Black Nationalism

Black Nationalism. An important ideology in African American history, black nationalism is grounded in the belief that efforts to operate within a political system deemed racist and unresponsive to black needs are doomed to failure. Adapting traditional nationalist tenets to their own situation as members of a racially defined minority population, most African American nationalists have equated “racial” with “national” identities and goals. Joined by ties of history, kinship, and culture, they have viewed themselves as wholly differentiated from competing social and ethnic groups. These common racial ties have been manifested in political movements arguing for the creation of an autonomous nation‐state or a transnational union of states; in the creation of race‐based economic, educational, and religious entities; and in the promotion of distinctive cultural productions. Seeking to turn alleged racial deficits (skin color, cultural traits) into wellsprings of strength, black nationalists have worked to enhance in‐group values while shunning those promoted by the larger society. Critics of these efforts to encourage black sociocultural autonomy have charged that black nationalism's separatist orientation has discouraged interracial cooperation and hindered the creation of pluralistic society in which each component supports and enriches all others. Nationalists countered by noting many African Americans' continued lack of material progress and the persistence of racism in American life. They also cited the beneficial effects on black self‐esteem of the words and programmatic innovations of black nationalists such as the slave‐era activists Martin Delany (1812–1885) and Henry Highland Garnet (1815–1882), who advocated a return to Africa; early twentieth‐century Pan‐African nationalist Marcus Garvey; and the Nation of Islam's Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. At the end of the twentieth century, black nationalism seemed likely to continue to provide an ideological and symbolic basis for group unity as long as politically disaffected and economically disadvantaged African Americans perceived a need to employ it against the forces of white racism and cultural diffusion.

Bibliography

Jeremiah Moses Wilson, ed., Classical Black Nationalism: From the American Revolution to Marcus Garvey, 1996.
William L. Van Deburg, ed., Modern Black Nationalism: From Marcus Garvey to Louis Farrakhan, 1997.

William L. Van Deburg