




By examining the essay “Black Power” and the entry to The Journal of American History entitled “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past” we are able to identify what kind of experience the American mid-1900s was like.  “Black Power” is an essay written by Stokely Carmichael explaining the mid-1900s American society and attitude towards African-American people. The journal entry “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past” written by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall correlates with the essay “Black Power” to give a clear and concise representation of the American mid-1900s.

The Journal of American History contains an entry entitled “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past.”  This entry goes into precise detail explaining how different aspects of American society influenced the African-American society during the mid-1900s.  These aspects can be found by the sub-headings throughout the entry like the following: “The Political Uses of Racial Narratives”, “The Long Backlash”, “Southern Strategies”, “The Long Civil Rights Movement” and many others. The entry starts with two quotes; one from Martin Luther King Jr. and the other from Thomas King.  The quote from Martin Luther King states, “The black revolution is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws—racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism. It is exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society . . . and suggests that radical reconstruction of society is the real issue to be faced.”  The other quote from Thomas King states, “Stories are wonderful things. And they are dangerous.”  These quotes summarize the general emphasis of the entry.  Following the quotes is the main body of the entry.  The main body of the entry discusses the individual problems African-American people faced during the mid-1900s in America as well as the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.  The writer discusses the prior conditions before the movement, the origin and intent of the movement, and the well-known leaders/faces of the movement.  The writer also describes the partiality of the American government and culture towards the Caucasian race in areas such as housing, opportunities for education, military service, and several other aspects in respect to the African-American race.   

Both Carmichael’s essay and Hall’s entry describe the American culture during the mid-1900s towards the African-American race.  Carmichael’s essay, written during that time, brought up arguable points to which Hall answered later on in his entry.  In Carmichael’s essay, he states, “and the question is, If we are going to do that when and where do we start, and how do we start? We maintain that we must start doing that inside the white community.” (Carmichael 318).  Carmichael is explaining by this statement how the African-American society would gain a representation in America politics.  In Hall’s entry, he states, “The 1963 March on Washington, which came at the height of what figures in the dominant narrative as the good, color-blind movement, is a case in point.” (Hall 1252).  Hall supports Carmichael’s thought by exemplifying   the Civil Rights movement as a direct penetration into white society.  Hall also supports Carmichael through the following statement, “There was, moreover, nothing minimalist about dismantling Jim Crow, a system built as much on economic exploitation as on de jure and de facto spatial separation. In the minds of movement activists, integration was never about ‘racial mingling’ or ‘merely sitting next to whites in school,’ as it is sometimes caricatured now. Nor did it imply assimilation into static white-defined institutions, however much whites assumed that it did.” (Hall 1251) This quote supports Carmichaels concern for direct involvement in the white society in order to accomplish representation in politics and equality in all aspects of society.  The part of the quote which states “merely sitting next to whites in school” could be an underlying motive to raise the concern for the equal opportunity for education.  In Carmichaels essay, he raises the same concern by stating, “Are we willing to be concerned about the black people who will never get to Berkeley, who will never get to Harvard, and cannot get an ecucation,”. (Carmichael 317)  

Carmichael states, “We have 94 percent who still live in shacks.” (Carmichael 317)  This statement clearly describes what the average living conditions were for the African American in the mid-1900s.  Living in a shack is not for any human being regardless of skin color, background, average income, or skill ability.  The African American people were not allowed to excel due to exclusion from certain benefits and programs that otherwise would have let them thrive and be successful.  One benefit that directly affected the African American family was the “Family wage.” This wage was issued to the breadwinners of the family who supported children and another dependent. (Hall 1241)  The average African American family of that time had two breadwinners, the mother and father, which disqualified them for this benefit.  Another “benefit” that indirectly affected the African American population was the introduction of the unemployment insurance.  This insurance was not issued to “agricultural and domestic workers” because they were seen “as independent, full-time breadwinners” when in actuality they only worked certain seasons of the year. (Hall 1241)    As a result, “55 percent of all African American workers and 87 percent of all wage-earning African American women were excluded from one of the chief benefits of the New Deal.” (Hall 1241) Because a majority of African American people were exempt from such benefits, they were forced to take a part of the less effective programs; programs such as the modern-day welfare.

Carmichaels essay and Hall’s entry allows deep examination of the mid-1900s in regards to the treatment of the African American people.  It is truly an eye-opening experience to read both of these pieces and realize how the African American culture was treated in aspects the average individual in America would take for granted.  Aspects of life such as education, income, political influence, social equality, and even a proper roof over one’s head are all things that everyone should have, or at least an equal opportunity to acquire, in his/her life regardless of ethnicity or culture. Progression towards equality have been made in today’s society, however, it seems that it is nearly too late to think about equality now when it should have been executed then.  



