The birth and legacy of the Black Power Movement

Black Buzz News Service
Pittsburgh, PA
April 13, 2011

By Fred Logan

April 11, 2011

For anyone who, at this very late date and time, may still lost and confused, the first two paragraphs of Vincent Harding’s classic work “There is A River” tells us all precisely when and where the so-called “Long Civil Rights Movement” and the “Long Black Power Movement” began.

Now, fast forward: Without the post-WWII African American freedom struggle, the United States would surely still be preaching and practicing racial apartheid.

Without the relentless pressure of the African American struggle, post-war US military and political plunder all across the globe would have been infinitely more horrendous than the US-made horrors the world has suffered since 1945. And the state- sponsored domestic repression in such a draconian era would have far surpassed the worse moments of McCarthyism.

In American academia and civil society at large the profound civilizing discourse on gender, race, ethnicity, and culture which the USA has enjoyed over the past 40-odd years could not have arisen when it did without the force of the Black Freedom Movement.

In sum, the inevitable decline of “American world predominance” would be much further along than it is today without the saving graces of the modern black freedom struggle. And that is only a very small part of the eternal debt the US status quo owes to both the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements.

For the “Black Power: Beyond Borders” lessons and inspiration, I thank all of you…..

*The editor notes that the above author Fred Logan was one of the participants in the Black Power Beyond Borders conference held at Carnegie Mellon University on April 8TH-9TH, 2011 in Pittsburgh PA.
The Conference was sponsored by CAUSE, CENTER FOR AFRICANAMERICAN URBAN STUDIES AND THE ECONOMY.

BLACK POWER BEYOND BORDERS
This conference aims to expand our understanding of the Black power movement geographically, chronlogically, and thematically. By examining Black power beyond geographic and chronological borders, Black Power Beyond Borders will investigate the multiple meanings of Black Power both within and beyond the United States.

Panelist were as follows:

Dr. Barbara Ransby, Professor of History and African-American Studies, The University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Carol Anderson, Associate Professor of African American Studies, Emory University ( Atlanta,GA)

Dr. Yevette Richards Jordan, Professor of Women's History, African American History, Labor Studies, and Pan-Africanism , George Mason University ( Fairfax, VA )

Dr. Oz Frankel, Associate Professor of History, The New School ( New York )

Dr Robbie Shilliam, Senior Lecturer, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science & International Relations, Victoria University
( Wellington, New Zealand

Dr. Donna Murch, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers Univeristy
( New Jersey )

Dr. Yohuru Williams, Associate Professor of African American History
Fairfield University ( Fairfield, Connecticut )

Dr. Scott Kurashige, Associate Professor of American Culture, University of Michigan ( Ann Arbor, Michigan )

Dr. Nico Slate, Assistant Professor of History, Carnegie Mellon University
( Pittsburgh, PA ) This conference was his brain-child.

Dr Kevin Gaines, Professor of History Center for Afro- American & African Studies University of Michigan ( Ann Arbor, Michigan )

*The editor and family attended this enlightening and informative conference.