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Middle Passage
The journey taken by the slave ships from Africa to the Americas. It was horrid conditions for the slaves. They would be locked up in close quarters, forced to sleep on top of each other and in their own waste. Majority of the time they would have on shackles. Often times slaves would jump off and drown to get away. Disease was rampant in the close quarters. About half the slaves made it back alive. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Rebellion of former indentured servants. They were promised their own farmland if they lived through their contract, however all the land was taken in West Virginia and Berkeley, the governor, would not open the Western front in fear of the Native Americans. This angered the former indentured servants into rebellion. This incident showed farmers that slaves would be a much better financial investment and more controlled option than indentured servants. -
South Atlantic System
The triangle trade system between West Coast Africa, Britain, and the Americas. African tribes would kidnap members of rival tribes and trade them to British and American slave traders for guns and alcohol. They were then transported on slave ships along the middle passage. -
Maroon Communities
These were the the communities set up by runaway slaves. Black culture began to take shape in these early free black communities. White slave owners often times tried to take back their runaway slaves from these communities. -
Stono Rebellion
Most serious and widespread slave rebellion in the colonial period. Over 100 African slaves rose up, killed their white slave owners, and fled to try and escape to the Spanish territory in modern day Florida. The rebellion was crushed before they could get there and all the members executed. This event led to slave owners giving stricter treatment to their slaves as they were afraid that they would rebel. -
American Revolution
During the war, for need of more soldiers, both British and some future American state territories, such as Virginia, offered freedom to slaves who enlisted in the war. Because of this, they had a large impact on some of the most important battles such as Lexington, Bunker Hill, and Fort Ticonderoga. This led to an increase in Maroon Communities following the war. -
Manumission
Process where slave owners could free their slaves. This was much more prominent in the north as the need for slave labor was less. -
Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
Invention that greatly increased the productivity and profit in cotton picking. This led to a huge increase in plantation agriculture, which in turn led to the increasing need for slaves to tend the massive fields. -
New York Emancipation Act of 1799
A gradual emancipation act. It allowed all slave children born after July 4th, 1799 to only be indentured until adulthood and then be free. It was later amended to allow children born before that date to be free, but only after 1827. -
Coastal Slave Trade
Slavery was first introduced to the new nation in 1619. Later, during the peak of slavery sales in 1851 to 1866, Chesapeake became the hub for slave sales. -
Black Christianity
Many black slaves throughout the south developed their own version of Christianity. They based it off of salvationist values to express their dreams of becoming free. They also were typically much more emotionally involved than whites. Through religion, they also developed a common Pidgin language and created a new culture of spiritual singing and dancing as part of their faith. -
Gabriel's Rebellion
A planned out slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia, its goals were to weaken slavery's grip on Africans and overthrow it. However, the plan leaked out just before the uprising, and authorities rounded up the participants and executed 35 of the ones caught. Even though this was unsuccessful, the settlers and farmers were struck with fear in another rebellion. -
Missouri Compromise
Henry Clay’s proposed solution to the issue of Missouri wanted to be admitted to Union as a slave state. His resolution had Missouri entered as slaves state, maine entered as free state to balance out the Union, and a boundary line across the southern part of Missouri that declared all future states admitted above the line would be free and all states below the line would be slave. Temporarily calmed debates over slavery until the 1850’s. -
David Walker
An outspoken African American activist. He advocated blacks to rise up and rebel against their white slave owners to retain their freedom. He was very influential for his time and is credited with inspiring the radical black movement. Wanted an end to chattel slavery. -
Religious Defense of Slavery
Claimed that the Bible encouraged and supported Slavery, as it took “savages and barbarians” from the jungle and “civilized” them. -
Abolitionism
Movement, predominantly in the North, to abolish slavery. Women suffragists had a large role in this movement as they thought thought their increase rights were tied to the increased rights of the blacks. Most in this movement believed slavery was wrong but that blacks were not equal to whites with some exceptions such as William Lloyd Garrison. Free blacks such as Frederick Douglass had a prominent role. Newspapers such as “The Liberator.” -
Underground Railroad
Headed by runaway slave Harriet Tubman. They created a network of hidden and underground roads to help slaves escape and make their way north. -
Black Protestantism
