David Goldberg, Trevor Grifey, eds. Power at Work: Community Control, Affirmative Action, and the Construction Industry. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010. x + 265 pp. $24.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8014-7431-6.

Daniel R. Magaziner. The Law and the Prophets: Black Consciousness in South Africa, 1968–1977. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2010. 298 pp. $26.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8214-1918-2.

Yohuru Williams, Jama Yazerow, eds. In Search of the : New Perspectives on a Movement. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006. x + 390 pp. $23.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8223-3890-1.

Reviewed by Derek Catsam (University of of the Permian Basin)

Published on H-1960s (January, 2013)

Commissioned by Zachary J. Lechner (Centenary College of Louisiana)

Reconsidering Black Nationalisms: , Black Consciousness, and the

On a highway in Mississippi Stokely thers. And in South Africa rose to fill the Carmichael called for Black Power. In Northern space of a quiescent anti-Apartheid movement by and Huey Newton raised calling for Black Consciousness. their fists and wielded their guns as Black Pan‐ H-Net Reviews

These images are not inaccurate as represen‐ (2007), a wide-reaching and expansive exploration tations of their respective movements. But they of black nationalist alternatives to the prevailing fall woefully short of providing a full picture of the nonviolent . Unwilling to ac‐ struggles against in the United cept narrow labels or to limit views of Black Power States and South Africa that emerged in the late to its most visible adherents, and certainly seeing 1960s. And the passage of time has allowed for the beyond the Black Panthers, Joseph manages to emergence of mythology in the place of history. convey the richness of Black Power: the call for This mythology has in turn flattened and cultural and intellectual autonomy derived from warped the past. Thus, in the , “Black within the black community; the demand for more Power” and the Black Panthers have come to rep‐ than simply overcoming the worst of Jim Crow in resent a shameful rejection of the nonviolent path the South but rather demands for a better life in embodied by Martin Luther King Jr. In South northern cities as well; calls for Black Power, yes, Africa, Black Consciousness has too often been but also for ; and an insistence that seen as representing the ineffectual and star- black was indeed beautiful. Joseph both built on crossed aftermath of the crushing of the African and wrote in the midst of a surge of works empha‐ National Congress (ANC) in the wake of the 1960 sizing that in many circles in the South as well as Sharpeville Massacre. If in the United States, Black the North self-defense was considered fully legiti‐ Power and the Black Panthers represent a rejec‐ mate, revealing how the use of violence for protec‐ tion of the integrationism of King and his follow‐ tion was far more common than the King-centered ers, Black Consciousness is usually seen as a natu‐ narrative of civil rights recognizes. Furthermore, ral, but ill-fated, outcropping of the suppression of Joseph reminds us of the holistic nature of Black legitimate protest embodied in the ANC. To be sure, Power, which encouraged artists, provided meals the image of Black Power, the Black Panthers, and and books for children, and pursued community similar movements carry a negative stigma in the organizing far from the media’s glare. American popular consciousness more than does Providing evidence both that Joseph was not Black Consciousness in South Africa. But in both alone in his pursuit of a richer understanding of the American and South African examples, various these trends and that Black Power was about more strains of inevitably emerge as than simply the rhetoric and images that journal‐ being subservient to (and even destructive of) a ists frequently used to capitalize on the fears of larger and perhaps more palatable movement. If white America are the essays in David Goldberg’s King casts a heavy shadow in the United States, a and Trevor Griffey’s Black Power at Work. Their ti‐ shadow deepened by his martyrdom, Nelson Man‐ tle is to be taken literally, for Black Power was of‐ dela and other members of the struggle generation ten about economic opportunity and providing tend at least to shroud the popular understanding jobs, especially for the urban working class and of Black Consciousness and its main adherents. working poor. The authors who contribute to this In the last few years, historians have granted collection investigate a wide array of case studies Black Power, in its myriad forms, a good deal of at‐ showing how employment, unionism, affirmative tention. Always a current in the historiography of action, and Black Power melded to try to provide race, civil rights, and African American history, the economic opportunity for construction workers. trickle in recent years has become a flood. Much of Initially, many readers might think this focus the credit for this wave is the result of Peniel E. on construction jobs to be narrow, even parochial, Joseph’s fine book, Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour: but instead the book’s contributors demonstrate A Narrative History of Black Power in America how in just this one area Black Power proves far

