BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
INSTRUCTIONS: Your task is to read the fact sheet, come up with a 3 min. rap,
poem, song, visual art piece, or other method of storytelling that will share the
information of your piece with the group [NO SKITS! Let’s stretch our creativity].
You are to work in as many key facts into your performance as possible (key
facts are in bold and/or underlined). Answer the 3 leading questions to base your
‘ARTIVISM’ off of.
The Abolition/Anti-Slavery Movement
The ‘Abolition/Anti-Slavery Movement’ took off in the 18th century and
continued throughout in response to the slavery going on here in the
United States and Western Europe. This movement called for the
immediate end (or ‘abolishment’) of the trading and owning of slaves
as well as for the emancipation (or freedom) for the slaves. They
fought under the notion that ‘everyone is human and created equally’;
slavery was un-Christian; and it was morally wrong.
In 1775, Quakers in Philadelphia formed the 1st abolition society called
the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage
because of their strong religious objections towards slavery. Others like
John Brown advocated and conducted armed insurrection to overthrow
the institution of slavery and was hung by his white peers for doing so.
Sojourner Truth, former slave and women’s rights activist was a powerful
advocate and voice for the abolition of slavery changing lives wherever
she went. Frederick Douglas, former slave, was the most revered and
respected Black intellectual as well as the 1st African-American to be
nominated as a Vice Presidential candidate. Harriet Tubman, run away
slave, rescued over 300 hundred slaves and took them north in what
would be known as the ‘Underground Rail Road’. Nat Turner, like John
Brown, advocated for armed insurrection and led a slave rebellion noted in
history as the most severe blow to the community of slave owners in the
United States.
This movement led to the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 officially
ending slavery in the United States.
1. What was the movement about, fighting for, or trying to achieve?
2. Who were some groups or folks that took part in this movement?
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
3. What influence did the movement have on our present day and age?
INSTRUCTIONS: Your task is to read the fact sheet, come up with a 3 min. rap,
poem, song, visual art piece, or other method of storytelling that will share the
information of your piece with the group [NO SKITS! Let’s stretch our creativity].
You are to work in as many key facts into your performance as possible (key
facts are in bold and/or underlined). Answer the 3 leading questions to base your
‘ARTIVISM’ off of.
The Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement spanned from 1955 to 1968 in response to the
violence, racist ‘Jim Crow’ laws mandating segregation in all public facilities
(ex. Whites only/Colored only), and disenfranchisement (not given the right to
vote). The aim of the movement was to abolish racial discrimination on all
levels (ex. economic, political) towards African-Americans and other
people of color from white people in the United States.
Led by Ella Baker, civil and human rights activist, the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) conducted voter registration drives up and
down the South amongst other things during the movement. Similar to the
SNCC, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), fought against ‘Jim Crow’
laws and for voter rights under the notion that ‘all people are created equal’.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was led by Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. and was truly at the fore front of what they personally
called the ‘Southern Freedom Movement’ because this was not just a fight for
civil rights but for dignity as well. All three of the groups above participated in
sit ins and civil disobedience like bus boycotts and sit-ins. Rosa Parks was
the first amongst many African-Americans who participated in civil
disobedience during that time refusing to ‘sit in the back of the bus’. While Dr.
King and others were advocating non-violence, civil disobedience and
integration Black Nationalists like Malcolm X, at the time, called for armed
self-defense and separation from white people.
Achievements during this movement were the Civil Rights Act of 1964
banning job and public accommodations discrimination, the Voting
Rights Act of 1965 which restored and protected voting rights for all, the
Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 which allowed other
non-white or European immigrants to migrate to the U.S., and the Civil
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
Rights Act of 1968 banning discrimination in the sale or rental of
housing.
1. What was the movement about, fighting for, or trying to achieve?
2. Who were some groups or folks that took part in this movement?
3. What influence did the movement have on our present day and age?
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
INSTRUCTIONS: Your task is to read the fact sheet, come up with a 3 min. rap,
poem, song, visual art piece, or other method of storytelling that will share the
information of your piece with the group [NO SKITS! Let’s stretch our creativity].
You are to work in as many key facts into your performance as possible (key
facts are in bold and/or underlined). Answer the 3 leading questions to base your
‘ARTIVISM’ off of.
