James Brown, Stokely Carmichael,and “Acceptable”Forms of Black PowerProtest (from Black Diaspora Review – Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies – Indiana University, Bloomington)

James West

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that the amorphous nature of Black Power as a slogan or concept can be seen to have rendered it particularly vulnerable to appropriation, whether cultural, political,or otherwise. In focusing on the media representation of Stokely Carmichael and James Brown following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr.,in April 1968, it explores how King’s death and the ensuing civil unrest provided the opportunity for media outlets and political leaders to reconfigure popular understandings of and promote different “forms”of Black Power activism.

Below the full article (pdf)

Source: Black Diaspora Review