An earlier edition used an image (see Figure 1) depicting a black fist holding the tails of two dead pigs with the quote “These little pigs went to the Ghetto…” – the fist is large and strong whilst the pigs, representing the police, have been defeated, promoting to black people their underestimated power. This type of imagery arguably projected their desired identity and encouraged others in the black community to feel the same. The actions of the party at the Assembly and the fear it created among whites, combined with the militant rhetoric pushed by the party paper, suggests the importance of militancy in recreating black identity in the public eye, as it attempted to exchange the usual position where African Americans are inferior, and whites are superior.

This attempt was not wholly successful, however. The BPP’s media campaign may be considered successful if isolated from the national mainstream media, but not in consideration of the two. Conflicting with Rhodes’ argument, E. Morgan concludes that the mainstream media’s simplistic representations of the BPP hindered this mission, supported by Van Deburg who found that it was able to successfully weaken the party’s image. Whereas the BPP newspaper depicted determined and inspiring individuals, the national media depicted violent and dangerous thugs. Oregon newspapers, for instance, framed the activists as criminals – over half of their articles relied on criminal behaviour within the party, whether real or imagined. The effect the media had on the white public can also be demonstrated by the answer to the survey question, “What does black power mean to you?”, where a majority of white

respondents saw the movement as racist, violent, and destructive, whereas only 9 per cent of black – more like to be influenced by the BPP newspaper’s image – felt this way. Therefore, as public perceptions are important in contributing to a cultural identity, it can be said that the BPP was not entirely successful in creating the identity they had aimed for. However, an identity was formed, even if not in the desired form, it was simply different depending on the perspective, whether that be to do with race or the individuals desired news outlet.

Solidarity relates to cultural identity through creating a sense of unity, a feeling that ‘we are all in this together’. The social philosophy behind black nationalism, as explained by Malcolm X in his Ballot or the Bullet speech in 1964 was about coming together to ‘make our own society beautiful’ by countering ‘vices’ existing in the black community such as drug addiction and alcoholism, which would lead to unity and thus solidarity. This section, in contrast to the previous, focuses solely on within the black community, as the concept of solidarity demands a closer look into how African Americans came together in the movement. One way in which Malcolm X’s idea of coming together was created was through the symbol of the raised fist; symbols are a common way to create solidarity within nationalist movements by promoting racial identity. This became known as the Black Power salute, emerging from the 1968 Olympics when Tommy Smith and John Carlos controversially raised a black-gloved fist on the podium during the national anthem. The ongoing legacy of this moment may suggest the impact it had on racial solidarity as shown by the ongoing protests against racial injustice, where athletes have knelt during the national anthem, and also by the use of the fist in the recent #BlackLivesMatter movement. Moreover, solidarity was created by helping the community. Much of the BPP’s work related to community programmes, which as Deburg has pointed out, the media failed to recognise. They included breakfast programmes, clothing, food banks, and sickle-cell anaemia testing programmes. In Newton’s words, they provided oppressed peoples with a “survival kit”, for “survival pending revolution”. For example, the documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, developed by filmmaker Stanley Nelson, talks of the Free Breakfast programme, which served 20,000 meals a week to children in 19 different communities. C. Austin is critical of the importance given to the social and community programmes such as this one, though Street has criticised Austin’s reliance on the work of Hugh Pearson, which was highly critical of many BPP actions. Indeed, J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO programme of 1971 sought to limit the success of groups such as the Panthers, through disruption and disunity of the movement. However, the success of community programmes despite this may be evidenced by the thousands of black children who were educated, provided with healthcare, and fed throughout their existence. The community healthcare centres, for instance, saw over 6000 patients a month, and communities were very much involved: each black household of the northern Bolivar Counter had at least one member participating in the programmes. For these reasons, solidarity within black communities was undeniably created during the Black Power movement and therefore contributed to the creation of a cultural identity.

