How far do you agree that the Black Power movement hindered Black civil rights in the 1960s?

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Jackie Orchard

How far do you agree that the Black Power movement hindered Black civil rights in the 1960s?

In can be debated that the Black Power movement helped the Black Civil Rights in the year 1960, as it brought greater pride to the blacks in America. However, the change it made was superficial. The movement’s belief in separatism and violence prevented it from gaining any support from the Government, and so resulted in a lack of reform. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that Black Power was “essentially an emotional concept” that meant “different things to different people.” He feared that the slogan carried “connotations of violence and separatism.” In order to discuss this essay it will cover Malcolm X, the Black Panthers and other aspects that were involved in the Black Power movement.

        The Black Power movement emerged because of the failing of America. While Johnson’s civil rights legislation made substantial progress to the fight for equality, his actions still failed to impress the majority of poor blacks as their standard of living was still the same. It was a movement propelled by anger and had “been given fuel by incident after incident, disappointment after disappointment, in the drive for civil rights.” Radical blacks were disgusted with the slow pace of reform and felt the need to speed things up and force the issue directly. The anger that created the Black Power movement hindered the Black civil rights because it spoiled the common idea of ‘peaceful protest.’ The sudden outburst of violence and rioting from the black community made the blacks seem more unappealing to the whites and the American government and prevented reform.

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        Malcolm X played a massive role in preventing the goals of the Black Civil rights act in the 1960s, because his racism towards the whites and his unrealistic desires for the black American community failed to deliver reform. Unlike Martin Luther King, Malcolm rejected the idea of integration in America. He fought against the American system rather than working through it. His open racism hindered the Black Civil rights act because it showcased him as dis-respectful towards the whites. Furthermore, he gained little support from the whites because they didn’t agree with his religious beliefs. When Malcolm was jailed in ...

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