Black Power

noun

(sometimes lowercase)

1. the political and economic power of Black Americans in solidarity, especially such power used for achieving social equality.

Black Power

noun

1. a social, economic, and political movement of Black people, esp in the US, to obtain equality with White people

Black Power

1. A movement that grew out of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Black Power calls for independent development of political and social institutions for black people and emphasizes pride in black culture. In varying degrees, Black Power advocates called for the exclusion of whites from black civil rights organizations. Stokely Carmichael, one of the leaders of the movement and the head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), stated: “I am not going to beg the white man for anything I deserve. I'm going to take it.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of Black Power¹

An Americanism dating back to 1965–70

Example Sentences

Similar tactics were used against the Ku Klux Klan, Students for a Democratic Society, and Black Power groups.

From Slate

The Jets and Sharks seemed pretty pointless after a presidential assassination, a war, Black Power and nascent feminism.

From Salon

And the confusion is there too, like when Shilubana’s formidable Jacob proudly raises a Black Power fist and the girl raises hers back, or when boisterous men run up to her car window with a chicken.

From Los Angeles Times

“Afterlife” really tells two stories, running along parallel tracks: One is a work of cultural history that touches on Malcolm’s appeal to people as disparate as Black Power firebrand Stokely Carmichael and conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who once groused, “I don’t see how the civil rights people of today can claim Malcolm X as their own.”

From Los Angeles Times

The image of John Carlos and Tommie Smith on the medal stand at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, gloved fists in the air in a Black power salute, has been seared into the historical consciousness.

From Los Angeles Times