Waiting Til The Midnight Hour

A history of the Black Power movement in the United States traces the origins and evolution of the influential movement and examines the ways in which Black Power redefined racial identity and culture. With the rallying cry of "Black Power!" in 1966, a group of black activists, including Stokely Carmichael and Huey P. Newton, turned their backs on Martin Luther King's pacifism and, building on Malcolm X's legacy, pioneered a radical new approach to the fight for equality. [This book] is a history of the Black Power movement, that storied group of men and women who would become American icons of the struggle for racial equality. In the book, the author traces the history of the men and women of the movement, many of them famous or infamous, others forgotten. It begins in Harlem in the 1950s, where, despite the Cold War's hostile climate, black writers, artists, and activists built a new urban militancy that was the movement's earliest incarnation. In a series of character driven chapters, we witness the rise of Black Power groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panthers, and with them, on both coasts of the country, a fundamental change in the way Americans understood the unfinished business of racial equality and integration. The book invokes the way in which Black Power redefined black identity and culture and in the process redrew the landscape of American race relations.

A gripping narrative that brings to life a legendary moment in American history: the birth, life, and death of the Black Power movement With the rallying cry of "Black Power!" in 1966, a group of black activists, including Stokely Carmichael and Huey P. Newton, turned their backs on Martin Luther King's pacifism and, building on Malcolm X's legacy, pioneered a radical new approach to the fight for equality. Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour is a history of the Black Power movement, that storied group of men and women who would become American icons of the struggle for racial equality. Peniel E. Joseph traces the history of the men and women of the movement—many of them famous or infamous, others forgotten. Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour begins in Harlem in the 1950s, where, despite the Cold War's hostile climate, black writers, artists, and activists built a new urban militancy that was the movement's earliest incarnation. In a series of character-driven chapters, we witness the rise of Black Power groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panthers, and with them, on both coasts of the country, a fundamental change in the way Americans understood the unfinished business of racial equality and integration. Drawing on original archival research and more than sixty original oral histories, this narrative history vividly invokes the way in which Black Power redefined black identity and culture and in the process redrew the landscape of American race relations.

This unique guide will provide an overview of radical U.S. political movements on both the left and the right sides of the ideological spectrum, with a focus on analyzing the origins and trajectory of the various movements and the impact that movement ideas and activities have had on mainstream American politics. The work is organized thematically, with each chapter focusing on a prominent arena of radical activism in the United States. The chapters will trace the chronological development of these extreme leftist and rightist movements throughout U.S. history. Each chapter will include a discussion of central individuals, organizations, and events as well as their impact on popular opinion, political discourse and public policy. For movements that have arisen multiple times throughout U.S. history (nativism, religious, radical labor, separatists), the chapter will trace the history over time but the analysis will emphasize its most recent manifestations. Sidebar features will be included in each chapter to provide additional contextual information to facilitate increased understanding of the topic.

This book advances the view that concentrated black power is the backbone of the Democratic Party and, as such, black empowerment represents the last hope for the US both domestically and internationally. Through analyses of secondary data, historical archives, and a variety of political and economic statistical indicators, it examines the relationship between black empowerment and America's global stature across its history, exploring the socio-historical context in which obstacles to black empowerment have occurred and the strategies that have been adopted across time for its realization. An examination of what Black political, legal, economic and cultural power looks like, The Fight for Black Empowerment in the USA makes an urgent call for the up-lift and empowerment of the black population, without which the nation faces irreversible political and economic dysfunction domestically, and a loss of its status as a global superpower. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in racial and ethnic inequalities and contemporary American society.

Offers a narrative chronicle of race in the United States and the successes, failures, and stalemates of African American leaders in the past fifty years.

The black arts movement was led by African Americans between the 1960s and 1970s, and included artists of all kinds, such as poets, writers, actors, musicians, painters, and dancers. The main goal was to encourage black artists to make art that would tell the meaningful stories of black people and their experiences and struggles throughout history. Readers dive deep into this movement as they explore the main text that features annotated quotes from artists and historians. Sidebars and a timeline provide additional information. Historical images including primary sources give readers an up-close look at this pivotal cultural period.

From the author of The Sword and the Shield, this definitive biography of the Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael offers "an unflinching look at an unflinching man" (Daily Beast). Stokely Carmichael, the charismatic and controversial Black activist, stepped onto the pages of history when he called for "Black Power" during a speech one Mississippi night in 1966. A firebrand who straddled both the American civil rights and Black Power movements, Carmichael would stand for the rest of his life at the center of the storm he had unleashed. In Stokely, preeminent civil rights scholar Peniel E. Joseph presents a groundbreaking biography of Carmichael, using his life as a prism through which to view the transformative African American freedom struggles of the twentieth century. A nuanced and authoritative portrait, Stokely captures the life of the man whose uncompromising vision defined political radicalism and provoked a national reckoning on race and democracy.

This dual biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King upends longstanding preconceptions to transform our understanding of the twentieth century's most iconic African American leaders. To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense vs. nonviolence, black power vs. civil rights, the sword vs. the shield. The struggle for black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement's militancy is either vilified or erased outright. In The Sword and the Shield, Peniel E. Joseph upends these misconceptions and reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives. This is a strikingly revisionist biography, not only of Malcolm and Martin, but also of the movement and era they came to define.

Contested Valor is a challenging examination of the use and status of black Marines in United States military service during the Cold War era. These pioneering men experienced contested military integration, as well as multiple forms of institutional and social opposition, which called their humanity, manhood, and rights to full citizenship into question. Efforts to undermine their service compromised their right to be counted among the elite and sidelined their story to the fringes of Marine Corps and U.S. history. Cameron McCoy describes the factors and pressures leading to the racial turbulence that surfaced in the Marine Corps from the end of World War II through Vietnam, and the measures taken by civilian and Marine officials to maintain and restore organizational integrity based on a foundation of white supremacy. He examines the psychological effects of institutionalized racism on African American Marines during the Vietnam era and the emergence of a new generation of black men unwilling to submit to the traditions of a Jim Crow Marine Corps. By exploring the realities American society constructed about black Marines, this work calls attention to the diverse ways in which these men coped within a strict, prejudiced organization and found greater purpose as U.S. Marines despite an embattled image. Contested Valor weaves the experiences of black Americans in the armed forces into the larger tapestry of the American racialist past and aptly captures the dilemmas, triumphs, and pitfalls that the first African American Marines encountered during the contentious eras of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. McCoy explores the creation of organizational policies designed to minimize their footprint as U.S. Marines until the social experiment of military integration faded and illustrates the discriminatory practices that further delegitimized their wartime reputation. McCoy demonstrates that black Marines’ absence from the historical record has been compounded by the negligence and oversight of past historians as the Marine Corps reckons with its racist past and its first black Marines.

The book provides cutting edge insight into the racial aspect of US foreign affairs.