Rethinking the Black Power Movement The Search for Black Power in the 20th Century

Between the 1950s and 1970s, Black Power coalesced as activists advocated a more oppositional approach to fighting racial oppression, emphasizing racial pride, asserting black political, cultural, and economic autonomy, and challenging white power. In Concrete Demands, Rhonda Y. Williams provides a rich, deeply researched history that sheds new light on this important social and political movement, and shows that the era of expansive Black Power politics that emerged in the 1960s had long roots and diverse trajectories within the 20th century. Looking at the struggle from the grassroots level, Williams highlights the role of ordinary people as well as more famous historical actors, and demonstrates that women activists were central to Black Power. Vivid and highly readable, Concrete Demands is a perfect introduction to Black Power in the twentieth century for anyone interested in the history of black liberation movements.

IntroductionPart OneChapter 1: A Mad Society: Crucibles and Portents of Black PowerChapter 2: From “Negro Power” Toward Black RevoltChapter 3: The Time Is Arriving NowPart TwoChapter 4: Into the Public’s EyeChapter 5: Girding Up Urban Power StrugglesChapter 6: The World Cries FREEDOM Chapter 7: Revolution for Whom?: Unraveling Romantic Black UnityEpilogue: EchoesBibliography

Rhonda Y. Williams is Associate Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University. She is the author of The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women's Struggles Against Urban Inequality, and co-editor of Teaching the American Civil Rights Movement: Freedom's Bittersweet Song (Routledge).