Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity (Reconfiguring American Political History) - Hardcover

Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801879574 ISBN 13: 9780801879579

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004

Synopsis

In the 1960s, the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Party gave voice to many economically disadvantaged and politically isolated African Americans, especially outside the South. Though vilified as extremist and marginal, they were formidable agents of influence and change during the civil rights era and ultimately shaped the Black Power movement. In this fresh study, drawing on deep archival research and interviews with key participants, Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar reconsiders the commingled stories of -- and popular reactions to -- the Nation of Islam, Black Panthers, and mainstream civil rights leaders. Ogbar finds that many African Americans embraced the seemingly contradictory political agenda of desegregation and nationalism. Indeed, black nationalism was far more favorably received among African Americans than historians have previously acknowledged. Black Power reveals a civil rights movement in which the ideals of desegregation through nonviolence and black nationalism marched side by side.

Ogbar concludes that Black Power had more lasting cultural consequences among African Americans and others than did the civil rights movement, engendering minority pride and influencing the political, cultural, and religious spheres of mainstream African American life for the next three decades.

About this title

About the Author:

Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar is an associate professor of history at the University of Connecticut.

Review:

"The best account of the Black Panther Party in print... this is an outstanding work." -- Choice

"This book will be the standard-bearer on the subject for years to come." -- Judson L. Jeffries, Journal of American History

"An intriguing foray into a time and place in American history that has been visited far too infrequently by historians and others." -- Claude A. Clegg III, Journal of Southern History

"Black Power is an intellectual triumph... well organized." -- Rhetoric and Public Affairs

"An important contribution to the growing field of Black Power Studies." -- Journal of African American History

"Ambitious, challenging, and, ultimately, rewarding book." -- Patrick D. Jones, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"As an introduction to the history of black power and black nationalism in the mid-to-late twentieth century America, this book provides a valuable overview of the sources, central issues, and influences of those movements." -- Richard H. King, American Historical Review

About this edition

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0801879574
• ISBN 13: 9780801879579
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280