The document summarizes the shift in the Civil Rights Movement from nonviolence to Black Power in the mid-1960s, as advocated by Stokely Carmichael of SNCC. It also discusses the urban race riots of the 1960s, including in Watts, Chicago, Detroit, and Newark, which were responses to poverty, prejudice, and police mistreatment. The rise of Black Power and black pride movements like the Black Panthers aimed to achieve self-determination and political gains for African Americans. The federal government then took steps to confront racism through the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and policies of affirmative action.

1. Redefining
Equality: From
Black Power to
Affirmative Action
“An organization which claims to be
working for the needs of a community - as
SNCC does - must work to provide that
community with a position of strength
from which to make its voice heard. This is
the significance of black power beyond
the slogan.”
-Stokely Carmichael

2. A Shift in the CRM
• A shift in the Civil Rights
Movement takes place in the mid-
1960s from a doctrine of
nonviolence to the increasing
popularity of Black Power.
• After a failed attempt to
assassinate James Meredith along
his planned march from Memphis
to Jackson in 1966, a young leader
of SNCC named Stokely Carmichael
advocated “Black Power”
• Carmichael’s popularity signaled a
change in what many blacks
wanted and how they would
achieve these goals

3. The Nations Black Ghettos Explode:
• By the 1960s, almost 70 percent of
African-Americans lived in large
cities
• Urban blacks were often
concentrated in ethnic ghettos
• Race riots in 1965 exploded into
Watts, an African-American ghetto
in Los Angeles
• African-Americans were frustrated
about poverty, prejudice, and police
mistreatment
• The Watts riot lasted six days (34
people died, 900 injured, 45 million
in damages)

4. The Nations Black Ghettos Explode:
• Over the next few years riots
would erupt in Chicago,
Detroit, and Newark
• President Johnson established
the National Advisory
Commission on Civil Disorder
to examine the causes of the
riots
• The Kerner Commission
concluded that “the nation
was moving toward two
societies, one black, one
white-separate and unequal

5. The Rise of Black Power and Black
Pride:
• Malcolm X advocates black
nationalism (member of
Nation of Islam)
-black nationalism was a
doctrine that called for
complete separation from
white society
• SNCC stood up for Black
Power (Stokely Carmichael)
• Black Panthers worked for
self-determination
-In 1966 the Black Panther
Party was founded in Oakland,
California

6. The Rise of Black Power and Black
Pride:
• Black Power at the polls brings
political gains
-Edward Brooke of
Massachusetts was elected to
the U.S. Senate in 1966,
becoming the first black senator
since 1881
-Black politicians won state and
local elections (Carl Stokes:
Cleveland, Tom Bradley: Los
Angeles)

7. The Rise of Black Power and Black
Pride:
• Black Pride: The Growth of
Afrocentrism (a focus on
African history, culture,
and achievements of
African peoples and their
descendants in the U.S.)
-Maya Angelou (Novelist)
-Alex Haley (Roots)
-Nikki Giovanni (Poet)

8. The Federal Government Confronts
Racism:
• Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibited
discrimination in housing by prohibiting
discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and
financing of housing based on race, religion,
or national origin
• Affirmative Action: a policy that calls on
employers to actively seek to increase the
number of minorities in their workforce