Dictionary

Black Power en · NOUN

Etymology

From Richard Wright's book Black Power (1954), describing his travels to the Gold Coast and the rise of Pan-Africanism. In a US context later popularized by Stokely Carmichael.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A slogan and movement for self-determination for Black peoples.
   • Meanwhile, Black Power groups such as SNCC and the Black Panthers were voicing support for the Arabs against Israel. This sometimes looked like a mere matter of black nationalism; after all, Egypt was a part of Africa, and black nationalist literature sometimes seemed to identify the Arabs as blacks fighting the white Israelis. 1970 June 8, Tom Wolfe, “Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's”, in New York Magazine:
2. (uncountable) A slogan or movement of separatism for Black communities in predominantly non-Black countries.
   • “Black Power” quickly became the controversial slogan for a movement that was largely perceived as rejecting the civil rights movement's nonviolent tactics and goals of integration in favor of a new ethos of black identity, self-defense and separatism. 2006 June 19, Peniel E. Joseph, “Black Power's Quiet Side”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • I dey talk of Black power, I say (Water, him no get enemy!) 1975, Fela Kuti, “Water No Get Enemy”, in Expensive Shit:
3. (uncountable) A slogan used to support Black supremacy.

Forms

Coordinates

Red Power

Relateds

Black liberation · Black Panthers · civil rights

wikipedia: Richard Wright (author) · wikipedia: Stokely Carmichael