[0:00]Hi, in this tutorial our focus is on how to write an argumentative essay based on the Black Power Movement. When dealing with essay questions on the Black Power Movement, it is important to know what a movement is as well as the definition of Black Power. A movement is a group of individuals and organisations that share or promote ideas and goals to achieve socio-economic and political change. The Black Power Movement is, therefore, a group of African-American individuals and organisation that share or promote Black Power ideology to achieve social, economic and political change in their own black communities. An understanding of this definition will help one to know how to respond to questions like, Malcolm X was solely responsible for the spread of the Black Power ideology among African Americans in the USA in the 1960s. Do you agree with the above statement? Use relevant examples to support your answer. It will be easy to see that the statement is false, and one would respond in the introduction by stating that, It is misleading and can easily be disputed to say that Malcolm X was single-handedly responsible for the spread of the Black Power ideology among African Americans in the USA in the 1960s. One can then add a reason to justify his or her stance, and say that this is because an individual cannot make up a movement, instead a movement is made up of individuals and organisations that share the same goals. This Essay will, therefore, aim to look at the role played by Malcolm X as well as the roles played by individuals and organisations that made up the Black Power Movement. So if the Black Power Movement is made up of individuals and organisations, we need to list a few prominent individuals and organisations to refer to in our essay. Likewise, if Black Power is an ideology, and given that an ideology is a set of ideas, we need to also list the ideas that were being promoted by the Black Power Movement. We therefore end up with the following table. Under the Black Power Movement would be having individuals such as, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Bobby Newton, Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, Elaine Brown. Organisations under the Black Power Movement would include the Black Panther Party (BPP), The Black Liberation Army (BLA) and The Republic of New Afrika (RNA). Under the Black Power ideology the following ideas will be included: Racial pride, which means the same as, Black Self-Pride, Self-Esteem, Self-Worth, Self-Confidence, Self-Acceptance, or Self-Respect, will be one of the ideas under the Black Power ideology. The other ideas would be The promotion of self-determination, Black Nationalism or separatism, Self-Reliance, Self-Defense, Self-Assertiveness, Militancy and radicalism. It is important to note that some of these ideas under the Black Power ideology interrelate. Take for example, the Black Panther Party defended African Americans from police brutality. This is self-defense, but can also relate to the idea of self-reliance as the African Americans were relying on themselves to protect themselves. The same actions promoted another idea, self-pride, because when the Black Panther Party patrolled the streets, African Americans became self-confident to walk on the streets and be proud that they were standing for themselves against the police. Furthermore, if we are to define nationalism as all actions and efforts by a group of people who share the same history and culture or beliefs to improve or better their social, economic and political status, then one can deduce that the actions of the Black Panther Party in making African Americans feel safe in their communities were indeed nationalistic as they improved the social well-being of African Americans. So the idea being promoted through the actions of the Black Power Movement depends on how one argues and interprets the very same actions. Essay questions can either focus or mention the proponents of the movement, or they can mention only the Black Power ideas, or alternatively, can mention both the proponents and ideas of Black Power. If questions come mentioning any of the individuals and organisations, then the essay has to focus on the role they played and the impact they had on African Americans, which relates to the Black Power idea being promoted. If the question focuses on an idea or ideas under the Black Power ideology, then one will have to explain how the idea was promoted and point out which individuals or organisations under the movement were responsible. Bearing this in mind, let's attempt to answer the following question with the words to what extent. And the question reads, Explain to what extent the Black Power philosophy instilled self-pride amongst African Americans to challenge discrimination in the United States of America (USA) from the 1960s to the 1970s. Use relevant evidence to support your line of argument. To answer a question with the words to what extent, one needs to understand that extent is a degree of measure to which a statement is true or valid. This means one needs to take a stance by stating that the statement is true or accurate or valid, and then provide the degree of measure before the contextualisation. One will then produce an introduction like this: It is true and accurate, to a greater extent, that the Black Power philosophy instilled self-pride amongst African Americans to challenge discrimination in the United States of America (USA) from the 1960s to the 1970s. It is the purpose of this essay to highlight how the Black Power ideology promoted black self-pride while also pursuing black self-determination/nationalism, self-defence, self-reliance, and self-assertiveness. In so doing the essay will point out the impact the philosophy had on African Americans as well as provide evidence thereof. The first paragraph which serves as a brief background which provides the reasons for the formation of Black Power Movement will be like this. The Black Power Movement rose out of the dissatisfaction of the slow progress of the non-violent methods of the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr, the continued segregation of black people as well as the lack of political, social and economic improvement in black communities. The Black Power Movement under the leadership of Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael focused on improving social, political and economic conditions of blacks on their own rather than integration into the white society. This suggests a push for self-determination, nationalism