Reading Response #6

EYES ON THE PRIZE:BLACK POWER,PROGRESS & POVERTY

AFAM B201–Intro to African American Studies

Najmah Thomas, Ph.D.

Admin / Module To-Do List

• Updated Schedule
• Reading-Eyes on The PrizeStudyGuide:

• Week1b Reading–Episode 9-10

• Module Assignments

• QuizdueEOD11/20
• Reading Response due EOD11/27

Black Power,Progress& Poverty–Lecture Topics

• RECAP: EOTP Episodes 7 & 8
• EOTP Episode 9: Power!

• BlackPower-translatingwords into capital:
• Casestudy of Black Powerstrategies:

• EOTPEpisode 10: ThePromised Land

• Time to break the silence
• The costs of war and poverty
• Memphis and themountaintop…

RECAP: EOTP Episode7

• Defining Black Power:

• Demandfor cultural, political and economic self-determination
• Self-worth, self-love,self-respect
• Pan-Africanism / Afro-centric

• Some Key Organizations:

• NOI (Nation of Islam)
• Black Panther Party

• Becoming Malcom X:

• Parents, Earl & Louise Little, terrorized, murderedand institutionalized for leadership roles in UNIA
• From at-risk youth, to inmate, to NOI lieutenant
• Shifts views after hajj to Mecca, breaks withNOI, assassinated at age 39 (3 NOI membersconvicted)

• Antecedents to the Black PowerMovement:

• Black nationalism
• Pan-Africanism
• Labor civil-rights
• Examplesof self-defense inthe nonviolent Civil RightsMovement

RECAP: EOTP Episode8

• 3 key findings of theKernerCommission’s 2ndreport (also rejectedby LBJ):

• 1 commondenominator among those mostlikely to riot:they had experienced orwitnessed____________________
• “Discrimination and segregation havelongpermeated much of American life; they nowthreaten the future of every American.”
• Withoutdrastic and costly remedies, therewill be“continuing polarization of theAmerican community and, ultimately, thedestruction of basic democratic values”

• Who said it & why?“Theydonot move to Chicago, they moveto the Southside; they do not moveto New York, they move toHarlem.”
• Racial inequalityin thecity:

• Riots in multiple cities,1967
• Watts (LA), Detroit, & Chicago(Southside) among the mostdeadly

Opening Discussion

Eyes on the Prize–Power (Episode 9)

• ‘Black Power’-translatingwords into capital:

• Power in coalitions andpoliticians
• Power in community controlover local programs

• Case studies of BlackPower strategies:

• TheBlack Panther Party
• Ocean Hill-Brownsville(Brooklyn, NY)
• Cleveland,OH

Black Power–BPP Translating WordsInto Capital

• The Black Panther Party (BPP) forSelf-Defense (Oakland, CA,1966):

• Founders, Huey Newton & BobbySeale
• Inspired byStokelyCarmichael’sLowndes County FreedomOrganization
• Called for community control andarmed defense against policebrutality

• Some BPP projects:

• Health clinics
• Educational programs
• Free breakfast for children

• BPP 10-point platform:(1)freedom, (2)fullemployment, (3)restitution(40 acres+), (4)decenthousing, (5)education,(6)military exemption, (7)endpolice brutality, (8)prisonrelease, (9)trial bypeers,(10)justice andpeace

Image source: zinnedproject.com

Image credit:Ruth-MarionBaruch

Other Case Studiesof‘Black Power’Strategies

• OceanHill-Brownsville (Brooklyn,NY)
• NYC public schools 10 years afterBrown v. Board= separate &unequal
• Minister C. Herbert Oliver’sexperience = call for communitycontrol of the schools
• NYC board of education agreesto an ‘experiment’:
• New community-led schoolboard
• RhodyMcCoy selected as firstBlack district superintendent
• Experiment ends when communityboard attempts to transfer 19white teachers and administrators
• Cleveland, OH–WhatCarl Stokes’ mayoral winrequired:
• Extensivecommunityengagement
• Multi-racial coalition
• Limitedengagement withnational Black Activistsleaders
• “Asking Dr. King not to staywas one of the toughestdecisions I ever had tomake…But it came down tothe hard game of polities–whether we wanted a causeor a victory. I wanted to win.Our people needed me towin.”

