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Saying It Loud: 1966―The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement
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About This Book
Mark Whitaker "writes with the eye of a journalist and ear of a poet" ( The Boston Globe ) to tell the story of the momentous year that redefined the civil rights movement as a new sense of Black identity, expressed in the slogan "Black Power," challenged the nonviolent philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis. In "crisp prose" ( The New York Times ) and novelistic detail Saying It Loud tells the story of how the Black Power phenomenon began to challenge the traditional civil rights movement in the turbulent year of 1966. Saying It Loud takes you inside the dramatic events in this seminal year, from Stokely Carmichael's middle-of-the-night ouster of moderate icon John Lewis as a chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to Carmichael's impassioned cry of "Black Power!" during a protest march in rural Mississippi. From Julian Bond's humiliating and racist ouster from the Georgia state legislature because of his antiwar statements to Ronald Reagan's election as California governor riding a "white backlash" vote against Black Power and urban unrest. From the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California, to the origins of Kwanzaa, the Black Arts Movement, and the first Black studies programs. From Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ill-fated campaign to take the civil rights movement north to Chicago to the wrenching ousting of the white members of SNCC. Deeply researched and widely reported, Saying It Loud offers brilliant portraits of the major characters in the yearlong drama and provides new details and insights from key players and journalists who covered the story. It also makes a compelling case for why the lessons from 1966 still resonate in the era of Black Lives Matter and the fierce contemporary battles over voting rights, identity politics, and the teaching of Black History.
Reviews
"Whitaker also delves into the work of Huey Newton and Bobby Seale."
"Whitaker's striking insights offer a memorable glimpse of a key period in American history and the struggle for racial justice in the U.S."
"Whitaker elevates the movement's lesser-known figures, analyzes how internal and external forces splintered the movement, and contextualizes cultural developments including the free jazz of John Coltrane and Charles Mingus and the emergence of the Afro as a symbol of Black liberation."
"A refreshing history."
"Brilliantly captures a moment when young Black activists who had lent their voices to the Freedom Movement's unifying call for integration began to recognize this goal as one (like nonviolence itself) adopted more as a practical necessity than the be-all, end-all of the centuries-old struggle for liberation and justice ..."
"An essential volume in the history of Black liberation movements."
"An important, accessible book for general readers and scholars."
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