and separatism. The Black Power Movement wanted to promote its ideology of black pride and self-esteem. To achieve this Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael popularised the mantra ‘Black is beautiful’. Carmichael even popularised the Black Power ideology and the term ‘Black Power’. It is important to note that Carmichael was not the first to use the term but he was the first to use it as a political slogan. This is evidenced by the increase in membership and followers of the movement. Evidence to prove that indeed the Black Power Movement was formed to promote Black Power ideology is seen in the way the media labelled Stokely Carmichael. Carmichael made many appearances on TV news, Ebony magazine and ‘New York Times’ featuring him under the headline ‘Black Power prophet’. The mere idea of Black Power scared many white segregationists. The increase in BPM followers, thus shows that many African Americans became proud of being black and being associated with the movement. Likewise, Stokely Carmichael being called the Black Power prophet implies that he helped spread the Black Power ideas of which self-pride was one of them, just like the biblical prophets spread the word of God. To promote black pride and self-esteem the Black Power Movement encouraged black people to dress in afro-centric colours, Afro hairstyles and the drawing of murals depicting the social issues blacks faced, the establishment of schools to teach African history and African American culture. The impact this had is that Black Americans became more receptive of their skin colour and culture. The Black Power Movement created a strong Black culture consisting of soulful music and heartfelt literature. Evidence to prove that indeed African Americans became proud of their black skin colour is seen in the positive sing-along of James Brown’s audience during his shows. So we write, Take for example, soul singer James Brown had his audiences chanting “Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud”. A bookstore which promoted African American literature was the ‘African American Memorial’ which operated in Harlem. Apart from being a meeting place for Malcolm X and other activists, the bookstore sold books to the communities. This increased black confidence, literacy, black pride and self-esteem which was seen in the flourishing of the Black Art Movement. Further evidence of black pride is seen in the Black Power salute of the clenched fist during the 1968 Olympics by John Wesley Carlos and Tommie Smith despite criticism. Our link then sounds like this: This demonstrates a direct influence of Black Power philosophy in instilling black self-pride among African Americans. The Black Power Movement created the Black Panther Party, initially for defending black people from white police brutality. Black people were subjected to harassment, arrests, torture and even public beatings by the police. The white police officers were responsible for violent crimes and allegedly supplied drugs in black communities which perpetuated the cycle of poverty, crime and segregation. This was the reason why the Black Panther Party saw the need to protect black people. The Black Panthers would patrol the streets carrying guns and monitor the police if they stop any black person. They called this 'cop-watching'. They took advantage of the California law which allowed the carrying of firearms in public as long as they were not concealed/hidden. The open-carrying of guns made black people feel safe, confident and empowered. The Black Panther Party would clash with the police as they defended black people. They were involved in many firefights with the police. At this point we need to provide evidence to prove that indeed the Black Panther Party members would risk their lives to protect black communities from the police. We will provide examples of such incidents of shootouts as evidence so we will start like this. Take for example, Huey Newton was alleged to have killed Officer John Frey in a firefight in 1967. In another incident, Eldridge Cleaver led an ambush ambush of the Oakland police in which two police officers were wounded and a Black Panther party member Bobby Hutton was killed in 1968. To link this with the stance taken in the introduction and to relate this with the demands of the questions we have to provide a link saying, The fact that blacks stood on their own to safeguard their communities from racist police officers would instill a sense of pride among them as they received no assistance from the Federal government. Self-reliance amongst African Americans was one of the priorities of the Black Power Movement. It focused on alleviating hunger, poverty and crime in the ghettos. The Black Panther Party established a number of community programs aimed at making black people self-sufficient and self-reliant, and not depend on handouts from white people. Under Newton’s leadership, the Black Panther Party founded over 60 community support programmes which were later renamed in 1971 as ‘survival programs’. These ‘survival programs’ included: food banks, medical clinics, sickle cell anaemia tests, prison busing for families of inmates, legal advice seminars, clothing banks, housing cooperates and their own ambulance service. One of the popular programs was the free breakfast for school children set up by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in 1968. The program gave more than 20,000 full breakfasts to children before going to school. This will serve as statistical evidence to prove the Black Power Movement’s success in fighting off the effects of economic discrimination. This had the positive impact of improving learner attendance and concentration. The success of the free breakfast programme made the Federal government to adopt it and implement as a model for government initiatives till present day. The free clinics called the People’s Free medical centres were also established. They offered services such as treatment of colds, flu and testing for high blood pressure. To conclude this paragraph we need a link and it will read like this: The fact that African Americans met their own needs through these programmes without assistance from whites and the government would make them be filled with a strong sense of pride. With compounded dissatisfaction due to lack of meaningful change by the CRM and the lack of any government projects to economically, politically and socially develop black communities, Malcolm X advocated for the realisation of black aspirations by any means necessary.

