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Introduction

Rhiannon Bayes 12.1 How accurate is it to say that the growth of Black Power was the most important factor in the weakening of the civil rights movement in the 1960s? Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various ideas aimed at promoting the Black racial group. There are and have previously been mixed views on whether Black Power was the most important factor in the weakening of the civil rights movement in the 1060s. Some people agree that Black Power weakened the civil rights movement because groups like the Nation of Islam used violence in campaigns. However, some people disagreed that Black Power weakened the civil rights movement on the basis that civil rights was limited for other reasons like the difference between the North and South. One argument in agreement that Black Power were highly important in weakening the civil rights movement is the point that Black Power were more than happy to use violence if it meant getting their point across. This was in contrast to other movements such as the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), as other groups preferred to use peaceful protests. ...read more.

Middle

They trusted the American system and therefore would never be able to set black people free. He also made claims that MLK was being paid by the White government to preach Christian love and forgiveness and was preventing black people from effectively fighting for their rights. Malcolm X also made criticisms of the March of Washington, in which he said ?nothing by a circus with clowns and all? organised by a bunch of ?Uncle Toms? who were slavishly serving their Whiter masters. These negative comments made by Malcolm X had an important role in the weakening of the civil rights movement because they lost the support of many White people as well as Black people and this resulted in them not making much progress. They were very biased to Black people and this did not work in their favour, so they were important for the weaknesses. In opposition to this, people also believed that Black Power wasn?t the only group responsible for the weakening of the civil rights movement because they believed that other groups played a bigger role. One reason for this was that other groups like the NAACP, SNCC and CORE also criticised Martin Luther King. ...read more.

Conclusion

MLK was from the South and had a very privileged upbringing. This created division in his popularity, as people from the North couldn?t relate to him. This lost support and therefore weakened the civil rights movement. In the South people were still being lynched for simply being Black. Education was legally segregated, which meant black children often had to walk miles to a Black only school, which had limited facilities and was in an unsafe area. There were therefore different issues and it was segregation against discrimination. Northern groups felt that Southern groups could not understand their views because of this division. Neither of these reasons for divisions or weakening had anything to do with Black Power. In conclusion, Black Power was partially responsible for the weakening of the civil rights movement because they promoted violence and undermined the peaceful protests demonstrated by other leaders like MLK. They were also responsible because Malcolm X, their leader criticised MLK, which didn?t show unity and was a weakening factor. However, there were other factors that contributed to the weakening, for example the fact that other groups criticised MLK and that there were divisions between the North and South and therefore Black Power was not the most important reason for the weakening of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level History of the USA, 1840-1968 section.