A religion created by black slaves mixing many aspects of multiple religious and cultural values, mainly preaching equality. One of the factors encouraging Nat Turner's uprising. -
William Lloyd Garrison
Determined abolitionist, he was one of the few who believed that not only slavery was wrong, but that blacks were equal to whites. He founded the American Anti-Slavery society in 1833 which advocated the immediate abolition of slavery. He worked closely with the Grimke Sisters. He also headed the abolitionist newspaper “The Liberator.” -
Nat Turner's Revolt
Nat Turner sparked rebellion to fight for black freedom in Virginia. It was eventually put down after 55 whites and 70 slaves were killed. Turner was captured and executed. It scared southern slave owners which resulted in tightened slave codes and further restricted freedoms of them. -
American Anti-Slavery Society
Founded by William Lloyd Garrison, preached the immediate abolition of slavery. By 1838, the organization had more than 250,000 members. -
Gag Rule in Congress
Strict rule passed by southern congressmen and backed by Andrew Jackson that banned the discussion of slavery issues in the House of Representatives. This halted any governmental progress for some time and greatly angered the north, causing greater sectionalism. -
Grimke Sisters
Both were prominent abolitionists and women’s rights activists. They grew up in a slave-owning South Carolina family before moving north. Angelina Grimke teamed up with William Lloyd Garrison who published her abolitionist letter in The Liberator newspaper. She was also the first women to speak at the massachusetts State Legislator. Both sisters wrote “Letter on the Conditions of Women and the Equality of the Sexes” objecting to the male opposition to their anti-slavery activities. -
Theodore Weld
A prominent abolitionist, he inspired “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” with his book “American Slavery as it is.” He also led a group called the “Land Rebels” which traveled across the northwest preaching anti-slavery gospel. -
Slavery Follows the Flag
Assertion of John C. Calhoun who stated that planters should be able to take their slaves into newly founded American territories, thus, “following the flag.” Fueled the sectionalist debate as south was in great support of this ideal and north strongly opposed it. -
Compromise of 1850
Proposed by Henry Clay, “The Great Compromiser.” Said that California would be admitted as a free state, Texas admitted as a slave state, enforcement of the newly passed fugitive slave act in the north, Texas gave up claims to lands disputed with New Mexico, Slave Trade banned in D.C., popular sovereignty in Mexican Cession lands, and Texas paid $10 million for land lost. Eased sectional tensions up to Lincoln’s election and the South’s secession. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Made it a crime to help runaway slaves. Also paid commissioners to catch runaway slaves and return them to their slave owners. Greatest southern success in the compromise of 1850. -
Fugitive Slave Laws
Laws the south advocated for to be enforced in the north. It called for any slaves that escaped to the north to be captured and returned to their slave owners. They were not strongly enforced until the compromise of 1850, where the south would not agree unless the north created greater enforcement of these laws. -
Chesapeake Sale of Slaves
Slavery was first introduced to the new nation in 1619. Later, during the peak of slavery sales in 1851 to 1866, Chesapeake became the hub for slave sales. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Book that detailed the horrors and abuses black people faced in slavery. It heightened northern support for abolition and escalated the sectional conflict. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Compromise to determine the statehood of Kansas and Nebraska. Popular sovereignty was implemented distinguish whether the states became free or slave. This led to much controversy and conflict as pro-slavery and abolitionists battled to make each state swing their way. -
Bleeding Kansas
Term referring to the violent conflicts between antislavery and pro slavery residence of Kansas. Mass murdering took place and guerrilla warfare battles broke out. -
Dred Scott vs. Sanford
Dred Scott, a slave, sued the U.S. for his freedom as his master had taken him to a free state. The court ruled that black people were property, not citizens, therefore could not sue the supreme court. This ruling both acted as a success for the south and also as fuel for the abolitionist movement. -
Freeport Doctrine
Policy put forward by Stephen Douglas in the Douglas-Lincoln presidential debate. He declared that slavery could only exist of the people of a territory enforce laws maintaining it. Basically slavery would be determined by popular sovereignty. This angered southern democrats and had some influence on the outcome of the election in favor of Lincoln. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln declaring a ban of slavery. Even though it did not take place immediately as the civil war was raging on, it was a huge iconic step to the permanent abandonment of slavery. -
Enlightenment
Also known as the age of reason, this era was a time of western philosophy and was tempered by the need of major reforms. movement that advocated the use of reason and rationality to establish a system of ethics and knowledge. This time led people to question traditional institutions, customs, and morals, including slavery. -
Redeemers in the South
Also known as the process of “redemption” southern democrats for the overthrow of elected governments that ended Reconstruction in many parts of the south. So-called Redeemers terrorized Republicans, and even killed and intimidated their opponents to regain power as it used to be. -
