Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Black Power: The Politics of Liberation

by Stokely Carmichael, Charles V. Hamilton

4.18 of 5 stars 4.18 · rating details · 301 ratings · 17 reviews

In 1967, this revolutionary work exposed the depths of systemic racism in this country and provided a radical political framework for reform: true and lasting social change would only be accomplished through unity among African-Americans and their independence from the preexisting order. An eloquent document of the civil rights movement that remains a work of profound soci...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published November 10th 1992 by Vintage (first published 1967)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen

Social Justice: Books on Racism, Sexism, and Class

42nd out of 548 books — 382 voters

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X

Best African American Books

135th out of 404 books — 466 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 714)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jul 25, 2011 Chris brown rated it 2 of 5 stars

(Sigh) So to begin this book started with kindling that fire that is at the base of every black man woman and child but then in the middle, I began to see; unlike this books forefathers (i.e. the mis-education of the Negro) it offered no solutions to any of the obvious problems it points out. FOR MYSELF it was to akin to listening to one of my older uncles talk, and talk all day about how the world is wrong and explain in detail what is wrong with it yet they do noting and give no advice on how...more

like · see review

May 19, 2010 Erik Graff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: civil rights history fans

Recommended to Erik by: no one

Shelves: political-social-science

When visiting old friends, I go through their libraries in search of books I read as a kid. I found Black Power in a high school friend's collection while visiting him in Springfield, Vermont.

I'd been brought up in a pronouncedly anti-racist home. Mom and Dad were both democratic socialists who usually voted for liberal Democrats though Dad was proud of having voted for Norman Thomas in '48 and for having had a father who had been a comrade and journalist colleague of Carl Sandburg in the Social...more When visiting old friends, I go through their libraries in search of books I read as a kid. I found Black Power in a high school friend's collection while visiting him in Springfield, Vermont.

I'd been brought up in a pronouncedly anti-racist home. Mom and Dad were both democratic socialists who usually voted for liberal Democrats though Dad was proud of having voted for Norman Thomas in '48 and for having had a father who had been a comrade and journalist colleague of Carl Sandburg in the Socialist Party of America. Our family was spread out over Norway, Canada and the United States; Dad had served in North Africa and the Pacific, so nationalism wasn't in the cards. If anything, I felt that there was a prejudice in our family for Jewish intellectuals. In any case, by the junior year of high school I thought that Dad would like it if I went to the University of Chicago, became a civil rights and liberties attorney and married a Jewish intellectual. When I joined the Young Peoples' Socialist League, the War Resisters' League and the Students for a Democratic Society as a teenager, this wasn't rebellion against parental values but an expression of their idealism. They worried about me getting hurt at demonstrations, but I felt they were proud that I was politically active. Indeed, when I got suspended and expelled from Maine Twp. H.S. South for political acts, Dad was actively supportive of me against the school's right-wing administration.

One of the most challenging aspects of leftist politics in the sixties was black separatism. M.L. King was a hero for my elders but the SNCC and the Black Panthers spoke more for my generation. Indeed, in high school I became friendly with a bunch of Panthers who would regularly come to our suburb to hang out at the town bookstore after it was closed down for the day by its manager, himself a white radical who had, as I recall, worked for the Grove Press. They were middle class like me, no more than a decade older and definitely had my ear when we discussed racial and third world issues. Although I was most comfortable with the idea of full integration, of a color-blind society, their arguments for black power led me to go out of my way to read public exponents of the strategy such as Stokely Carmichael with as much of an open mind as I could manage.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jan 06, 2013 Aden Dohn rated it 5 of 5 stars

reading at least the first 3 chapters should be a requirement in high school. if the history and mechanics of racism, individual and institutional, was actually taught in schools instead of the vague "bad thing that happened but its all better now, mlk jr civils rights" that i remember learning, i'm sure there'd be at least a lot less white stupid calls of "but that's reverse racism!". the rest of book is still incredibly relevant, see the emphasis on black visibility not being equal to black po...more

like · see review

Jul 05, 2011 Michael Strode rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: blackpower, chipublib, read-in-2011

In his 1992 Afterword, Charles Hamilton penned a response to the prevailing criticisms that Black Power was responsible for "highlighting racial divisions", "eschewing coalitions with whites", attempting "to kick whites out of the civil rights movement", and being "anti-white, defeatist, and bitterly rejecting the civil rights movement's traditional goal of integration". While the rest of the afterword holds a patient and intellectual argument for the continued necessity of Black Power, one can...more In his 1992 Afterword, Charles Hamilton penned a response to the prevailing criticisms that Black Power was responsible for "highlighting racial divisions", "eschewing coalitions with whites", attempting "to kick whites out of the civil rights movement", and being "anti-white, defeatist, and bitterly rejecting the civil rights movement's traditional goal of integration". While the rest of the afterword holds a patient and intellectual argument for the continued necessity of Black Power, one can sense in his retort that these critiques were particularly blistering for Hamilton and that he had argued the point many times before.