2 H-Net Reviews more complex and varied than traditional histori‐ Bay Area out West. The authors emphasize labor ography, never mind the popular perception, has and affirmative action, but also the often inter‐ understood. These case studies “unsettle assump‐ twined roles of class and masculinity. If traditional tions,” as the editors assert, and feed long civil histories of civil rights place Dwight Eisenhower, rights movement concepts through their emphasis John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson at the cen‐ on local politics in the North, Midwest, and West, ter of national fights, these essayists, looking as emphasizing how local actors often wanted to they do at the late 1960s and the 1970s, tend to lo‐ work within existing systems (p. 5). Far from de‐ cate their national political center of gravity in manding separatism, these activists actually want‐ Richard Nixon. Additionally, they highlight the ed to work within existing labor frameworks and complexities of affirmative action while, in the to be integrated into existing (and white-dominat‐ end, busting a range of myths on this front too. ed) labor unions. Perhaps not surprisingly, the They show how white workers and the politicians white unions became part of the problem for advo‐ who have over the years found black workers use‐ cates of jobs for black construction workers. ful as political props have blamed affirmative ac‐ These demands were not easily met, and when tion for various difficulties with virtually no evi‐ Black Power adherents ran into intransigence, dence. protests and sometimes riots (or at least “riots”) None of this analysis is as sexy as and emerged, especially in the summer and fall of 1969, raised fists, perhaps. But it may well be more repre‐ when demands for access, often in the form of af‐ sentative of what Black Power meant to many of firmative action, resulted in large-scale protests at those individuals in the middle of the movement. least in part because organizers wanted to “capi‐ The theater of struggle was great. Jobs, subsistence, talize on white people’s fears in the wake of urban and opportunity, however, lay at the heart of Black rebellions” (p. 10). In linking Black Power with la‐ Power for the many people whose blackness kept bor, economic demands, and affirmative action, them from opportunity and thus politicized them the contributors to this volume further challenge to seek some kind of power. the declension narrative in which the noble nonvi‐ A 2003 conference held at Wheelock College olent armies of the classic phase of the civil rights provided the genesis for the essays in Jama Laze‐ movement gave way to angry, radical black men row and Yohuru Williams’s fine collection In and women. But rather than romanticize their Search of the Black Panther Party. If the contribu‐ subject, the authors are almost universally aware tors to Black Power at Work see their topic that the windows that Black Power activists forced through the lens of the construction industry and open tended to close quickly, and “while African the limited economic opportunities that it repre‐ American movements to desegregate the construc‐ sented, the authors of these essays cover wider ter‐ tion industry made affirmative action politically rain and tackle familiar elements of the Black possible, that moment of possibility was excep‐ Panthers. While providing new perspectives on tionally brief” (p. 20). these well-worn tropes, they seemingly caution That the window was open at all is important readers against trusting what they think they and reveals the shortcomings of the simplistic de‐ know about the Panthers without rejecting all of clension narrative. The authors of Black Power at that inherited knowledge either. The collection is Work focus, largely effectively, on protest ‐ thus not as focused as Goldberg and Griffey’s, but ments that were often at least loosely affiliated in its eclectic and far-reaching ambitions are a Brooklyn, Newark, and in the North‐ strong point and will open new, and revive some east; and in the Midwest; and the old, avenues for investigation.

