Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Black nationalism (BN) advocates a racial definition (or redefinition) of black national identity, as
opposed to multiculturalism. There are different black nationalist philosophies but the principles
of all black nationalist ideologies are
1) black unity, and
2) black self-determination/political, social and economic independence from White society.
Martin Delany is considered to be the grandfather of black nationalism.
Black Nationalism
Historical Icons-A
RBG Tutorial Study
Booklet 4Download
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLACK NATIONALISM
Page 1
RBG=BLACK NATIONALISM
Inspired by the apparent success of the Haitian Revolution, the origins of black nationalism in
political thought lie in the 19th century with people like Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad,
Henry McNeal Turner, Martin Delany, David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, Edward
Wilmot Blyden,Paul Cuffe, etc.
The repatriation of black American slaves to Liberia or Sierra Leone was a common black
nationalist theme in the 19th century. Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement
Association of the 1910s and 1920s was the most powerful black nationalist movement to
date, claiming 11 million members. Although the future of Africa is seen as being central to
black nationalist ambitions, some adherents to black nationalism are intent on the eventual
creation of a separate black American nation in the U.S. or Western hemisphere.
According to Wilson Jeremiah Moses in his famous work Classical Black
Nationalism, black nationalism as a philosophy can be examined from three
different periods giving rise to various ideological perspectives for what we can
today consider what black nationalism really is.
The first being pre-Classical black nationalism beginning from the time the
Africans were brought ashore in the Americas to the Revolutionary period.
After the Revolutionary War, a sizable number of Africans in the colonies,
particularly in New England and Pennsylvania, were literate and had become
disgusted with their social conditions that had spawned from Enlightenment ideas. We find in
such historical personalities as Prince Hall, Richard Allen, and Absalom Jones a need to
found certain organizations as the Free African Society, African Masonic lodges and
Church Institutions. These institutions would serve as early foundations to developing
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLACK NATIONALISM
Page 2
independent and separate organizations. By the time of Post-Reconstruction Era a new form of
black nationalism was emerging among various African-American clergy circles. Separate
circles had already been established and were accepted by African-Americans because of the
overt oppression that had been in existence since the inception of the United States. This
phenomenon led to the birth of modern black nationalism which stressed the need to separate
and build separate communities that promote strong racial pride and also to collectivize
resources. This ideology had become the philosophy of groups like the Moorish Science Temple
and the Nation of Islam. Although, the Sixties brought on a heightened period of religious,
cultural and political nationalism, black nationalism would later influence afrocentricity .
Background
Marcus Garvey
Page 3
Malcolm X
Between 1953 and 1965, while most black leaders worked in the civil rights
movement integrate black people into mainstream American life, Malcolm X
preached independence. He maintained that Western culture, and the JudeoChristian religious traditions on which it is based, was inherently racist. Constantly
ridiculing mainstream civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X
declared that nonviolence was the "philosophy of the fool". In response to
Reverend King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, Malcolm X quipped, "While
King was having a dream, the rest of us Negroes are having a nightmare."
Malcolm X believed that black people must develop their own society and ethical values,
including the self-help, community-based enterprises that the black Muslims supported. He also
thought that African Americans should reject integration or cooperation with European
Americans until they could achieve cooperation among themselves. Malcolm called for a "black
revolution." He declared there "would be bloodshed" if the racism problem in America remained
ignored, and he renounced any sort of "compromise" with whites. After taking part in a Hajj
(pilgrimage to Mecca), he recanted extremist opinions in favor of mainstream Islam and ["true
brotherhood"], and was soon after assassinated during a speech held at The Audubon
Ballroom, NYC.
Upon his return from Mecca, Malcolm X abandoned his commitment to racial separatism;
however, he was still in favour of black nationalism and advocated that black people in the U.S.
be self-reliant. The beliefs of post-Mecca Malcolm X are articulated in the charter of his
Organization of Afro-American Unity (a black nationalist group patterned after the Organization
of African Unity).