"No matter that some explanations focused on the denial of these charges and attempted to discuss the concept in terms of viable pluralist American politics. No matter that painstaking efforts were made to point out the years of inability of blacks to enter viable coalitions with other groups, coalitions that would recognize and respect the legitimate needs and complaints of black Americans. Many Black Power advocates tried to make the case that blacks have always understood the necessity for coalitions, but all too often those efforts were thwarted, and blacks, because of their relatively weak status, were unable to do much about this. Where were the viable coalitional partners in the 1930's when black organizations (the NAACP and the National Urban League, most prominently) virtually pleaded with their white allies to include agricultural workers and domestic servants--not only blacks, but all such workers--in the social insurance provisions of the landmark Social Security Act of 1935? Those allies deserted them. Where were the coalition partners when blacks were persuaded not to push for the end to racial discrimination even while liberals urged blacks to support (as blacks did) a meaningful Full Employment Bill? And, when the 1960's arrived, where were the enlightened allies when the racially integrated Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party sought to challenge the white racist Mississippi State Party at the 1964 Democratic National Convention? In each instance, the message was clear: Black Americans were not politically strong enough to convince their potential allies to go along with them. The message was equally clear that the fundamental interests of blacks would be subordinated to those interests of more powerful forces in the society."

The sentiment of this passage along with others expressed by Hamilton in the afterword provides a reworked closing argument for rethinking the role which Black Power should play in the present era. In recounting the mistakes in he and Ture's initial analysis and trajectory, he provides a lens through which we might view the events of the past and the future anew. He speaks to the scenario in which Black Power might have seemed philosophically different for those who are working towards its establishment. Whereas they may have had a socialist orientation and the goal of a more open society attached to their original outlook, it might be just as easily argued that black capitalism and black power are one and the same. This turned out to be the most gripping and transformative portion of the text for me because I was able to evaluate two recent political phenomena in the context of theories explored in the original text: Obama's election and charter schools.

During the course of the election of Barack Obama, we saw a sweeping proclamation of a grassroots uprising; a coalition of Black, Latino, White, LGBT, and all other manner of liberal left leaning forces creating a groundswell tide that were to sweep President Obama from his humble roots as a community organizer and member of the founding advisory board at Public Allies through state and federal Senatorial roles direct into the White House. I am not going argue the point whether there are any significant "roots" remaining in that "grass" for I think we have other outlets which have vetted that point thoroughly. I will examine where black people stand nearly 4 years hence.

For 4 years, we have had challengers both in and outside of our community whom have shouted down the naysayers with cries of "He's not simply the President of Black America. He's the President of all America." A hollow argument at best. If we examine this statement in the context of the chapter "The Myths of Coalition", we are able to clearly see how the same coalition which beseeched us to "get on the bus" when many in our community were initially mistrusting of organizing around a black candidate and were ready to vote for any available Clinton have now deserted us in our pleas with the President to attend to the needs of our community. Are we markedly different from any other special interest group in need of social uplift? No. But we have been conned into accepting a weakened position as window decoration for a mythic coalition of American populism.

On charter schools, we have not fared much better. Whereas once we were organized around the goal of improvement for the conditions of our neighborhood schools as discussed in the chapter "The Search for New Forms" regarding such a case at I.S. 201 in Harlem, we have now created an educational crap shoot. If you cannot locate a viable school in your neighborhood, you can search out one of the many available magnet, private, or charter options perhaps a few buses or trains away. Less the case with private schools although it can happen, even when you settle on a magnet or charter school, your child could be in a few years before you realize that their skills are either not improving or regressing and perhaps by then the state will release a new report card and the Sun Times will do a "special investigation" to tell you that you rolled a 7 instead of an 11.

Individual gain in a capitalist system will inevitably be purchased at a social cost. The arguments in the charter movement are largely positioned in artificial opposition to each other. Every so often a test case will bubble to the surface at one of these schools which will show that a child from a broken home or damaging neighborhood environment can still be educated to succeed when given the right tools in their educational space to reach those goals. Still when we question why the tools in all schools are not simply improved to offer a greater supply of children the same success, we often hear the argument that the school is not a parent or that education does not end at its doors. Which is it? Can we save more students through education or not? We will never be able to have it both ways no matter how much mental justification we afford ourselves for accepting this as "just the way things are". Douglass, DuBois, Harrison, Garvey, and Shabazz all stood in agreement on the matter.(less)

like · see review

Oct 25, 2010 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: thesis-reading, read-in-2010, essay

