Another view that some people had about Black Power weakening the civil rights movement was the fact the Malcolm X, who was the leader of the Nation of Islam, would regularly criticise MLK. This was seen as a bad thing as it didn’t show teamwork between the different organisations and it is organisation and co-operation that is needed to make campaigns successful and it was what was needed for the civil rights movement to make progress. Malcolm X referred Martin Luther King to ‘Uncle Tom’. This was an offensive term that meant somebody who would live through bad conditions and not complain, but ‘suck up’ to people. Malcolm X said that groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the NAACP were taken in by American myths like the American dream. 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. For example, there were criticisms of him for being a ‘follower’ and not a ‘leader’. This was because although he was an excellent public speaker, he would often attach himself to campaigns organised by other proactive black activists and become the public face for the campaign. He was also criticised by other organisations because he was seen to be the cause of the Albany Movement campaign not being successful. This was because he picked the wrong location and ended up negotiating with officials to make the segregation worse for blacks than it was before he had started the campaign. This weakened the civil rights movement, as it lost a lot of support from White people and the support was the key factor to making it successful. SNCC, an organisation made up of predominantly students who were opposed to King joining their campaigns because of his age and they didn’t believe that his approach was very radical. This division between the groups and the leaders showed no unity. This was a negative thing and as a result weakened the civil rights movement. This however, was not a result of actions made by Black Power, so therefore people believed they were not fully responsible for the weakening.
The fact that there was division between the North and South was another reason for the weakening of the civil rights movement and was another reason why people didn’t blame Black Power alone for this problem. In the North there was not de jure segregation, but there was de facto segregation. In contrast, in the South there was de jure and de facto segregation. Examples of segregation in the North are that if a Black person was to buy a house, the house prices on that street would instantly decrease as people would not want to live near Black people, regardless of their social class. There was also discrimination in employment and so Black people found it very difficult to find jobs. 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.
by
bayesrock (student)
