Synopses & Reviews
The most comprehensive account available of the rise and fall of the Black Power Movement and of its dramatic transformation of both African-American and larger American culture. With a gift for storytelling and an ear for street talk, William Van Deburg chronicles a decade of deep change, from the armed struggles of the Black Panther party to the cultural nationalism of artists and writers creating a new aesthetic. Van Deburg contends that although its tactical gains were sometimes short-lived, the Black Power movement did succeed in making a revolutionand#8212;one in culture and consciousnessand#8212;that has changed the context of race in America.
"New Day in Babylon is an extremely intelligent synthesis, a densely textured evocation of one of American history's most revolutionary transformations in ethnic group consciousness."and#8212;Bob Blauner, New York Times
Winner of the Gustavus Myers Center Outstanding Book Award, 1993
Synopsis
With a gift for storytelling and an ear for street talk, William Van Deburg has written the most comprehensive account available of the rise and fall of the Black Power movement - and of its dramatic transformation of both African-American and the larger American culture. New Day in Babylon chronicles a decade of deep change, from the armed struggles of the Black Panther Party and the separatism of the Nation of Islam to the cultural nationalism of artists and writers creating a new black aesthetic. If its tactical gains were sometimes short-lived, the Black Power movement did succeed in making a revolution - one in culture and consciousness that has changed the context of race in America. Drawing on a remarkable range of cultural expressions, from the voice of Malcolm X to the music of James Brown, from urban folklore, the visual arts, and religion to the language of soul, Van Deburg extracts the enduring cultural and psychological themes that ran through the ideologies of Black Power politics. For Van Deburg, Black Power was, underneath it all, a revolt rooted in culture - both high and low - as artists, writers, performers, politicians, and ordinary people alike begin to assert a distinctive African-American worldview and way of being. His book is a finely textured rendering of the years when the rhetoric of the gun gave way to an explosion of cultural forms that, in celebrating the uniqueness of African-American life, carried forward the militant philosophy of resistance, pride, and self-esteem. Like activists in the sixties and seventies, African-Americans today mobilize a rich variety of cultural resources in the struggle for group identity and racial justice. Whether in the filmsof Spike Lee or other new black directors, in rap music, or in experiments in Afrocentric education, African-Americans continue to reshape the contours of American values, ideals, and attitudes. This is the real legacy of the Black Power movement. And it has never been demonstrated more eloquently than in this book.
About the Author
Prior to his retirement, William L. Van Deburg was the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His previous books include New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975 and Black Camelot: African-American Culture Heroes in Their Times, 1960-1980, both published by the University of Chicago Press.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction: A Black Power Paradigm
1. What Is "Black Power"?
2. Precursors and Preconditions: Why Was There a Black Power Movement?
3. Who Were the "Militants"?
Black Power on Campus
Black Power in Sports
Black Power and Labor
Black Power and "Total Institutions"
4. The Ideologies of Black Power
Pluralism
Nationalism
5. Black Power in Afro-American Culture: Folk Expressions
Soul Style
Soul Music
Soul Talk
Soulful Tales
Soul Theology
6. Black Power and American Culture: Literary and Performing Arts
Defining "Whitey"
Identifying "Toms"
Understanding Black History
Achieving Liberation
Conclusion: Whatever Happened to Black Power?
Notes
Index