The Black Power Movement
Veteran Journalist Mark Whitaker’s Newest Book Highlights Its 1966 Emergence
As a youngster born in Columbus, Ohio, I was a mere 3 years old in 1966. During that year a powerful wave of racial solidarity began sending shockwaves throughout America. Known as the Black Power Movement, this turbulent period of racial justice sought to bring new attention to Black activism, solidarity, and community building in America.
In the eye opening new book “Saying It Loud: 1966 —The Year Black Power Challenged The Civil Rights Movement,” noted journalist and media executive Mark Whitaker chronicles the momentous year that seismically shook the civil rights movement. This period saw the ushering in of a new era of Black identity and power that often ran counter to the more conservative, nonviolent approach of civil rights icons Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis.
The book begins with a look at a sobering event that took place on January 3, 1966 when Black civil rights worker Sammy Younge was murdered by a white gas station owner in Tuskegee, Alabama, for asking to use the restroom. As Whitaker candidly notes, Younge’s death “reverberated through a generation of young people who were reaching a breaking point of frustration with the gospel of nonviolence and racial integration preached by Dr. King.”
Whitaker then proceeds in capturing pivotal developments tied to the broader call for justice, a movement that disrupted the prevailing civil rights narrative espoused by organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
In evocative fashion replete with deep research, Whitaker in his book brings attention to key figures who played a prominent role during this period — intrepid individuals like Stokely Carmichael, who replaced John Lewis as SNCC’s chairman; Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, who formed the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California; and Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, who became the executive secretary of SNCC and thus the highest-ranking woman in the civil rights movement.
In riveting detail, Whitaker explores how 1966 became a pivotal year in the quest for civil rights. As he notes in an excerpt from the book introduction:
“In the study of the seismic era known as the 1960s, numerous books have been devoted to individual years. In most cases, this approach has served to weave together different political and social threads that intersected throughout this remarkable decade. But this book will tell the story of the birth of Black Power through the framework of 1966 for more historical reasons.”
The book’s 351 pages provide readers with an inside look at how that year evolved — from Stokely Carmichael’s crafty ouster of moderate chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) John Lewis to his passionate siren call of “Black Power!” during a rural Mississippi protest march.
I was also captured by Whitaker’s account of the racially charged ouster that year of civil right leader Julian Bond because of his anti-war statements. He also explored Ronald Reagan’s election as California governor. Reagan’s ascendancy fueled a “white backlash” campaign against Black Power leading to fever pitch levels of urban unrest and violent racial encounters.
Deeply researched and widely reported, I personally found “Saying It Loud” to be a riveting read full of an esoteric array of historical insights and perspectives. This compelling book helps to inform more recent efforts directed towards racial justice, Black empowerment, and the teaching of Black History in schools. In the end, I see it as an essential book in the continued push for liberation of all of Black America.