13th Amendment
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." (Abolishing slavery) But to protect and enforce the rights of the newly freedmen, Congress enacted the 14th and 15th Amendments. -
Freedmen's Bureau
Government faction put in place post-civil war to aid ex-slaves in the transition from war to peace. They had direct federal funding and were authorized to investigate the mistreatment of blacks. Big step in protecting their freedoms. -
Ku Klux Klan
Secret society that first undertook violence against African Americans in the South after the Civil War but was reborn in 1915 to fight the perceived threats posed by African Americans, immigrants, radicals, feminists, Catholics, and Jews. Tried to hinder Civil Rights movements by the use of scare tactics and intimidation. -
Black Codes
Also known as Jim Crow Laws. They were put in place by Southern states after the civil war to deny them of some of the rights that white people enjoyed to keep them inferior. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Declared that all people born in the United States were citizens, regardless of race, color, or prior condition of slavery. Closely linked to 14th amendment. -
14th Amendment
Declared all persons born in the U.S. as citizens guaranteed equal protection under the law -
15th Amendment
Protected all citizens’ right to vote regardless of race or color to try and combat tactics in the south to keep blacks from voting. -
Civil rights Act of 1875
This law required “full and equal” access to jury service and to transportation and public accommodations, irrespective of race. This act was act like itself until 1964. -
"Solid South"
The politically united southern states of the US, traditionally regarded as giving unanimous electoral support to the Democratic Party. These southern states supported the continuation of segregation. -
Jim Crow
Segregation, commonly known as Jim Crow, prevailed in every aspect of life in southern states, where two-thirds of all African Americans lived in 1950. African Americans could not eat in restaurants patronized by whites or use the same waiting rooms at bus stations. All forms of public transportation were rigidly segregated by custom or by law. Public parks and libraries were segregated. Even drinking fountains were labeled “White” and “Colored” -
Sharecropping
The Reconstruction years gave rise to this distinctive system of cotton agriculture in which freedmen worked as renters, exchanging their labor for the use of land, house, and sometimes seed. This system was a slightly less worse act of slavery because the former slaves would owe most of their crops and products to the landlord, therefore causing them to not be able to progress and become more successful. -
Booker T. Washington
Emerged as the leading public voice of African Americans. He believed that African Americans could appeal to whites of good will and avoid hostile ones. He hoped that economic achievement would erase white prejudice. -
Tuskegee Institute
In the south, one of the most famous educational projects was Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute, founded in 1881. Washington both taught and exemplified the goal of self-help. He focused on industrial education. Tuskegee sent female graduates into teaching and nursing; men more often entered the industrial trades or farmed by the latest scientific methods. Mainly a black university. -
Civil Rights Cases of 1883
The justices also struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, paving the way for later decisions that sanctioned segregation. The impact of these decisions endured well into the twentieth century. -
Ida B. Wells
A journalist, Wells led an anti-lynching crusade in the US in the 1890s, and went on to become an integral part in groups striving for African American justice. She formed the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 and was a part of the NAACP. -
Jazz
To millions of Americans, the most famous product of the Harlem Renaissance was jazz. Borrowing from blues, ragtime, and other popular forms, jazz musicians developed an ensemble style in which performers, keeping a rapid ragtime beat, improvised around a basic melodic line. Majority of jazz musicians were black. Start in New Orleans and Deep South. -
Atlanta Compromise
Washington gained national fame in 1895 with his Atlanta Compromise address, delivered at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta. For the exposition’s white organizers, the racial “compromise” was inviting Washington to speak at all. It was a moved intended to show racial progress in the South. Whites greeted his address with enthusiasm, and Washington became the most prominent black leader of his generation. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Supreme Court case about Jim Crow railroad cars in Louisiana; the Court decided by 7 to 1 that legislation could not overcome racial attitudes, and that it was constitutional to have "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites. This was later proved unconstitutional by several court cases. -
National Association of Colored Women
In 1896, they African American women created the National Association of Colored Women. Through its local clubs, back women arranged for the care of orphans, founded homes for the elderly, advocated temperance, and undertook public health campaigns. Such women shared with white women a determination to carry domesticity into the public sphere. One of the most radical voices was Ida B. Wells. -
