The National Black Independent Party

This study helps to fill a major void in the literature on African American politics, third parties, and mass movements. Established in 1980, the National Black Political Party (NBIPP) existed for six years and represents the most ambitious attempt by African Americans to establish an independent third-party movement. At its height, NBIPP had chapters throughout the country and had attracted to its membership a young, well-educated, often professional following which had been influenced by the black power movement of the 1960s. This is one of the very few book-length studies of this interesting and important movement. Holmes focuses on a party chapter in Akron, OH, and examines the impact of party building on local mass movement activities an on the political development and continuing political involvement of party members. Utilizing the political process model and issue evolution theory, Holmes explores the linkage between mass movements and normal politics within the African American community. The book makes a very important contribution to our understanding of the current resurgence of black nationalism and how this resurgence fits into a more general pattern of African American politics in which the (sometimes antagonistic) interaction of mass movements and institution building serves to define the African American political agenda a select the elites who will implement it. This book will be useful for students of African American Politics, Sociology of Mass Movements, and Third-Party politics. It will be valuable to the research in those areas, as well as the more general reader who is interested in the African American experience.

This new collection of essays, contributed by scholars and former Panthers, is a ground-breaking work that offers thought-provoking and pertinent observations about the many facets of the Party. By placing the perspectives of participants and scholars side by side, Dr. Jones presents an insider view and initiates a vital dialogue that is absent from most historical studies.

Assesses how Blacks have used presidential elections to exercise their political influence, and looks at primaries, party conventions, behind-the-scenes bargaining, and the general election

The Black Power movement represented a key turning point in American politics. Disenchanted by the hollow progress of federal desegregation during the 1960s, many black citizens and leaders across the United States demanded meaningful self-determination. The popular movement they created was marked by a vigorous artistic renaissance, militant political action, and fierce ideological debate. Exploring the major political and intellectual currents from the Black Power era to the present, Cedric Johnson reveals how black political life gradually conformed to liberal democratic capitalism and how the movement's most radical aims--the rejection of white aesthetic standards, redefinition of black identity, solidarity with the Third World, and anticapitalist revolution--were gradually eclipsed by more moderate aspirations. Although Black Power activists transformed the face of American government, Johnson contends that the evolution of the movement as a form of ethnic politics restricted the struggle for social justice to the world of formal politics. Johnson offers a compelling and theoretically sophisticated critique of the rhetoric and strategies that emerged in this period. Drawing on extensive archival research, he reinterprets the place of key intellectual figures, such as Harold Cruse and Amiri Baraka, and influential organizations, including the African Liberation Support Committee, the National Black Political Assembly, and the National Black Independent Political Party in postsegregation black politics, while at the same time identifying the contradictions of Black Power radicalism itself. Documenting the historical retreat from radical, democratic struggle, Revolutionaries to Race Leaders ultimately calls for the renewal of popular struggle and class-conscious politics. Cedric Johnson is assistant professor of political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

The Politics of Black Empowerment uses the experiences of grassroots activists to develop various conceptualizations and explanations of Black political behavior today.

For three days in 1972 in Gary, Indiana, eight thousand American civil rights activists and Black Power leaders gathered at the National Black Political Convention, hoping to end a years-long feud that divided black America into two distinct camps: integrationists and separatists. While some form of this rift existed within black politics long before the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his death—and the power vacuum it created—heightened tensions between the two groups, and convention leaders sought to merge these competing ideologies into a national, unified call to action. What followed, however, effectively crippled the Black Power movement and fundamentally altered the political strategy of civil rights proponents. An intense and revealing history, Leonard N. Moore’s The Defeat of Black Power provides the first in-depth evaluation of this critical moment in American history. During the brief but highly charged meeting in March 1972, attendees confronted central questions surrounding black people’s involvement in the established political system: reject or accept integration and assimilation; determine the importance or futility of working within the broader white system; and assess the perceived benefits of running for public office. These issues illuminated key differences between integrationists and separatists, yet both sides understood the need to mobilize under a unified platform of black self-determination. At the end of the convention, determined to reach a consensus, officials produced “The National Black Political Agenda,” which addressed the black constituency’s priorities. While attendees and delegates agreed with nearly every provision, integrationists maintained their rejection of certain planks, namely the call for a U.S. constitutional convention and separatists’ demands for reparations. As a result, black activists and legislators withdrew their support less than ten weeks after the convention, dashing the promise of the 1972 assembly and undermining the prerogatives of black nationalists. In The Defeat of Black Power, Moore shows how the convention signaled a turning point for the Black Power movement, whose leaders did not hold elective office and were now effectively barred access to the levers of social and political power. Thereafter, their influence within black communities rapidly declined, leaving civil rights activists and elected officials holding the mantle of black political leadership in 1972 and beyond.