Black Power was a revolutionary movement which radicalised the Civil Rights Agenda within the 1960's. Black Power set out to achieve equality in such a way America had never seen before. An alternative to peaceful protest. An ideology which did not demand integration of the black man and the white man, but instead acknowledged their differences and strived for complete independence. Independence economically and also politically - many saw this as the only path to freedom.
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“We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity.” The Black Power movement grew out of the Civil Rights Movement that had steadily gained momentum through the 1950s and 1960s. Although not a formal movement, the Black Power movement marked a turning point in black-white relations in the United States and also in how blacks saw themselves. The movement was hailed by some as a positive and proactive force aimed at helping blacks achieve full equality with whites, but it was reviled by others as a militant, sometimes violent faction whose primary goal was to drive a wedge between whites and blacks. In truth, the Black Power movement was a complex event that took place at a time when society and culture was being transformed throughout the United States, and its legacy reflects that complexity.
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