Black Power by Charles Hamilton and Stokely Carmichael (kka Kwame Ture)

Black Power means proper representation and sharing of control. It means the creation of power basees, of strength, from which black people can press to change local or nation-wide patterns of oppression-instead of from weakness.

It does not mean merely putting black faces into office. Black visibility is not Black Power. The power must be that of a community, and emanate from there.

Black Power recognizes-it must recognize-the ethnic basis of American politics as well as the power-oriented nature of American politics. But while we endorse the procedure of group solidarity and identity for the purpose of attaining certain goals in the body politic, this does not mean that black people should strive for the same kind of rewards (i.e., end results) obtained by the white society. The ultimate values and goals are not domination or exploitation of other groups, but rather an effective share in the total power of the society.

Nevertheless, some observers have labled those who advocate Black Power as racists; they have said that the call for self-identification and self-determination is "racism in reverse" or "black supremacy." This is a deliberate and absurd lie. There is no analogy-by any stretch of definition or imagination-between the advocates of Black Power and white racists. Racism is not merely exclusion on the basis of race but exclusion for the purpose of subjugating or maintaining subjugation. The goal of the racists is to keep black people on the bottom, arbitrarily and dictatiorially, as they have done in this country for over three hundred years. The goal of black self-determination and black self-identity - Black Power- is full participation in the decision making processes affecting the lives of black people, and recognition of the virtues in themselves as black people.

"...In short, the failure of American leaders to use American power to create equal opportunity in life as well as law, this is the real problem and not the anguished cry for Black Power.

...Without the capacity to participate with power, i.e., to have some organized political and economic strength to really influence people with whom one interacts, integration is not meaningful.

...America has asked it's Negro citizens to fight for opportunity as individuals, whereas at certain points in our history what we have needed most has been opportunity for the whole group, not just for selected and approved Negroes.

...We must not apologize for the existence of this form of group power, for we have been oppressed as a group and not as individuals. We will not find our way out of that oppression until both we and America accept the need for Negro Americans, as well as for Jews, Italians, Poles, and white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, among others, to have and to wield group power."