Introduction
The black power movement was hailed by some as a positive and proactive force aimed at helping blacks achieve full equality with whites, but it was reviled by others as a militant, mostly violent faction whose primary goal was to drive a wedge between whites and blacks. Although the impacts of blacks on the civil rights movement were mainly positive it is inevitable that there would be limitations.
Cultural Pride
The black power movement generated a number of positive developments one of the most noteworthy of these was its influence on black culture. For years, the movement's leaders said, blacks had been trying to aspire to white ideals of what they should be. Now it was time for blacks to set their own agenda, putting their …show more content…
The black power’s actions, ‘however controversial and unpopular, kept it an issue and helped to move on the debate(2)’, and their threat created a constant warning and forced the government to deal with minority rights, not avoid the issue. However, this impact was relatively limited, and the black power movement’s central aim, for equality for black people with whites, was not achieved.
Since the violent methods of black power kept civil rights on the political agenda, President Nixon was pressured into supporting reforms in two areas which many Black Power campaigns had tried to address. These were desegregation of schools, by forcing de facto integration on buses in the South. The other was to resolve employment discrimination in the Equal Opportunity Act, 1971. Although this was not their direct aim, this result shows that black power put pressure on the government. Socio-economic change proved to be extremely difficult as unlike the political rights, economic change involved resources being redirected away from white Americans towards helping Black Americans. Although black power was only able to achieve small socio economic change this was inevitable, therefore without black power advancing the civil rights movement black American would not of gone into the “1980s in a better situation than the…1960s …show more content…
had waged a successful campaign against Jim Crow laws in the South, a growing number of younger activists were less willing to find a non violent solution to their problems. Blacks might have won the right to vote and attend white colleges, but most still lived in poverty. These militant activists grew more and more powerful, until they came to dominate the civil rights movement in the late 1960s. One of these groups, The Black Panthers’, imposed extremism and willingness to use violence, this threatened and ‘alienated white Americans (6)’ who may of previously aided the cause. The federal government which mostly supported Martin Luther King perceived the Panthers as a threat and cracked down effectively dissolving the organisation in
The black power movement was hailed by some as a positive and proactive force aimed at helping blacks achieve full equality with whites, but it was reviled by others as a militant, mostly violent faction whose primary goal was to drive a wedge between whites and blacks. Although the impacts of blacks on the civil rights movement were mainly positive it is inevitable that there would be limitations.
Cultural Pride
The black power movement generated a number of positive developments one of the most noteworthy of these was its influence on black culture. For years, the movement's leaders said, blacks had been trying to aspire to white ideals of what they should be. Now it was time for blacks to set their own agenda, putting their …show more content…
The black power’s actions, ‘however controversial and unpopular, kept it an issue and helped to move on the debate(2)’, and their threat created a constant warning and forced the government to deal with minority rights, not avoid the issue. However, this impact was relatively limited, and the black power movement’s central aim, for equality for black people with whites, was not achieved.
Since the violent methods of black power kept civil rights on the political agenda, President Nixon was pressured into supporting reforms in two areas which many Black Power campaigns had tried to address. These were desegregation of schools, by forcing de facto integration on buses in the South. The other was to resolve employment discrimination in the Equal Opportunity Act, 1971. Although this was not their direct aim, this result shows that black power put pressure on the government. Socio-economic change proved to be extremely difficult as unlike the political rights, economic change involved resources being redirected away from white Americans towards helping Black Americans. Although black power was only able to achieve small socio economic change this was inevitable, therefore without black power advancing the civil rights movement black American would not of gone into the “1980s in a better situation than the…1960s …show more content…
had waged a successful campaign against Jim Crow laws in the South, a growing number of younger activists were less willing to find a non violent solution to their problems. Blacks might have won the right to vote and attend white colleges, but most still lived in poverty. These militant activists grew more and more powerful, until they came to dominate the civil rights movement in the late 1960s. One of these groups, The Black Panthers’, imposed extremism and willingness to use violence, this threatened and ‘alienated white Americans (6)’ who may of previously aided the cause. The federal government which mostly supported Martin Luther King perceived the Panthers as a threat and cracked down effectively dissolving the organisation in