EOTPEpisode 10: The Promised Land

• Time to break thesilence–Dr. Kingdenounces the War inVietnam
• The costs of war andpoverty–Dr. Kingequates war as anenemy of the poor
• Memphis and themountaintop–Dr.King’s finalspeech

Time to Break the Silence…

“Weweretakingtheyoung Black menwhohavebeen crippled by oursociety and sending them 8,000 milesaway toguarantee libertiesinSoutheast Asiawhich they had notfound in Southwest Georgia andEastHarlem. So we have been repeatedlyfaced with the cruel irony of watchingNegroand whiteboys on TV screensas theykill and die togetherfor anation that has been unableto seatthem together in the same schools.”

The Costsof the War…and Poverty

• US was engaged in twowars in 1967: War inVietnam, and theWar onPoverty
• Dr. King was compelledtoseewaras an enemy of thePoor
• Dr. King positioned povertyand economic injustice ascivil rights issues (“theopposite of poverty is notwealth, it isjustice”–Stevenson, B.)

What becomes thestory…(Dr. King’s1968 Memphis MountainTopSpeech)

• February–1,300 Black SanitationWorkers seeking economic justice,following gruesome deaths of 2 workerson the job due to malfunctioningequipment (City refused to paycompensation to families)
• March–Dr. King speaks to crowd of25,000 in Memphis, leads a march laterthat month, march infiltrated by outsidegroups, 1 teen killed
• April–Dr. King delivers his final speech(I’ve been to the mountaintop);assassinated at the Lorraine Motel onApril 4th; Coretta Scott King returns toMemphis in support of the workers;President Johnson intervenes to resolvethe strike, City grants raises

Image source: history.com

“I’ve Seen The Promised Land…”

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday!

Final Learning Module: A Nation of Laws & Movements

• ReadEyes on the Prize–Episode 11-12beforenext session
• WatchEyes on the Prize–Episodes 11-12beforenext session

Next Session: Tuesday,November29th@4:30pm

We mean business now…(Dr. King’s1968 Memphis Mountain Top Speech)

• “Wemean business now,and we are determinedto gain our rightfulplace in God’s world.Andthat’s all this wholething isabout. Wearedetermined to bepeople. We are sayingthat we are God’schildren. Andthat wedon’t have to live likewe are forced to live.”
• King’s suggestions forthe supporters of themovement:
• “We’vegot to staytogether and maintainunity.”
• “Letus keep the issueswhere they are. The issueisinjustice.”
• “Letus develop a kind ofdangerous unselfishness.”

Black Power, Black Progress, BlackPoverty

• Timeline of selected events:
• January 1966-King and SCLC begin shiftto northern urban city centers
• May 1966–Stokely Carmichael electedSNCC national chairman
• June 1966–James Meredith shot during‘Walk Against Fear’ from Nashville, TN toJackson, MS
• August 1966–Escalation of Vietnam War
• October 1966, Oakland, CA–HueyNewton and Bobby Seale form the BlackPanther Party for Self-Defense
• November 1966, St. Helena Is., SC–Dr.King & SCLC meet at Penn Center
• April 28, 1967-Muhammad Alirefuses tobe inducted into the U.S. Army
• May 1967, Sacramento, CA–ArmedBlack Panthers protest firearms legislationat the capital
• November 1967, Cleveland, OH–CarlStokes becomes 1st Black mayor for a majorUS city
• February 1968, Washington, DC–KernerCommissionreport on economic disparitiesand racial discrimination
• February 8, 1968, Orangeburg, SC–3students killed, 27 wounded by police onSCSU campus
• February 12, 1968, Memphis, TN–Union ofBlack sanitation workers strike begins
• April 4, 1968, Memphis, TN–Dr. King isassassinated
• May 14, 1968, Washington, DC–The PoorPeople’s Campaign
• June 5, 1968, Los Angeles, CA–SenatorRobert Kennedy is assassinated
• November 1968, NY–Board of educationdismisses the Ocean Hill-Brownsvillecommunity board

Reading Response Assignment Tips

• Selection your themes:
• A main topic of discourse ordiscussion
• A subject, an implicit or recurrentidea
• Can be presented as one word, aphrase, a statement or a question
• Some examples from LearningModule6–Black Power,Poverty& Progress:
• Antecedents of the Black PowerMovement
• Is Black Power the opposite ofWhite Power?
• Black Power: Translating wordsinto capital
• To prevent a riot
• The high costs of war
• Some assignment reminders:
• Due ______
• Completethe entire coversheet–nocoversheet, no score
• Reference/cite the module readings(chapters or sections from the EOTP StudyGuide, etc.)–additional points will bededucted for missing references
• Okay to include narrative for additionalcontext (poems, drawings, etc.)–be suretoclearly identify your 3 themes
• No more than two of any option!