Articulate and farseeing, Carmichael and Hamilton present their point-of-view on the socioeconomic problems exacerbating racial tensions in the late '60s. What struck me most about this book were the aspects discussed by Carmichael that have in no way been solved today. The authors point out the underlying reasons for urban and rural poverty, and those reasons continue unabated. It makes me wonder how our society has succeeded for sweeping these problems under the rug for so long. I imagine the...more

like · see review

Apr 22, 2013 Daniel Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sort of startling how incisive this book was in terms of organizing for community power and local control and the forces of acquiescence and assimilation that one must combat in order to have any meaningful form of it. Having grown up with Tuskeegee, Alabama being the closest town it was interesting to read the history of the city and the university. Fantastic but depressing read considering how little has changed...

like · see review

May 06, 2010 Chelsea Lewis rated it 3 of 5 stars

This may seem weird on my bookshelf, it was for a class and I found it very informative and interesting. Though cannot in good conscious justify giving a book on black power more than a 3 star rating.

like · see review

Dec 26, 2008 Noel Hidalgo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: political

when the american dream failed, this book started a revolution. all community organizers should read this book.

like · see review

Sep 23, 2009 RK Byers rated it 3 of 5 stars

sadly, it's more fun listening to Stokely speak then reading his writings.

like · see review

Mar 01, 2013 Luana Kay rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love my man Kwame Ture...

He lays everything out perfectly.

like · see review

Aug 24, 2008 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a great book--still relevant today and a great introduction to ideas like individual racism vs. institutional racism (the first chapter should be required reading in every freshman comp class). this edition is nice, because it has afterwards written by stokely and hamilton 25 years later and you can see their divergent paths (stokely more radical and hamilton more willing to work within the system). interesting to read this in light of barack, too. as the authors repeatedly warn: "black vis...more

like · see review

Jun 22, 2008 Taylor W. Rushing rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Those of us who advocate Black Power are quite clear in our own minds that a non-violent approach to civil rights is an approach black people cannot afford and a luxury white people do not deserve." This is a radical novel focusing on cause and effect.

like · see review

May 29, 2007 Femi Vance rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those interested in Black Empowerment

I am familiar with what the Black Power Movement came to be but this book details what it was intended to be. It's pretty short and makes you realize how skeletal the plan was....which may account for why the movement took on a life of its own.

like · see review

Jun 02, 2008 Barrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Really great read; knocks down the myth that the Black Power movement was one of violence and hate. Explains the necessity of Black Power and what the movement was really trying to achieve.

like · see review

Jun 17, 2008 Valarie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read this years ago, but nothing really stands out about it, except that reading it in the 80s (or maybe the 90s) felt a bit like a time warp.

like · see review

Jan 21, 2008 James Tracy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a great book to understand the politics behind the Black Power movement of the sixties.

like · see review

Jan 22, 2008 Dalena rated it 5 of 5 stars

must read for anyone who believes in any kind of self determination

like · see review

May 22, 2013 Suckafree Tuck marked it as to-read

May 21, 2013 Carhyne marked it as to-read

May 19, 2013 Kas-heen Bolden marked it as to-read

May 19, 2013 Tai Jackson marked it as to-read

May 19, 2013 Arelia Jones added it

May 19, 2013 Ahmed rated it 5 of 5 stars

May 18, 2013 Tuatha242 rated it 4 of 5 stars

May 17, 2013 Lyrical Labratory marked it as to-read

May 16, 2013 Juan Carlos marked it as to-read

May 16, 2013 Nakia rated it 4 of 5 stars

May 15, 2013 Eric Deutsch rated it 4 of 5 stars

May 15, 2013 Sylvia Moore marked it as to-read

Shelves: non-fiction

May 15, 2013 Missy Combs marked it as to-read

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 23 24 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (7)

More editions...

Genres

Politics

14 users

Non Fiction

8 users

Race

7 users

History

6 users

Cultural > African American

4 users

History > American History

2 users

Philosophy

2 users

Culture > Cultural Studies

2 users

Classics

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Stokely Carmichael

Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael, also known as Kwame Ture, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "Snick") and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party. Initially an integrationist, Carmichael later became...more

More about Stokely Carmichael...

Books by Stokely Carmichael

Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)

Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism

Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices on Resistance, Reform, and Renewal an African American Anthology

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Black Power: The ...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Black Power: The Politics of Liberation
avg rating	preview: Black Power: The Politics of Liberation Goodreads rating: 4.18 (301 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211867.Black_Power?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1223641271l/211867.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211867.Black_Power?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Black Power: The Politics of Liberation by Stokely Carmichael[/url]

Black Power: The Politics of Liberation

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website