W.E.B. Du Bois
W.E.B. Du Bois called for a talented tenth of educated blacks to develop new strategies. In 1905, Du Bois called a meeting at Niagara Falls. The resulting Niagara Principles called for full voting rights, an end to segregation, equal treatment in the justice system, and equal opportunity in education, jobs, healthcare, and military service. These principles, based on African American pride and demand for full equality, guided the civil rights movement throughout the 20th century. -
Race Riots
Blacks faced another urban danger: the so-called race riot, an attack by white mobs triggered by street altercations or rumors of crime. Race riots broke out in Atlanta, New York City, Evansville, and Springfield. -
NAACP
Organization that worked to achieve African American rights through the legal system. The group found allies in many African American women’s clubs and churches. It also cooperated with the National Urban League, a union of agencies that assisted black migrants in the North. -
Blues Music
By the 1910s, black music was achieving a central place in American popular culture. Made famous when it reached the big city, this music became known as the the blues. The popularity of such music marked the arrival of modern youth culture. Its enduring features included “crossover” music that originated in the black working class and a commercial music industry that brazenly appropriated African American music styles. -
United Negro Improvement Association
Primarily in the United States, organization founded by Marcus Garvey, dedicated to racial pride, economic self-sufficiency, and the formation of an independent black nation in Africa. Garvey had a strong appeal to poor blacks in urban ghettos. Garvey denounced the NAACP and many black leaders, asserting that they sought only assimilation into white society. -
Great Migration
With so many men in uniform, jobs in heavy industry opened for the first time to African Americans, accelerating the pace of black migration from South to North. During World War I, more than 400,000 African Americans moved to such cities as Detroit, Chicago, and New York, in what became known as the Great Migration. The rewards were great, and taking war jobs could be a source of patriotic pride. -
Racial Strife in the US After WWI
Northern manufacturers recruited throughout the South, sparking an exodus of African-American workers that became known as the "Great Migration." This resulted in postwar social tensions related to the demobilization of veterans of World War I, both black and white, and competition for jobs among ethnic whites and blacks. At the height of the tensions came the Red Summer of 1919, when whites carried out open acts of violence against blacks, who were forced to fight back. -
Harlem Renaissance
The Great Migration tripled New York’s black population in the decade after 1910. Harlem stood as the symbol of liberty and the Promised Land to Negroes everywhere. Talented African Americans flocked to the district, where they created bold new art forms and asserted ties to Africa in what would be known as the Harlem Renaissance. -
Negro Leagues
Shut out of white leagues, players and fans turned to all black professional teams, where black men could showcase athletic ability and race pride. By the early 1900s, such teams organized into separate Negro Leagues. Though players suffered from erratic pay and rundown ball fields, the league's thrived until the desegregation of baseball after World War II. -
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
A. Philip Randolph, whose Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was the most prominent black trade union, called for a march on Washington in early 1941. Randolph planned to bring 100,000 protestors if African Americans were not given equal opportunity in war jobs. To avoid a divisive protest, FDR issued Executive Order 8802, prohibiting racial discrimination in defense industries. Randolph’s efforts showed that white leaders and institutions could be swayed by concerted African American action. -
African Americans Under the New Deal
Though African Americans were not the intended audience for these programs, they benefited as many citizens did. Labor laws that encouraged union organization and defined a minimum wage also supported black workers. Roosevelt’s relief programs made him popular with many African Americans, though he shied away from aggressively promoting civil rights or an anti-lynching law, for fear of alienating Southern whites. -
Second Great Migration
Migration and more fluid social boundaries meant that people of different races and ethnicity mixed in the booming cities. Over one million African Americans left the rural South for California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania -- a continuation of the Great Migration earlier in the century. -
Double V Campaign
James Thompson urged that “colored Americans adopt the double VV for a double victory” -- victory over fascism abroad and victory over racism at home. Instantly dubbed the Double V Campaign, Thompson’s notion, spread like wildfire through black communities across the country. African Americans would demonstrate their loyalty and citizenship by fighting the axis powers. But they would also demand, peacefully but emphatically, the defeat of racism at home. -
Congress of Racial Equality
In Chicago, James Farmer founded the Congress of Racial Equality in 1942. It adopted the philosophy of nonviolent direct action espoused by Mahatma Gandhi. Promoted sit-ins and other successful non-violent protests such as the Freedom Riders. -
Martin Luther King Jr.
