Black Power
African-American
By 1965 the emergence of the Black Power movement (1966-1975) began gradually to eclipse the original "integrated power" aims of the Civil Rights Movement that had been espoused by Martin Luther King Jr.Advocates of Black Power argued for black self-determination,and to assert that the assimilation inherent in integration robs Africans of their common heritage and dignity; e.g.,the theorist and activist Omali Yeshitela argues that Africans have historically fought to protect their lands,cultures and freedoms from European colonialists,and that any integration into the society which has stolen another people and their wealth is actually an act of treason.
Today,most Black Power advocates have not changed their self-sufficiency argument.Racism still exists worldwide and it is generally accepted that blacks in the United States,on the whole,did not assimilate into U.S."mainstream" culture either by King's integration measures or by the self-sufficiency measures of Black Power — rather,blacks arguably became evermore oppressed,this time partially by "their own" people in a new black stratum of the middle class and the ruling class.Black Power's advocates generally argue that the reason for this stalemate and further oppression of the vast majority of U.S.blacks is because Black Power's objectives have not had the opportunity to be fully carried through.