Civil rights movement

=== "Black Power" militants ===
{{Main|Black Power|Black Power movement}}
[[File:John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Peter Norman 1968cr.jpg|thumb|Gold medalist [[Tommie Smith]] ''(center)'' and bronze medalist [[John Carlos]] ''(right)'' showing the [[1968 Olympics Black Power salute|raised fist on the podium]] after the 200&nbsp;m race at the [[1968 Summer Olympics]]; both wear [[Olympic Project for Human Rights]] badges. [[Peter Norman]] ''(silver medalist, left)'' from Australia also wears an OPHR badge in solidarity with Smith and Carlos.]]

During the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964, numerous tensions within the civil rights movement came to the forefront. Many blacks in [[SNCC]] developed concerns that white activists from the North and West were taking over the movement. The participation by numerous white students was not reducing the amount of violence that SNCC suffered, but seemed to exacerbate it. Additionally, there was profound disillusionment at Lyndon Johnson's denial of voting status for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the Democratic National Convention.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/384127 |title=SNCC, the Federal Government & the Road to Black Power |access-date=July 29, 2016|last1=Davies |first1=Tom Adam }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.studythepast.com/4333_spring12/acrm/ACRM%205.1.pdf|title=Allen J. Matusow "From Civil Rights to Black Power: The Case of SNCC", in ''Twentieth-Century America: Recent Interpretations'' (Harcourt Press, 1972), pp. 367–378}}</ref> Meanwhile, during [[Congress of Racial Equality|CORE]]'s work in Louisiana that summer, that group found the federal government would not respond to requests to enforce the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or to protect the lives of activists who challenged segregation. The Louisiana campaign survived by relying on a local African-American militia called the [[Deacons for Defense and Justice]], who used arms to repel white supremacist violence and police repression. CORE's collaboration with the Deacons was effective in disrupting Jim Crow in numerous Louisiana areas.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/any-means-necessary?page=0,0 |title=By Any Means Necessary |magazine=The Nation |access-date=July 29, 2016 |date=June 18, 2004 |last1=Marqusee |first1=Mike |author-link1=Mike Marqusee |archive-date=March 13, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150313004902/http://www.thenation.com/article/any-means-necessary?page=0,0}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25hicks.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100427044144/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25hicks.html |archive-date=April 27, 2010 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Robert Hicks, Leader in Armed Rights Group, Dies at 81|first=Douglas|last=Martin|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 24, 2010}}</ref>

In 1965, SNCC helped organize an independent political party, the [[Lowndes County Freedom Organization]] (LCFO), in the heart of the Alabama Black Belt, also Klan territory. It permitted its black leaders to openly promote the use of armed self-defense. Meanwhile, the Deacons for Defense and Justice expanded into Mississippi and assisted [[Charles Evers]]' NAACP chapter with a successful campaign in [[Natchez, Mississippi|Natchez]]. Charles had taken the lead after his brother [[Medgar Evers]] was assassinated in 1963.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8H9Me8LZ488C&pg=PA206|title=The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement|first=Lance|last=Hill|date=February 1, 2006|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-5702-1|via=Google Books}}</ref> The same year, the 1965 [[Watts Rebellion]] took place in Los Angeles. Many black youths were committed to the use of violence to protest inequality and oppression.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/watts-rebellion-los-angeles|title=Watts Rebellion (Los Angeles)|date=June 12, 2017|publisher=Stanford University|access-date=December 3, 2019}}</ref>

During the [[March Against Fear]] in 1966, initiated by [[James Meredith]], SNCC and CORE fully embraced the slogan of "black power" to describe these trends towards militancy and self-reliance. In Mississippi, Stokely Carmichael declared, "I'm not going to beg the white man for anything that I deserve, I'm going to take it. We need power."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/about/pt_201.html |title=American Experience. ''Eyes on the Prize''. Transcript |publisher=PBS |access-date=July 29, 2016 |archive-date=April 23, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100423154235/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/about/pt_201.html}}</ref>

Some people engaging in the Black Power movement claimed a growing sense of black pride and identity. In gaining more of a sense of a cultural identity, blacks demanded that whites no longer refer to them as "Negroes" but as "Afro-Americans," similar to other ethnic groups, such as Irish Americans and Italian Americans. Until the mid-1960s, blacks had dressed similarly to whites and often [[Hair straightening|straightened their hair]]. As a part of affirming their identity, blacks started to wear African-based [[dashiki]]s and grow their hair out as a natural [[afro]]. The afro, sometimes nicknamed the "'fro," remained a popular black hairstyle until the late 1970s. Other variations of traditional African styles have become popular, often featuring braids, extensions, and dreadlocks.

The [[Black Panther Party]] (BPP), which was founded by [[Huey Newton]] and [[Bobby Seale]] in [[Oakland, California]], in 1966, gained the most attention for Black Power nationally. The group began following the revolutionary pan-Africanism of late-period [[Malcolm X]], using a "by-any-means necessary" approach to stopping racial inequality. They sought to rid African-American neighborhoods of [[police brutality]] and to establish [[socialist]] [[dual power|community control]] in the ghettos. While they conducted armed confrontation with police, they also set up free breakfast and healthcare programs for children.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4KogCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA273 |title=We Are an African People: Independent Education, Black Power, and the Radical Imagination |last=Rickford |first=Russell |date=January 14, 2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-986148-4 |language=en}}</ref> Between 1968 and 1971, the BPP was one of the most important black organizations in the country and had support from the NAACP, SCLC, [[Peace and Freedom Party]], and others.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D7UwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 |title=Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party |last1=Bloom |first1=Joshua |last2=Martin |first2=Waldo E. |date=October 25, 2016 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-29328-1 |pages=223–236 |language=en}}</ref>

Black Power was taken to another level inside prison walls. In 1966, [[George Jackson (Black Panther)|George Jackson]] formed the [[Black Guerrilla Family]] in the California [[San Quentin State Prison]]. The goal of this group was to overthrow the white-run government in America and the prison system. In 1970, this group displayed their dedication after a white prison guard was found not guilty of shooting and killing three black prisoners from the prison tower. They retaliated by killing a white prison guard.

{{listen
| filename=Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud) sample.ogg
| title="Say It Loud&nbsp;– I'm Black and I'm Proud"
| description=[[James Brown]]'s "[[Say It Loud&nbsp;– I'm Black and I'm Proud]]" (1968)
| filetype=[[Ogg]]
| pos=left}}

Numerous popular cultural expressions associated with black power appeared at this time. Released in August 1968, the number one [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|Rhythm & Blues single]] for the [[Billboard Year-End|''Billboard'' Year-End]] list was [[James Brown]]'s "[[Say It Loud&nbsp;– I'm Black and I'm Proud]]".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=Hot+R%26B/Hip-Hop+Songs&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1968 |title=Year End Charts&nbsp;– Year-end Singles&nbsp;– Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs |magazine=Billboard |access-date=September 8, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211040751/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=Hot+R&B%2FHip-Hop+Songs&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1968 |archive-date=December 11, 2007}}</ref> In October 1968, [[Tommie Smith]] and [[John Carlos]], while being awarded the gold and bronze medals, respectively, at the [[1968 Summer Olympics]], donned human rights badges and each raised a black-gloved Black Power salute during their podium ceremony.

King was not comfortable with the "Black Power" slogan, which sounded too much like [[black nationalism]] to him. When King was assassinated in 1968, Stokely Carmichael said that whites had murdered the one person who would prevent rampant rioting and that blacks would burn every major city to the ground. Riots broke out in more than 100 cities across the country. Some cities did not recover from the damage for more than a generation; other city neighborhoods never recovered.