[14:32]This meant that he was encouraging the use of violence or that he was encouraging self-assertiveness in a militant way. The institutional segregation, unemployment abusive policing and poor housing necessitated the use of forceful methods. The result was a number of riots due to social and economic inequality in America. These were the ‘1967 race riots’. African Americans wanted to get the attention of the Federal government. The most destructive riots happened in summer and were called ‘the Long Hot Summer of 1967’. The mentioning of the long hot summer serves as evidence to prove that indeed African Americans made use of violence or militant methods. We then provide examples of places where riots occurred. The worst riots occurred in Detroit, Newark in New Jersey and Michigan. Statistical evidence will help paint a picture of how violent the protests were. As a result about 85 people died more than 20,160 injured and about 11,000 arrested with the tens of millions’ worth of property destroyed. The achievement of the riot was that the president Lyndon Johnson set up the Kerner Commission to investigate the root cause of ‘the long hot summer’. After 7 months of investigating, the commission blamed lack of economic opportunity, failed social service programmes, police brutality, racism, and the biased white media. The fact that the 426-page report was a best seller is evidence that the BPM and the BPP managed to bring black issues to the Federal government’s and the world’s attention and some kind of developmental programmes started in African American communities. This could only make African Americans be proud of their actions in challenging discrimination. This last sentence is the link that connects to the idea in the question of Black Power instilling Black Self-Pride. During the slave times, slave owners would often give their last names to the people they enslaved and these were often passed down to other generations of African Americans as last names. So Carmichael’s later changing of his name to Kwame Ture cut off any ties with those who had abused his ancestors. Similarly, Malcolm Little also claimed that ‘Little’ was a name imposed on his ancestors by their slave masters and so changed it Malcolm X. The ‘X’ signified his original, lost tribal name. This had the effect of promoting self-worthiness, black pride and self-respect amongst blacks that most tried to emphasize their ties with Africa. Strong feelings of being anti-white were also evoked among blacks. Malcolm X’s powerful messages were in the streets further inflamed the resentment which boiled and flared amongst blacks. In 1964 Malcolm X spoke in front of the 369th regiment armory to dissuade black soldiers from fighting white men’s wars. Malcolm X’s recordings of his speeches (even after his death 1965) inspired African American soldiers to organise GIs United Against the War in Vietnam in 1969. It is important to point out that if soldiers refuse to fight for their country, it would be regarded as mutiny or treason. This would imply severe punishment. So if the soldiers were openly against war in Vietnam without any fear of being caught marshalled, then they were being self-assertive and were employing radical methods. It becomes self-evident that Malcolm X’s intellect, historical analysis and powerful speeches were the driving inspiration behind the popularity of the Black Power movement. BPP drew a Ten-Point Programme which demanded freedom, employment, and an immediate end to police brutality. It also called for compensation for slavery, good education and the release of blacks from prison. If Malcolm X, the black soldiers and the BPP could openly express themselves against discrimination without any fear of victimisation, it proves that the Black Power Philosophy had instilled them with self-assertiveness which showed self-pride and self-confidence in their fight against discrimination. The Black Power Movement advocated for black self-determination or Black Nationalism. The Black Power Movement was much against multi-racialism. This means that there was a strong emphasis on black separatism. Black people were to vote for black politicians. Malcolm X even spoke about creating a separate black state. The bid to create a separate state as opposed to the Civil Rights Movement’s bid for integration into white community is what is being referred to as black separatism. In pursuit of black nationalism, the Black Power Movement activists funded black-owned businesses, bookstores, schools and legal clinics. The Black Power Movement even encouraged African Americans to buy only from black businesses. In the bid to promote black self-determination, the Black Power Movement encouraged African Americans to join black organisations that will result in their own empowerment. An example of one such organisation created by BPM was the underground Black Power revolutionary organization called the Black Liberation Army which operated between 1970 and 1987. The Black Liberation Army also carried out a series of bombings, killings and robberies which they called ‘expropriations’. Another organisation that promoted Black Nationalism was the Republic of New Africa. Their goals were to take up arms for the physical liberation of black people. This all points to strong sense of self-confidence instilled in African Americans to believe in themselves that they can realise their goals if they take matters into their own hands. From the above given arguments, one can safely conclude by saying that indeed the Black Power Philosophy totally instilled self-pride among African Americans to fight discrimination as it was being promoted through the actions of the Black Power Movement while concurrently instilling a sense of self-reliance, nationalistic feelings, self-defensiveness, militancy and self-assertiveness as well as self-determination. We're ready to create the tutorials on SA FET History topics you need in the near future - just let us know what they are in the comments. Subscribe, and do not forget to share.