The Black Power Movement
The Black Power Movement was brewing for quite sometime surfacing
right after the Civil Rights Movement that took place from 1955-1968. It
was it’s strongest from 1968 to the early 1970’s, emphasizing “racial
pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to
nurture and promote black collective interests, advance black
values, and secure black autonomy” (Wikipedia, 2008). So not only was
this a political movement but a cultural movement as well promoting the
notion that ‘Black is Beautiful’ denouncing the extreme measures some
people took to ‘look white’ (ex. straightening ones hair or bleaching ones
skin).
The most well known group associated with the ‘Black Power Movement’
was and still is The Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Beginning in
Oakland and spreading nation and world wide, The Black Panther Party
believed in self-defense, self-sustainment and determination. Also, The
Party created community programs like ‘free breakfast for children’ and
‘free health clinics’. Many organizers/activists emerged from The Party
like Fred Hampton, Mumia Abu Jamal, Angela Davis, and Assata
Shakur. The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was also influential in the
Black Power Movement. BLA was an underground, militant organization
that believed in taking up arms for the liberation and self-determination
of Black people in the United States. As a cultural movement, great artists
and intellectuals like Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou would take the
Black Power Movement to hearts and minds of the masses creating not
only Black Power but Black Consciousness too.
The impact of this movement forced the creation of ethnic studies in
colleges all over the nation as well as various self-sustaining
community groups and institutions that did not depend on white
people. The Black Power Movement mobilized Black voters to
nominate, vote for, and elect Black candidates (ex. Jesse Jackson,
Barack Obama). Overall this movement instilled a sense of Black Pride,
uplifting and empowering Black people here and all around the world.
1. What was the movement about, fighting for, or trying to achieve?
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
2. Who were some groups or folks that took part in this movement?
3. What influence did the movement have on our present day and age?
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS NOTE TAKING
ABOLTION/ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT
1. What was the movement about, fighting for, or trying to achieve?
2. Who were some groups or folks that took part in this movement?
3. What influence did the movement have on our present day and age?
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
1. What was the movement about, fighting for, or trying to achieve?
2. Who were some groups or folks that took part in this movement?
3. What influence did the movement have on our present day and age?
BLACK POWER MOVEMENT
1. What was the movement about, fighting for, or trying to achieve?
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
2. Who were some groups or folks that took part in this movement?
3. What influence did the movement have on our present day and age?
THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY FOR SELF DEFENSE- 10 POINT PROGRAM
(courtesy of blackpanther.org)
1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR
BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our destinies
in our own communities ourselves, by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities.
2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.
We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every person employment
or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full employment, then
the technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the
community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high
standard of living.
3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALISTS OF OUR BLACK AND
OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of
forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave
labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed
to our many communities. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of our fifty million Black
people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.
4. WE WANT DECENT HOUSING, FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.
We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black and oppressed communities,
then housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with
government aid, can build and make decent housing for the people.
5. WE WANT DECENT 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.
We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of the self. If you do not
have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and in the world, then you will have little
chance to know anything else.
6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR All BLACK AND OPPRESSED
PEOPLE.
We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will
not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will
also develop preventive medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health
education and research programs must be developed to give all Black and oppressed people access to
advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide our selves with proper medical attention
and care.
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK
PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, All OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED
STATES.
We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic enforcement
agencies to carry out its program of oppression against black people, other people of color and poor people
inside the united States. We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend ourselves against such armed forces
and that all Black and oppressed people should be armed for self defense of our homes and communities
against these fascist police forces.
8. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.
We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the aggressive
desire of the United States ruling circle and government to force its domination upon the oppressed people
of the world. We believe that if the United States government or its lackeys do not cease these aggressive
wars it is the right of the people to defend themselves by any means necessary against their aggressors.
9. WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U. S.
FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT
TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR All PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES
UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.
We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people now held in United States prisons and jails
have not received fair and impartial trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from
incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched, inhuman penal institutions, because
the masses of men and women imprisoned inside the United States or by the United States military are the
victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their imprisonment. We believe that when
persons are brought to trial they must be guaranteed, by the United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of
their choice and freedom from imprisonment while awaiting trial.
10. WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND
PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions
of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That
to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right
of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such
principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety
and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for
light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are most disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpation, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces
a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
Black Panther Community Programs
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
Black Panther Party Community Programs
1966 - 1982
1. Alameda County Volunteer Bureau Work Site
2. Benefit Counseling
3. Black Student Alliance
4. Child Development Center
5. Consumer Education Classes
6. Community Facility Use
7. Community Health Classes
8. East Oakland CIL (Center for Independent Living) Branch
9. Community Pantry (Free Food Program)
10. Drug/Alcohol Abuse Awareness Program
11. Drama Classes
12. Disabled Persons Services/Transportation and Attendant
13. Drill Team
14. Employment Referral Service
15. Free Ambulance Program
16. Free Breakfast for Children Programs
17. Free Busing to Prisons Program
18. Free Clothing Program
19. Free Commissary for Prisoners Program
20. Free Dental Program
21. Free Employment Program
22. Free Food Program
23. Free Film Series
24. Free Furniture Program
25. Free Health Clinics
26. Free Housing Cooperative Program
27. Food Cooperative Program
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
28. Free Optometry Program
29. Community Forum
30. Free Pest Control Program
31. Free Plumbing and Maintenance Program
32. Free Shoe Program
33. GED Classes
34. Geriatric Health Center
35. GYN Clinic
36. Home SAFE Visits
37. Intercommunal Youth Institute (becomes OCS by 1975)
38. Junior and High School Tutorial Program
39. Legal Aid and Education
40. Legal Clinic/Workshops
41. Laney Experimental College Extension Site
42. Legal Referral Service(s)
43. Liberation Schools
44. Martial Arts Program
45. Nutrition Classes
46. Oakland Community Learning Center
47. Outreach Preventative Care
48. Program Development
49. Pediatric Clinic
50. police patrols
51. Seniors Against a Fearful Environment
52. SAFE Club
53. Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation
54. Son of Man Temple (becomes Community Forum by 1976)
55. Sports
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
56. Senior Switchboard
57. The Black Panther Newspaper
58. Teen Council
59. Teen Program
60. U.C. Berkeley Students Health Program
61. V.D. Preventative Screening & Counseling
62. Visiting Nurses Program
63. WIC (Women Infants, and Children) Program
64. Youth Diversion and Probation Site
65. Youth Training and Development
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
WOMEN OF THE BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT
was a
runaway slave from Maryland who became
known as the "Moses of her people." Over
the course of 10 years, and at great personal
risk, I led hundreds of slaves to freedom
along the Underground Railroad, a secret
network of safe houses where runaway
slaves could stay on their journey north to
freedom. I later became a leader in the
abolitionist movement, and during the Civil
War I was a spy for the federal forces in
South Carolina as well as a nurse.
- Born
(born Araminta Ross; c. 1820 – 10 March 1913), I
(Retreived from http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/tubman on 2/6/09)
Harriet Tubman
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
I was born on December 13, 1903, in Norfolk,
Virginia. I developed a sense for social justice
early in her life. As a college student in North
Carolina, I always challenged my schools unjust
policies. In 1927 I graduated valedictorian of my
class and moved to New York shortly after. In
1930, I joined the Young Negroes Cooperative
League. In 1940, I began her involvement with
the NAACP. In 1957, I moved to Atlanta to
organize Martin Luther King's new organization,
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC). I also ran a voter registration campaign
called the Crusade for Citizenship.
(Retrieved from http://www.ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=19&contentid=9 on 2/6/09)
Ella Baker
BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT HANDOUTS 1-5
My name is BLANK ("she who struggles") BLANK ("the
thankful one"), and I am a 20th century escaped slave.
Because of government persecution, I was left with no
other choice than to flee from the political repression,
racism and violence that dominate the US government's
policy towards people of color. I am an ex political
prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since
1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and
although the U.S. government has done everything in its
power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I
ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in various
struggles: the black liberation movement, the student rights
movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I
joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969 the Black Panther
Party had become the number one organization targeted by
the FBI's COINTELPRO program because the Black
Panther Party demanded the total liberation of black
people, J. Edgar Hoover called it "greatest threat to the
internal security of the country" and vowed to destroy it
and its leaders and activists.
(Retrieved from http://www.assatashakur.org/ on 2/6/09).
Assata Shakur