Page 4
Frantz Fanon
While in France Frantz Fanon wrote his first book, Black Skin, White Mask, an
analysis of the impact of colonial subjugation on the black psyche. This book was
a very personal account of Fanons experience being black: as a man, an
intellectual, and a party to a French education. Although Fanon wrote the book
while still in France, most of his other work was written while in North Africa (in
particular Algeria). It was during this time that he produced his greatest works, A
Dying Colonialism and perhaps the most important work on decolonization yet
written, The Wretched of the Earth.. In it, Fanon lucidly analyzes the role of class,
race, national culture and violence in the struggle for national liberation. In this seminal work
Fanon expounded his views on the liberating role of violence for the colonized, as well as the
general necessity of violence in the anti-colonial struggle. Both books firmly established Fanon
in the eyes of much of the Third World as the leading anti-colonial thinker of the 20th century. In
1959 he compiled his essays on Algeria in a book called L'An Cinq: De la Rvolution
Algrienne.
Black Power
Black Power was a political movement expressing a new racial consciousness
among black people in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Black
Power represented both a conclusion to the decade's civil rights movement
and an alternative means of combating the racism that persisted despite the
efforts of black activists during the early 1960s. The meaning of Black Power
was debated vigorously while the movement was in progress. To some it
represented African-Americans' insistence on racial dignity and self-reliance,
which was usually interpreted as economic and political independence, as
well as freedom from European American authority. These themes had been
advanced most forcefully in the early 1960s by Malcolm X. He argued that black people should
focus on improving their own communities, rather than striving for complete integration, and that
black people had a duty to retaliate against violent assaults. The publication of The
Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) created further support for the idea of African-American
self-determination and had a strong influence on the emerging leaders of the Black Power
movement. Other interpreters of Black Power emphasized the cultural heritage of black people,
especially the African roots of their identity. This view encouraged study and celebration of black
history and culture. In the late 1960s black college students requested curricula in AfricanAmerican studies that explored their distinctive culture and history. Still another view of black
Power called for a revolutionary political struggle to reject racism and economic exploitation in
the United States and abroad, as well as colonialism. This interpretation encouraged the
alliance of non-whites, including Hispanics and Asians, to improve the quality of their lives.
Page 5
Uhuru Movement
The Uhuru Movement is the largest contemporary black movement advocating
black nationalism and was founded in the 1980s in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Composed mainly of the African People's Socialist Party, the Uhuru Movement
also includes other organizations based in both Africa and the United States.
These organizations are in the process of establishing a broader organization called the African
Socialist International. "Uhuru" is the Swahili word for freedom.
Page 6
ORGANIZATION OF NEW
AFRIKAN UNITY IS A
MODERNIZED IMPLEMENTATION
OF MINISTER MALCOLM'S OAAU
AS WELL AS THE TEACHINGS OF
PAC/NEW AFRIKAN PANTHAZ
AND MARCUS GARVEY. AS WELL
AS OUR COMPREHENSIVE NEW
AFRIKAN IN AMERICA
HISTORICAL TOPICS LIBRARY
http://onau2x.ning.com/
CEMOTAP-COMMITTEE TO
ELIMINATE MEDIA OFFENSIVE TO
AFRIKAN PEOPLE IS THE
PSYCHOLOGY SOCIOLOGY AND
POLITICS OF MEDIA.
http://cemotap.ning.com/
RBG STREET SCHOLARS
THINK TANK FREE
INTERACTIVE PUBLICATIONS
/ TUTORIALS (400+) FOR
BROWSING, STUDYING AND
DOWNLOAD
Page 7
throughout the diaspora are bound by the common history and experience of historical chattel
and present day mental slavery, suffering and death under the boot heel of white supremacy /
racism. Most importantly, RBG is about self-reliance, self- respect and self-defense toward the
total liberation and unification of all Afrikan people that desire to defend, define and develop in
our own image and interest.
Page 8