The black community turned for leadership to the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. The son of a prominent Atlanta minister, King embraced the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Working closely, but behind the scenes, King studied nonviolent philosophy. After Rosa Park’s arrest, King endorsed a plan proposed by a local black women’s organization to boycott Montgomery bus system. Founded the SCLC after the success of the Montgomery bus boycott. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
The NAACP’s legal strategy achieved its ultimate validation in a case involving Linda Brown, who had been forced to attend a distant segregated school rather than the nearby white school. In Brown vs Board of Education, Marshall argued that such segregation was unconstitutional because it denied Linda Brown the “equal protection of the laws” guaranteed by the 14th amendment. The Supreme Court agreed with Marshall, overturning the “separate but equal” doctrine. -
Thurgood Marshall
Top lawyer of the NAACP during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1936, he won a state case that forced the University of Maryland Law School to admit qualified blacks. In Smith vs. Allwright, he convinced the US Supreme Court that all-white primaries were unconstitutional. In McLaurin vs. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court ruled that universities could not segregate black students from others on campus. Biggest achievement was Brown vs. Board of Education. First African American supreme court judge. -
Emmitt Till
A 14-year old African American from the South side of Chicago, Emmett Till, was visiting relatives in Mississippi in the summer of 1955. Seen talking to a white woman in a grocery store, Till was tortured and murdered under cover of night. Two white men were arrested for Till’s murder. Despite Mose Wright’s eyewitness testimony, the all-white jury found the defendants innocent. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
King endorsed a plan proposed by a local black women’s organization to boycott Montgomery bus system. For the next 381 days, Montgomery’s African Americans formed car pools or walked to work. The transit company neared bankruptcy, and downtown stores complained about the loss of business. But only after the Supreme Court ruled in 1956 that bus segregation was unconstitutional did the city of Montgomery finally comply. This boycott catapulted King to national prominence. -
Civil Rights Movement
Led by MLK Jr., it began after WWII. Committed to fighting racism abroad, Americans increasingly condemned racism at home. Among the most consequential factors was the growth of the urban black middle class. Its ranks produced most of the civil rights leaders. The new medium of television played a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement. When TV networks covered early desegregation struggles, Americans across the US saw the violence of white supremacy first hand. Emphasized nonviolent protest. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
In 1957, Martin Luther King Jr., along with the Reverend Ralph Abernathy and dozens of black ministers from across the south, he founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The black church, long the center of African American social and cultural life, now lent its moral and organizational strength to the Civil Rights Movement. The SCLC quickly joined the NAACP at the leading edge of the movement for racial justice. -
Integration of Little Rock High School
Eisenhower accepted the brown vs board of education decision but he was unhappy about the prospect of committing federal power to enforce the decision. A crisis in Little Rock finally forced his hand. In 1957, when 9 black students attempted to enroll at the all-white central high school, Governor Faubus called out the National Guard to Bar them. Eisenhower sent 1000 federal troops to Little Rock and nationalized the Arkansas National Guard, ordering them to protect the black students. -
Black Nationalism
The philosophy of black nationalism signified many things in the 1960s. It could mean anything from pride in one’s community to total separatism, from building African American-owned businesses to wearing dashikis in honor of African traditions. It emphasized the differences between blacks and whites as well as black people’s power to shape their own destiny. -
Greensboro Sit-ins
The battle for civil rights entered a new phase when four black college students took seats at the whites-only lunch counter at the local Woolworth’s store. Taunted by groups of whites, pelted with food and other debris, the black students held strong. Although many were arrested, the tactic worked: the Woolworth’s lunch counter was desegregated and sit-ins quickly spread to other southern cities. -
