Origins
Black Nationalism
June 5, 1966: The beginning of Black Power
On June 5, 1966, James Meredith, who integrated the University of Mississippi four years prior, began a “March Against Fear” from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi to encourage black voter registration. One day in, he was (not fatally) shot by a sniper. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Stokely Carmichael, among others, stepped in to continue his march. Ten days later, in Greenwood, Mississippi, Carmichael was arrested--his 27th time, he said--for pitching a tent on the grounds of a local black school. Upon his release he gave a rousing speech to a crowd of over 3,000, originating the phrase “Black Power.” “I ain’t going to jail no more… We been saying ‘Freedom’ for six years and we ain’t got nothin’. What we gonna start saying now is Black Power!” The crowd chanted “Black Power” back to him.
The march, shooting and speech were a turning point for Carmichael’s personal ideology as well as the Civil Rights Movement as a whole, from King’s nonviolent striving toward freedom to Carmichael’s emerging militant philosophy. Carmichael’s speech sent Mississippi whites into a flurry, prompting King to call the phrase “an unfortunate choice of words.” According to Meredith, the march and its aftermath “change(d) the whole direction” of the movement, saying in a recent interview, “‘Blacks were too scared to do anything, but they came out to greet James Meredith': That would have been the story in the evening news if I hadn't gotten myself shot. But I got shot and that allowed the movement protest thing to take over then and do their thing."
Black Panther Party in San Francisco
Source: Washington University
Chicano Movement
The Chicano Movement was based on Mexican-American affirmation of heritage and the realization that their heritage was being lost to the United States’ melting pot. Chicano, at the time of the movement, was an indicator of a proud Mexican-American. Initially the term Chicano served as a derogatory identifier for Mexicans who recently immigrated to the United States. Much like other ethnic groups, Chicanos faced laws and social codes that kept them in an economic and social dependency to the white majority. Jose B. Cuellar explains quite clearly that “‘Chicanismo’ referred to the driving consciousness of the shared struggles for human and civil rights” and all culminating into the now phrased Chicano Movement. The Chicano Movement’s catalyst was the systemic racism that was seen across the United States, and Chicanos began to awaken from this state of idleness. Richard Duardo’s account of this awakening illustrates the importance behind the movement and why it was important to not back down for such violent resistance.
The Origins of the movement as well as the word Chicano are beautifully illustrated in Rodolfo Gonzales’ poem, I am Joaquin. In one excerpt, Corky Gonzales painted the image that by forgetting one’s past was to lose all sense of identity in the melting pot. “Who rejects my father and my mother and dissolves into the melting pot to disappear in shame.” For Chicanos, the history and the color of their skin defined who they were and who they would be fighting against. Droves of Chicanos were shipped off to fight against the enemies of capitalism, while back home Mexican-Americans were treated as second class citizens. The Chicano Movement was a means to break from the chains of assimulation and to stand idle in the face of oppression. Chicanos fought for many privileges that would help keep Mexican-Americans from losing their identities as Mexicans. They sought to have their voices represented equally in Congress, in local offices, and even in school boards. Chicanos fought for the possibility of have teachers and courses that related to their beliefs and lives. In this short exhibit of the Chicano Movement however, one will only see the ideology behind the movement with an emphasis behind the shift from non-violence to militancy, the cultural nationalism, the Chicana activist, and the importance of art on the Chicano Movement.
Works Cited
“At the Birth of Black Power.” Tufts Now. September 2, 2014. Accessed on April 1, 2017. http://now.tufts.edu/articles/birth-black-power
“James Meredith on What Today’s Activism is Missing.” Time. June 6, 2016. Accessed on April 1, 2017. http://time.com/4356404/james-meredith-50th-anniversary-march-against-fear/
“Power Player.” Smithsonian Magazine. June, 2016. Accessed on April 1, 2017. http://proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=fth&AN=115645679&site=eds-live#.WOUJxgj2UMQ.gmail
“This Day in History: James Meredith Shot.” History.com. 2010. Accessed on April 1, 2017. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/james-meredith-shot