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In their introduction, Lazerow and Williams place their investigations against the backdrop of emphasize the theme of “dynamism” in the history the myth making that surrounded the Panthers, of the Black Panther Party, and after reading the eventually revealing the truth within the myths. book as a whole it is hard to disagree with their Thus rather than reject, say, the idea that the Black conclusion. For while the Black Panthers may in Panthers believed in the use of guns, Bridget Bald‐ the popular mind represent the apogee of black win places the presence of guns within the context radical separatism, the party in fact rejected the of discourses of self-defense. Rather than empha‐ rejectionists. In other words, they denounced the sizing racial tension, essays by Joel Wilson, David expelling of whites from black nationalist move‐ Barber, and Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar reveal the ways the ments, a trend that Carmichael had perpetuated as Panthers worked with and learned from white and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating brown radicals. Committee and had embraced as prime minister Lazerow and Williams have done an impor‐ of the Panthers. The images of the Black Panthers tant service by pulling together a range of essays can sometimes overshadow both their words, that expand on what we know and reveal a great which are far more complex than their imagery deal that we did not know about the Black Panther would suggest, as well as their deeds, which were Party. This book will be a source for scholars and multitudinous. students of Black Power for a generation and Lazerow and Williams organize the book the‐ should fuel waves of future research. matically, a decision that allows connected essays Turning to the other side of the world, black to feed off of one another while allowing for depth nationalist movements in South Africa antedated and breadth of coverage. Robert O. Self’s lengthy the rise of Biko and Black Consciousness by more essay effectively places the Black Panther Party than a generation. From the rise of the ANC Youth within the framework of long civil rights move‐ League in the 1940s that saw Anton Lembede artic‐ ment historiography. His essay stands alone. The ulate a truly black nationalist ideology and Man‐ sections that follow each contain between one and dela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, and other Young three essays preceded with an “Introductory Com‐ Turks take over the ANC, to the Pan Africanist Con‐ ment” from a scholar that serves as a synthetic es‐ gress and its rejection of the ANC’s post-Freedom say. Although the book has its genesis in a confer‐ Charter embrace of non-racialism, to Black Con‐ ence, the editors make clear that each contribu‐ sciousness, innumerable South Africans embraced tion saw substantial revision and reordering so black nationalisms of varying intensities and that the introductory chapters are not simply re‐ scopes. The best treatment of this history has for gurgitations of conference comments; rather, they more than three decades been Gail M. Gerhart’s serve as serious springboards to themes ranging seminal Black Power in South Africa: The Evolu‐ from the question of violence to local studies to in‐ tion of an Ideology, a book that remains in many dividual players within the party to the Panthers as ways as vibrant today as it was when the Universi‐ actors within larger coalition politics to a conclud‐ ty of California Press published it in 1978. ing section entitled “The Black Panthers in the And yet while its endurance speaks to the American Imagination.” quality of Gerhart’s work, the book also serves as a The contributors come from a range of disci‐ reminder that investigations of African national‐ plines and thus methodological approaches. But ism in South Africa still have ample room for ex‐ they share a desire to view the Black Panthers on ploration. While there is abundant work on Biko, their own terms, within their specific historical whose vibrant life and tragic death, along with the and political context. The most fascinating essays profusion of his writings, continue to fascinate