Distinction is a key element of cultural identity, as Hegel has highlighted within his theory of ‘identity-in-difference’. S. Tuck has argued for the development of a distinctive soul culture in the sixties as part of the Black Power movement through its ideology of self-definition and cultural pride, which sought to define distinctions in the context of black heritage, exclusive to the black community. He suggested that rather than this being a background to Black Power, it was the ‘battleground’, and it threatened white dominance whilst celebrating blackness equally.

The way we talk, the way we walk, sing, dance, pray, laugh eat, make love, and…look, make up our cultural heritage… It is uniquely, beautifully and personally ours and no one can emulate it.

Here Barbara Ann Teer, a visionary of the late sixties, perfectly encapsulates these feelings. Soul culture has some of its roots in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, though the key difference here is that it did not directly aim to change white perceptions – it was more about black empowerment. For instance, as the soul artist and so-called ‘Godfather of Soul’, James Brown’s “Say It Loud, I’m Black and Proud” became the anthem for the Black Power movement. The language of soul is an example of how cultural identity was affected due to its distinction from white language, in its creation of a common understanding and unity. Although, it is worth exploring how soul language was seen as a commercial opportunity by the mass market, endangering exclusivity and thus distinctions through introducing whites. For instance, Deburg uses the examples of Johnnie Walker Red Label whiskey using the phrase “Red is Beautiful too” and Eve menthol cigarettes claiming they can “cool a stone fox”. This is further supported by Tuck, who examples a 1969 Sales Management magazine issue for white businesses, explaining ‘soul’ vocabulary such as “jive” and “fox”. This was potentially damaging for soul culture, and particularly against Black Power ideology, as whites would then be financially benefitting from their culture whilst a disproportionate amount of African Americans remain in poverty. Writing in the early seventies, Askia M. Touré, a big voice within the Black Arts Movement, talks of this issue, outlining what he termed a ‘cultural crisis’ where whites had exploited black culture. Many black individuals recognised the dangers of this, and there were a number of ways they attempted to preserve it. As Deburg has argued, one way this was done was through reclaiming and redefining derogatory words such as “nigger”, and the success of this can be seen in today’s dialects where such a word is commonly exclusive to those who are black. Furthermore, they worked toward “negro” becoming “black” due to the former’s associations with slavery. In this instance, legacy can also demonstrate success, as “negro” is a socially unacceptable term in most instances. Therefore, through distinctions remained prevalent despite the threat of the mass market, and thus cultural identity was accentuated and preserved.

This essay has aimed to demonstrate the ways in which the Black Power movement undeniably created a cultural identity for black communities, in different ways for each section. The first section found that cultural identity was created, but this was somewhat limited as its character depended on who the group the person defining it belonged to. It may be said, evidenced by the survey results presented where more whites found the Panthers destructive than non-whites, that a majority of African Americans understood the image of militancy better and were more appreciative perhaps of the cultural aspects of the party such as community programmes. This then links into the section on solidarity, which contributed to creating cultural identity in the movement by successfully uniting communities through the symbol of the fist as well as these community programmes, which successfully improved the lives of thousands despite government attempts to undermine them. Distinctions in black culture compared with others were important as it gave a criterion for African Americans to define themselves against, and soul culture was a key way in which they were able to do this despite the threat of consumerism latching to it. The three complement each other in supporting the conclusion. Individually, each of these areas has deep roots within the movement’s ideologies of self-definition, separatism, and social philosophy, which work together in promoting positive black identity, welfare, and black empowerment. Legacy has been another theme in parts of this essay, which supports the success in creating a cultural identity as it has been cemented over generations. The surviving aspects of Black Power thus further support how a cultural identity was created. It can therefore be concluded, the Black Power movement was greatly able to create a cultural identity which was much needed for the black community, mostly through solidarity and distinctions, but also through perceptions from within the community.

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Cover Photo Credit: HistoryHD on Unsplash