Black Power Movements And African Culture example essay topic

The Ocean Hill Brownsville school controversy was a case study of race relations during the 1960's. This predominantly black area wished to have jurisdiction over their schools' operations and curricula. In 1967, the superintendent of schools granted Ocean Hill Brownsville "community control" of their district. The Board of Education's action was part of a new decentralization policy that wanted to disperse New York City's political powers locally. Once in place, the Unit Administrator, Rhode McCoy, fired several teachers inciting one of the most profound racial standoffs in the city's history. The evolution of the national civil rights movement parallels the changing attitudes of blacks involved in Ocean Hill Brownsville.

In addition, evidence of differing theories concerning assimilation to the American ethnicity is portrayed through the actions of the participants. In 1954, The Brown vs. The Board of Education decision made segregation in schools illegal. New York City's attempt to integrate the schools was unsuccessful, leaving them more segregated than before. (Podair 30) By 1966, New York City's black communities were unhappy with the Board of Education's control of their school districts because of its repeated unsuccessful attempts at integration. Many white groups, like the Parents and Taxpayers Organization, were also frustrated with the current system and called for "The Neighborhood School". It was their discontent that motivated the community control of the Ocean Hill Brownsville school district.

Because of the city's civil rights movement and their support from many influential people and groups, the district was granted control. (Podair 82) Milton Galamison, a local black leader, was an educated reverend that believed integration was the key to equality. He successfully convinced the Board of Education to institute the "Open Enrollment" plan in 1960. Under this policy, black students in over crowded institutions would have an opportunity to attend under utilized white schools. Three years later, because of the plans ineffectiveness, the "Free Choice Transfer" plan was initiated, allowing for an increased amount of school choices and the remapping of districts. Again, these attempts were futile, causing the black community to explore alternate options.

The white groups' resistance to integration was the reason for subsequent political action to ensure its demise. All across the country, the words of Martin Luther King and the successful integrations of southern colleges were the examples that guided the actions of local civil rights movements. During King's "I have a dream" speech, he said, "the Negro dream is rooted in the American dream". (Civil Rights 1) This statement, by the movements most influential leader, made integration into the American system the accepted course of action.

An attempt at achieving cultural democracy, by trying to incorporate into white America, was rejected, both nationally and in New York. Even after the Civil Rights Act was passed, violence against blacks continued. During a peaceful protest, a man was killed while expressing his right to free speech. (Civil Rights 1) Because of this, and other acts of unjust violence that followed, the civil rights movement was forced abandon integration and devise new initiatives for success. In May, 1967 the local board took over operation of the Ocean Hill Brownsville school district. The ideas of the committee were to fill the schools with black administrators and teachers to create an environment best suited for the students of the community.

Because of the districts new additions, especially in junior high 271, new civil rights ideologies were apparent through the dismissal of nineteen white teachers and the events leading up to it. Separatism and self reliance, the main points of Malcolm X's rhetoric were continually displayed in the actions of the administration, the teachers and the students. In early 1968, a teacher, Leslie Campbell, encouraged the separation of white and black teachers in all the public areas of the school. The school was no divided by race as the tension between races continued to grow. On the day of Martin Luther King's assassination, the animosity boiled over into violence. With the encouragement of Campbell, students rampaged through the halls, attacking teachers and vandalizing school property.

(Podair 96) These incidences show the mutation of the civil rights movement into the black power movement of Malcolm X and the black panthers. Other ideals of the movement were exemplified through teacher's actions. Campbell's emphasis on African culture was mirrored by the principles of the modern black power movement nationally. Black literature, music and history were all taught in his class to instigate revolutionary thought and resistance to oppression. (Podair 97) Kwame Toure was a proponent of the separatist ideology which spawned the creation of the Black Panther party. Like Campbell, they condoned the use of violence in defense of their people and were supporters of socialist theory concerning black people.

The idea that African Americans had their own culture was important to the dignity of the youth. The theory of Cultural Pluralism is continually mentioned to emphasize the reality of New York's and the country's race relations. The idea contends that Americans are not a single ethnic group but merely many different cultures living in the same place under the laws. This idea is especially true in the outer boroughs of New York, a place ridden with new and first generation immigrants. Unlike all the other ethnic groups, blacks have logistical differences that separate them from the rest, changing this concept's application. Black people had been second class citizens for a hundred years and before that enslaved for three times as long.

Even though other immigrant groups claim persecution in their country of origin, they no longer reside their. The United States, because of history, has a negative view of African Americans. In addition, the color of their skin makes them easily identifiable for prejudgment. Before the most recent era of "black power movements" and African culture, this country had robbed them of any ethnic heritage except for their role as the subservient American. The Jews who have been in the country for considerably less time were more assimilated to the United States than blacks. Cultural Pluralism is beneficial to them because they could fit into the marketplace under the pretense of whiteness while blacks could not.

Additionally, the competitive individualism provoked by the cold war and technological advances was particularly beneficial to the Jews because of their success and their history of persecution. (Podair 53) Blacks, on the other hand, will never be able to fit into white society. Podair sums this idea up on 180, "By failing to acknowledge the possibility of a middle class culture on anything but white terms, whites placed blacks in the position of having to reject that culture in order to forge a distinct racial identity". Not only are whites the reason this separatist mentality but are partly at fault for the poverty that has plagued the black community. After the dismissal of the teachers, numerous strikes occurred pitting the local board against the UFT. In the end, there was so much strike breaking that the state education commissioner had to be called in to resolve the conflict.

He sided with the UFT, reinstating their positions and the state legislature centralized the control of schools, removing the power of the local board. The civil rights movement of the early 1960's mutated into the black power movement at the decades end. Events leading encompassing the Ocean Hill Brownsville followed the same evolution of peaceful integration to separatism. Cultural Pluralism is a theory revising the melting pot idea.

Even though it's application when discussing American assimilation is accurate, its application to the black community is imprecise because of the unique history of African Americans..