x, 258 pages : 23 cm

"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 study, drawing on deep archival research and interviews with key participants, Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar reconsiders the comingled 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."--Jacket

Includes bibliographical references and index

"Essay on sources": pages 241-249

For the people and of the people : Black nationalism, identity, and popular culture -- An organization of the living : the Nation of Islam and Black popular culture -- "There go my people" : the civil rights movement, Black nationalism and Black power -- A party for the people : the Black freedom movement and the rise of the Black Panther Party -- Swimming with the masses : the Black Panthers, lumpenism and revolutionary culture -- "Move over or we'll move over on you" : Black power and the decline of the civil rights movement-- Rainbow radicalism : the rise of radical ethnic nationalism -- Power and the people -- Black nationalism after Jim Crow

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