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(note, for example, Lindy Wilson’s Steve Biko fundamental ethical questions regarding how one (2012), one of the first volumes in the promising should live in service of the future” (p. 9). As a con‐ new Ohio University Press Short Histories of Africa sequence, these thinkers reveal the importance of series), the larger black nationalist movements theology to Black Consciousness, a form of faith have not seen the explosion of work that Black that emerged not because of but rather “in spite Power in the United States has enjoyed in the last of” the racial conditions that prevailed particular‐ decade or so. While Daniel R. Magaziner’s mar‐ ly in the period leading to the Soweto Uprising (p. velous and inventive book The Law and the 11). The result was an ironic outcome by which en‐ Prophets maintains its focus on what he acknowl‐ gagement with the anti-Apartheid resistance limit‐ edges as the largely inchoate “movement” of Black ed the revolutionary promise that Christianity Consciousness, it also points a way for future might ofer. scholars to revisit the legacies of black national‐ Some readers may find this assertion problem‐ ism, Black Consciousness, and Biko in the years to atic in as much as it trades abstractions of unful‐ come. filled and idealized revolutionary promise for the Magaziner emphasizes the intersection of ide‐ very real fight against a very real foe for very real ology and theology that he sees at the heart of goals, and it might be easy for critics to use the last Black Consciousness during its heyday. He also ex‐ sentence of Magaziner’s book against him: plicitly acknowledges the ways that the literature “Prophecy, history teaches, always looks clearer on Black Power in the United States influenced his from a distance” (p. 190). But Magaziner is a own work: “I take cues from new literature on the scrupulous historian who marshals evidence and in the United States that puts forward arguments well. His conclusions emphasizes process, not politics, and the contin‐ should certainly transform the way we think about gent moments around which political movements black nationalist philosophies and liberation the‐ cohered and fractured, thus moving beyond grand ologies. narratives that make the story triumphantly legi‐ One of the most frustrating components of the ble but less historical” (p. 5). Through this emphasis historian’s task is that it takes a long, long time for on process, Magaziner enriches our understanding changing scholarly perceptions to enter the gener‐ of Black Consciousness in its time, even if it occa‐ al public, if they ever do. Quite literally decades of sionally means that the story he tells is a bit diffuse scholarship exist, for example, pointing out and not for beginning students of South African Kennedy’s reluctance and dithering on the ques‐ history. tion of civil rights and yet the popular perception Magaziner argues that his study’s “signature is that he was a stalwart supporter of the move‐ contribution” is that “as intellectual history, it as‐ ment. With regard to Black Power, in the United serts the importance of both thinkers and their States, the perception of King’s nonviolent civil ideas” (p. 6). While these thinkers (many of whom rights movement, embodied in the “I Have a Magaziner interviewed in one of the book’s signal Dream” speech, giving way to angry and violent contributions) were certainly interested in the end black men with raised fists is likely to continue to of Apartheid and racial oppression, they thought endure. So too the smoothed public perception of about larger questions, namely, “whither are we South African history whereby Mandela went going?” This query leads to one of Magaziner’s nobly off to prison, and Biko emerged to present a central arguments: “South African black thought predestined-to-fail program of Black Conscious‐ during the early 1970s was frequently less about ness before he was killed by South African security explicit resistance to apartheid and more about forces. It is not that these stories lack elements of

5 H-Net Reviews truth, but they reduce history to aphorism, with easy solutions and obvious good guys, while creat‐ ing false bad guys and reducing any complexity that might disrupt the easily digestible narrative. History is at least as much about the rough edges as it is about the smooth surfaces, as these books so ably show. The books under consideration here take on these longstanding tropes and in so doing create a historiographical challenge that may or may not eventually filter down to the general public. But they should at least begin to shift the conversation, however slightly, so that complicated truths can begin to emerge. Black Power, the Black Panthers, and the many African nationalists embodied in the fluid concept of Black Consciousness repre‐ sented the culmination of myriad political and in‐ tellectual movements. They manifested them‐ selves in a multiplicity of ways, whether in de‐ mands for jobs or the establishment of soup kitchens; or the emergence of a prophetic form of African nationalism; or, yes, in the form of angry men with raised fists or Biko’s death somewhere in the Eastern Cape in 1977. The old myths themselves can contain considerable truth and gain more depth from a true understanding of the contexts within which those myths developed.

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Citation: Derek Catsam. Review of Goldberg, David; Grifey, Trevor, eds. Black Power at Work: Community Control, Affirmative Action, and the Construction Industry. ; Magaziner, Daniel R. The Law and the Prophets: Black Consciousness in South Africa, 1968–1977. ; Williams, Yohuru; Yazerow, Jama, eds. In Search of the Black Panther Party: New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement. H-1960s, H-Net Reviews. January, 2013.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=37963

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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