Adapted From: Teaching American
History Grant
Dr. Leslie Burl McLemore
There are major strains of Black Nationalism: Cultural Black Nationalism,
Religious Black Nationalism, Political Black Nationalism, and Economic/anticolonial Black Nationalism. We can speak of three periods of Black
Nationalism. The first after the Revolutionary War, was characterized by a
critical mass of Africans brought to New England, called Classical Negro
Nationalism. This period witnessed the development of the Free African
Society, African Masonic Lodges and Black Churches. These institutions were
founded and developed by individuals such as Prince Hall and Richard Allen.
The Post-Reconstruction Era marked the second period of Black Nationalism,
which was associated with the African American clergy. This period ushered in
what has been described as modern-day Black Nationalism. Indeed, the term
“Black Nationalism” has been used in American History to describe a body of
social thought, attitudes, and actions ranging from the simplest expressions
of ethnocentrism and racial solidarity to the comprehensive and sophisticated
ideologies of Pan-Negroism to Pan-Africanism. We can trace the development
of Black Nationalism through the thinking of people such as Richard Allen,
Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, Reverend
Albert Cleage and the phenomenon known as Black Power.
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What role did religion play in the
development of Black Nationalism?
How would you compare the various
strains of Black Nationalism? In what
ways do they impact each other?
In what way does any particular strand
relate to your world?
How might Black Nationalism inform
present and future movements?
Black Nationalism
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It is helpful to draw a distinction between
nationalism as a socio-economic or political
movement (the outer domain ) and nationalism as a
cultural construct (the inner domain). Whilst the
former seeks to challenge the colonial state, the
latter enables the colonized subject to create an
autonomous personal space. It is this second
process where, long before it begins its political
struggle, nationalism operates “to fashion a
modern project that is nevertheless not Western”.
Chatterjee writes that “if the nation is an imagined
community, then this is where it is brought into
being”
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loyalty and devotion to a nation; especially: a
sense of national consciousness exalting one
nation above all others and placing primary
emphasis on promotion of its culture and
interests as opposed to those of other
nations or supranational groups
Merriam –Webster Dictionary
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It stems from African Americans viewing
themselves, individually and as a group,
through the eyes of the society they live in.
Du Bois says it is "always looking at one's self
through the eyes of others, of measuring
one's soul by the tape of a world that looks
on in amused contempt and pity“. This
produces what Du Bois calls a "twoness, - an
American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts,
two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals
in one dark body"
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Black Nationalism (BN) in a racialized or
colonial context can advocate a racial
definition (or redefinition) of national identity,
as opposed to assimilationist or multicultural
There are different indigenous nationalist
philosophies but the principles of all African
nationalist ideologies include unity, and selfdetermination or independence from
European society. Martin Delany is considered
to be the grandfather of African American
nationalism.
Four Major Strains
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Born Ronald McKinley Everett
July 14, 1941
African American professor Africana
Studies, activist and author
Creator of the pan-African and
African American holiday of Kwanzaa
Karenga was a major figure in the
Black Power movement of the 1960s
and 1970s
Co-founded the black nationalist and
social change organization US which
means "Us Black people“
Chair of the Africana Studies
Department at California State
University, Long Beach
Director of the Kawaida Institute for
Pan African Studies
“I created Kwanzaa in the context of
the Black Freedom Movement”
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April 1, 1949 - May 27,
2011
Soul and Jazz poet,
musician and author;
known for his spoken word
His collaborative efforts
with musician Brian Jackson
featured a musical fusion of
jazz, blues, and soul, as
well as lyrical content
concerning social and
political issues of the time
Artistically influence to
many contemporary
musicians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rGaRtqrlGy8
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The Black Arts Movement (BAM) is
the artistic branch of the Black Power
movement.
Started in Harlem by writer and
activist Amiri Baraka (born Everett
LeRoi Jones).
Time magazine describes the Black
Arts Movement as the "single most
controversial moment in the history
of African-American literature –
possibly in American literature as a
whole”
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It inspired black people to establish
their own publishing houses,
magazines, journals and art
institutions. It led to the creation of
African-American Studies programs
within universities
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Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman
1911 - February 20, 2000
Christian leader, political
candidate, newspaper
publisher, political
organizer and author
Founder of the Shrine of the
Black Madonna Church and
Cultural Centers
Studied Sociology at Wayne
State University
Bachelor of Divinity from
Oberlin Graduate School of
Theology in 1943
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Born Elijah Robert Poole
October 7, 1897– February 25, 1975
The sixth of thirteen children
Religious leader, mentor to Malcolm X
Led the Nation of Islam from 1934
until his death in 1975
1931 attended speech on Islam and
Black Empowerment by Wallace D. Fard
1934 – Name minister of Islam
1934 – the Nation of Islam published
its first newspaper, Final Call to Islam
1942 – Arrested for failure to register
for the draft during WWII
1972 – Nation of Islam net worth of
$75 Million
Black Nationalism
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The Nation of Islam is a religious-based
nationalist movement founded in Detroit,
Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July
1930. Its stated goals are to improve the
spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition
of African Americans in the United States and all
of humanity. Its critics accuse it of being black
supremacist and anti-Semitic
After Fard's departure in June 1934, the Nation of
Islam was led by Elijah Muhammad, who
established mosques called Temples, Schools
named Muhammad University of Islam,
businesses, farms and real estate holdings in the
United States and abroad.