Ella Baker and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Inspired by the developments in Greensboro and elsewhere, Ella Baker helped organize the SNCC in 1960 to facilitate student sit-ins. Rolling like a great wave across the Upper South, by the end of the year students had launched sit-ins in 126 cities. The sit-ins drew African American college students into the movement in significant numbers for the first time. -
Freedom Rides
Blacks and whites riding on interstate bus lines throughout the South. The aim was to call attention to blatant violations of recent Supreme Court rulings against segregation in interstate commerce. The activists who signed on knew that they were taking their lives in their hands. They were attacked right after they stopped in small towns. This showed civil rights activists the value of nonviolent protest that provoked violent white resistance. -
Marcus Garvey and pan-Africanism
Marcus Garvey and his followers represented an emerging pan-Africanism. They argued that people of African descent, in all parts of the world, had a common destiny and should cooperate in political action. Several developments contributed to this ideal: black men’s military service in Europe during WWI, the pan-african congress that had sought representation at the Versailles Treaty, and modernist experiments in literature and the arts. -
March on Washington and the "I Have a Dream" Speech
Thousands of volunteers across the country coordinated car pools which delivered a quarter of a million people to the Lincoln Memorial for the officially named March on Washington. Although he didn’t plan it, MLK was the public face of the march. It was his “I have a dream” speech that captured the nation’s imagination. The sight of 250,000 blacks and whites marching solemnly together marked the high point of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Freedom Summer
The civil rights act left the obstacle to black voting rights untouched. In 1964 which became known as the freedom summer, black organizations mounted a major campaign in Mississippi. They established freedom schools for black children and conducted a major voter registration drive. Yet so determined was the opposition that only about 1200 black voters were registered that summer. 400 murdered civil rights worker ad 37 bombed or burned black churches. -
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Created under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law granted new enforcement powers to the US attorney general and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to implement the prohibition against job discrimination. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The most far-reaching civil rights law since Reconstruction. It outlawed discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, national origin, and sex. The law guaranteed equal access to public accommodations and schools. The law also established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. -
Nation of Islam and Malcolm X
The leading exponent of black nationalism was the Nation of Islam, which fused a rejection of Christianity with a strong philosophy of self-improvement. Black Muslims preached an apocalyptic brand of Islam, anticipating the day when Allah would banish the white “devils” and give the black nation justice. The most charismatic Black Muslim was Malcolm X. He believed strengthening the black community represented a surer path to freedom and equality. -
Selma March
In March 1965, the SCLC called for a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital, Montgomery, to protest the murder of a voting rights activist. As soon as the 600 marchers left Selma, mounted state troopers attacked them with tear gas and clubs. The scene was shown on national television that night, and the day became known as Bloody Sunday. President Johnson went to Congress after this. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Outlawed the literacy tests and other devices that prevented African Americans from registering to vote, and authorized the attorney general to send federal examiners to register voters in any county where registration was less than 50%. Enabled millions of African Americans to vote for the first time since the Reconstruction Era. -
Black Power
A more secular brand of black nationalism emerged in 1966 when SNCC and CORE activists, following the lead of Stokely Carmichael, began to call for black self-reliance under the banner of Black Power. Spurred by the Black Power slogan, African American activists turned their attention to the poverty and social injustice faced by so many black people. -
Black Panther Party
One of the most radical nationalist groups was the Black Panther Party, founded in Oakland, California in 1966 by two college students. A militant organization dedicated to protecting African Americans from police violence, the Panthers took their cue from the slain Malcolm X.They vehemently opposed the Vietnam War and declared their affinity for Third World revolutionary movements and armed struggles.