REMEMBERING AUDACIOUS BLACK POWER: REVISITING THE MODEL AND MEANING Los Angeles Sentinel, 07-14-16, p.A6 DR. MAULANA KARENGA NE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PERIODS in the (chair, Newark); Maulana Karenga (vice-chair, history of Black people and Black struggle is Los Angeles); Omar Ahmed (Bronx, NY); Isaiah O the Black Freedom Movement (1965-1975), Robinson (New York); and Chuck Stone (Wash- not only because of its concrete legal, organiza- ington, D.C.). tional, institutional, educational, economic and Although the definitions of Black Power political gains and achievements, but also because were varied and numerous, they, nevertheless, it offers a library of lessons in righteous and relent- tended to stress Black people’s capacity to build less resistance and self-conscious community and control the political, economic and cultural building. The Black Freedom Movement culmi- institutions of their communities and to live free, nates in the Black Power Movement which leaves self-determined and dignity-affirming lives in so- a special legacy of ideas and action worthy of ciety and the world. As one of the central organiz- study and emulation of its best thought and prac- ers and main theoretician of the Black Power Con- tice. Central to this process was the Black Power ferences, I sought to sum up its major areas of em- Conferences which brought the major Black Power phasis as a Movement and social capacity, defining organizations, organizers, leaders and advocates it as the struggle and capacity to achieve and sus- together to form a united front, pass resolutions on tain three things: self-determination, self-respect critical positions, and set in motion projects of en- and self-defense. during value. The goal of self-determination stressed the It will not be noted and certainly not be dis- quest for control of the politics, economics and cussed in depthful and dignity-affirming ways by cultural institutions and processes of our communi- the established order media, but this month marks ties, and to exercise and receive rightful represen- the 50th anniversary of the historic first Black tation and an equitable share of the resources of Power Conference, July 20-23, 1967. Held in society. It also required a political consciousness Newark, it takes place in the midst of the Black and responsibility which result in unity, social ac- Power Movement which formed the last phase of tivism and building institutions that house and ad- the Black Freedom Movement and which had sup- vance our interests as a people. In its international planted a historically-exhausted Civil Rights aspect, Black Power supported pan-African unity, Movement, the first phase, as early as 1965. The common struggle and liberation, and solidarity battle cry, “Black Power,” came into national con- with Third World liberation movements. sciousness in 1966 with Mukasa Willie Ricks and The emphasis on self-respect spoke to our Kwame Ture of SNCC who made it famous and cultural grounding, rootedness in the best of Afri- far-reaching. However, the teachings and work of can culture—Continental and Diasporan, reaffirm- Messenger Elijah Muhammad, Min. Malcolm X ing our identity, dignity and humanity in the con- and the Nation of Islam had already earlier opened text of our culture and thru thought and practice the way for the philosophical focus and institution- reflective of the best of what it means to be Afri- al thrust the Movement would take. can and human in the world. And it meant a “re- In the summer of ’66, Rep. Adam Clayton turn to the source” and extracting African para- Powell (NY), then chair of the House Committee digms of human excellence and achievement and on Education and Labor, called together a group of using them to found, frame, forge and advance our leaders from across the country to discuss the lives. This was the meaning of Malcolm’s teaching meaning of Black Power as a Movement, to mark that even though we live in the U.S. and fight for off areas of essential attention for practical initia- our civil and human rights, we must return “to Af- tives and to plan a series of conferences to harness rica culturally, philosophically and psychological- the best ideas and energy of the Movement and ly,” to regain our sense of cultural health and exis- push it forward in collective and concrete ways. tential wholeness. And it is also what Adam Clay- Out of this initial planning meeting, a steering ton Powell meant when he said, speaking of the committee was chosen to carry out the mandate for relationship between Black Power and a rightful the conferences. This included Dr. Nathan Wright sense of self-respect, i.e., “Black people must seek REMEMBERING AUDACIOUS BLACK POWER: REVISITING THE MODEL AND MEANING Los Angeles Sentinel, 07-14-16, p.A6 DR. MAULANA KARENGA audacious power—the kind of power which cra- in Gary and Little Rock, the Congress of African dles your head among the stars and gives you the People, the National Black Assembly, the Black security to stand up as proud men and women eye- Women’s United Front, and the African Liberation ball to eyeball with the rest of the world.” Support Committee. The stress on self-defense was a defiant af- Within the context of the Black Power firmation of the right and responsibility of re- Movement there also developed the Black Arts sistance to oppression, including armed self- Movement, the Black Studies Movement, the defense or as Malcolm X phrased it, the right and Black Students’ Movement, Black liberation the- responsibility to struggle for “freedom by any ology, Black consciousness among Black athletes means necessary.” This placed the burden of de- and musicians, and the revival and expansion of termining how the defensive struggle was waged African consciousness and pan-Africanism among on the oppressor and his willingness to change in African Americans and solidarity with Third just and peaceful ways. Here Malcolm X, Robert World liberation struggles. From this process there Williams and Frantz Fanon were our teachers and emerged cultural initiatives and creations such as tutors in the severity and savagery of the oppres- Kwanzaa, the Nguzo Saba (The Seven Principles), sion and the struggle and sacrifice necessary to Kawaida philosophy and African cultural value counter and overcome it. And we of the organiza- orientation in rites of passage programs, fashions, tion Us took them seriously. family forms, naming and life-cycle ceremonies, Two major Black Power conferences were language and expanded historical and cultural held in Newark in 1967 and in Philadelphia in learning, the independent schools movement, and 1968. At the first conference in Newark, over a the building of various cultural institutions. thousand representatives came from across the he Movement declines and disappears in the U.S. and from Africa and the Caribbean. The sec- T mid-seventies as a result of sustained national ond conference had even larger representation. The and local police suppression, especially the FBI Newark conference conducted 14 workshops on Cointelpro, but also thru internal contradictions national and international politics, economics, reli- and conflicts within the Movement. Nevertheless, gion, family, culture and community and passed it left a worthy and continuing legacy and remains resolutions establishing policy in these areas. a necessary reference for any honest and inclusive The Black Power Movement expressed itself discussion of Black resistance history. This in- in organizing electoral struggles in the North and cludes its emphasis on radical and revolutionary the South for the election of African American social change, reaffirmation of our Blackness and large city mayors and councilpersons, not only in Africanness, community-building, the end of po- Newark, but also throughout the country. Also, it lice violence, prisoners’ rights and prison reform, produced Black party formations and Black United resistance to imperialist wars, coalition and alli- Front initiatives organized around the term “opera- ance, pan-Africanism, Third World unity, self- tional unity” put forth by this writer and defined as determination, cultural grounding and revolution, “unity without uniformity, unity in diversity.” and political and economic power. And it stressed Black Power also gave rise to the New Convention the essentiality of political education, mobilization, Movement which produced conferences and struc- organization and confrontation necessary to tures organized around national and international achieve these goods and goals, if the battle cry, political, economic and cultural issues including: “Liberation is coming from a Black thing,” is to be the Black Power Conferences, the Black Arts Con- real and realized as a lived experience and practice. vention, the National Black Political Conventions Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture and Essays on Struggle: Position and Analysis, www.AfricanAmericanCultural Center-LA.org; www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org; www.MaulanaKarenga.org. .