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May 19, 1925 – February
21, 1965
African American Muslim
Minister and human rights
activist
Became a member of the
Nation of Islam in 1952
For 12 years, he was the
face of the Nation of Islam
As a spokesman for the
Nation of Islam he taught
black supremacy and
advocated separation of
black and white
Americans—in contrast to
the civil rights movement's
emphasis on integration.
"Our objective is complete
freedom, justice and equality by
any means necessary."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WDEL96igPAA
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An activist-teacher-writer native of
Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy
One of the founding members of the
Black Panther Party as well as an
activist within the Student Nonviolent
Committee (SNCC) and the Black Arts
Movement of the Sixties
He became one of the first Black
Studies directors in 1969 when he
was hired to chair Sarah Lawrence
College’s Black Studies program.
A founding member of the Black
Student Congress, African Heritage
Studies Association, African
Liberation Support Committee, The
Black New York Action Committee,
Black Liberation Press, and The New
York Algebra Project.
The Republic of New Afrika (RNA), was a social
movement that proposed three objectives.
 Creation of an independent African-Americanmajority in the southeastern United States.
 Payment of several billion dollars in reparations
from the US government for the damages
inflicted on Africans and their descendants
 A referendum of all African Americans in order to
decide what should be done with regard to their
citizenship
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May 2, 1930 –
January 18, 2010
Black separatist,
advocate for
reparations, and
President of the
Republic of New
Afrika (RNA)
“The Father of
Reparations”
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.
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August 1887 – June 10,
1940
Jamaican political leader,
publisher, entrepreneur and
orator
President of the Universal
Negro Improvement
Association and African
Communities League
Founded the Black Star Line
Part of the Back-to Africa
Movement which promoted
the return of the African to
their ancestral lands
Diaspora
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The broad mission of the UNIAACL led to the establishment of
numerous auxiliary
components, among them the
Universal African Legion, the
African Black Cross Nurses;
African Black Cross Society; the
Universal African Motor Corps;
the Black Eagle Flying Corps;
the Black Star Steamship Line;
the Black Cross Trading and
Navigation Corporation; as well
as the Negro Factories
Corporation.
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A movement that seeks to unify African
people or people living in Africa, or within the
diaspora into a “single African community”.
Differing types of Pan-Africanism seek
different levels of economic, racial, social, or
political unity.
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dedicated to independence for African nations and cultivating
unity among black people throughout the world. It originated in
conferences held in London (1900, 1919, 1921, 1923) and other
cities. DuBois was a principal early leader. Kenya’s Jomo
Kenyatta and Ghana’s Kwame Nkruma were key leaders. The first
truly intergovernmental conference was held in Accra, Ghana, in
1958, where Patrice Lamumba was a key speaker. The PanAfricanist Congress (PAC) was founded by Robert Sobukwe and
others in South Africa in 1959 as a political alternative to the
African Nationalist Congress. The founding of the Organization
of African Unity (OAU; now the African Union) by Julius Nyerere
and others in 1963 was a milestone, and the OAU soon became
the most important Pan-Africanist organization, Malcolm X
founded the OAAU in 1964 less than a year before his death.
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June 29, 1941 – November 15,
1998
A prominent leader of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC)
Honorary Prime Minister of the
Black Panther Party
“Black Power”
1960 – Attend Howard University
1961 – Participated in the
Freedom Rides of the Congress
of Racial Equality (CORE)
At age 19, he became the
youngest detainee in the summer
of 1961
1964 – offered a full scholarship
to Harvard but turned it down
“It is a call for black people in this
country to unite, to recognize their
heritage, to build a sense of
community. It is a call for black people
to define their own goals, to lead their
own organizations.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=P0_tvVSFqQI
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Founded in Oakland,
California by Huey
Newton and Bobby
Seale on October 15,
1966
African-American
revolutionary leftist
organization active in
the United States from
1966 until 1982.
Became an icon of the
counterculture of the
1960s
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We want freedom. We want power to determine
the destiny of our black Community.
We want full employment for our people.
We want an end to the robbery by the white
man of our black Community.
We want decent housing, fit for shelter of
human beings.
We want education for our people that exposes
the true nature of this decadent American
society. We want education that teaches us our
true history and our role in the present-day
society.
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We want all black men to be exempt from military
service.
We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and
MURDER of black people.
We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state,
county and city prisons and jails.
We want all black people when brought to trial to be
tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people
from their black communities, as defined by the
Constitution of the United States.
We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing,
justice and peace. And as our major political objective, a
United Nations-supervised plebiscite to be held
throughout the black colony in which only black colonial
subjects will be allowed to participate for the purpose of
determining the will of black people as to their national
destiny.
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February 17, 1942 – August
22, 1989
Co-Founded the Black
Panther Party for Self Defense
The youngest of seven
children from Monroe,
Louisiana
As a student at Merritt
College in Oakland, Newton
became involved in politics
Instrumental in getting the
first African American history
course adopted
Member of Phi Beta Sigma
Fraternity
“Black Power is giving power to
people who have not had power
to determine their destiny”
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October 22, 1936
Co-Founded the Black
Panther Party
Joined the U.S. Air Force in
1955
Attended Merritt College in
1962 where he joined the
Afro-American Association
(AAA)
One of the original "Chicago
Eight" defendants charged
with conspiracy and inciting
to riot, in the wake of the
1968 Democratic National
Convention, in Chicago
“You don't fight racism with racism,
the best way to fight racism is with
solidarity”
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How has Black Nationalism helped to inform
the national dialogue today?
How can we utilize the thinking of the Black
Nationalist to provide a pathway to more
open society?
How have we integrate the thinking of the
Black Nationalist into the national
conversation?