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Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America
"Once in a while a book comes along that projects the spirit of an era; this is one of them . . . Vibrant and expressive . . . A well-researched and well-written work." ― The Philadelphia Inquirer With the rallying cry of "Black Power!" in 1966, a group of black activists, including Stokely Carmichael and Huey P. Newton, turned their backs on Martin Luther King's pacifism and, building on Malcolm X's legacy, pioneered a radical new approach to the fight for equality. Drawing on original archival research and more than sixty original oral histories, Peniel E. Joseph vividly invokes the way in which Black Power redefined black identity and culture and in the process redrew the landscape of American race relations. In a series of character-driven chapters, we witness the rise of Black Power groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panthers, and with them, on both coasts of the country, a fundamental change in the way Americans understood the unfinished business of racial equality and integration. Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour traces the history of the Black Power movement, that storied group of men and women who would become American icons of the struggle for racial equality.
432 pages, Paperback
First published July 25, 2006
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January 6, 2024
the politics of insurrection
The roots of the Black Power Movement in America can be traced as far back as Marcus Garvey and his 1914 Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). However, Peniel Joseph points to a Cold War assault on black radicals, whom conservatives associated with an influx of communist ideologies, as the true genesis of Black Power. Joseph chronicles Negro Nationalism from its infancy in the post World War I era to its resurgence during the Great Depression and finally to its heyday in the turbulent sixties and early seventies.
a veritable Venn diagram
Much like feminism, so much that I thought I knew about Black History was completely wrong. In my mind I had equated the Black Power movement with the Civil Rights movement. To me the two groups were synonymous and interchangeable—not so. Yes the two spheres often overlapped, but their ideologies and methodologies (and leaders) were vastly different and often at odds with one another. In the beginning Martin Luther King Jr. (Civil Rights) denounced and distanced himself from Black Power, believing it to be too radical and counterproductive. In contrast, Malcolm X (Black Power) often derided and belittled Dr. King, going so far as to call King’s March on Washington the “farce on Washington.” And yet, beneath it all, there was an undeniable kinship (if not outright friendship) between the two of them. Two of the greatest orators in American history; both principled, both driven, and both so feared by their enemies that they were cold bloodily murdered.
the never ending story
As a white dude studying Black History I’ve learned that it is better to keep my mouth shut and continue reading than to espouse opinions from an outsider’s position of privilege. I read about Dr. King and that fires me up to read about Bayard Rustin. I read about Malcolm X and that sends me on a quest to learn more about Stokely Carmichael. I read about Angela Davis and all of a sudden I’m buying books on Assata Shakur. There seems to be no end to the histories of intolerance and injustice in this country and every book, like this one, fuels my advocacy and activism.
The roots of the Black Power Movement in America can be traced as far back as Marcus Garvey and his 1914 Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). However, Peniel Joseph points to a Cold War assault on black radicals, whom conservatives associated with an influx of communist ideologies, as the true genesis of Black Power. Joseph chronicles Negro Nationalism from its infancy in the post World War I era to its resurgence during the Great Depression and finally to its heyday in the turbulent sixties and early seventies.
a veritable Venn diagram
Much like feminism, so much that I thought I knew about Black History was completely wrong. In my mind I had equated the Black Power movement with the Civil Rights movement. To me the two groups were synonymous and interchangeable—not so. Yes the two spheres often overlapped, but their ideologies and methodologies (and leaders) were vastly different and often at odds with one another. In the beginning Martin Luther King Jr. (Civil Rights) denounced and distanced himself from Black Power, believing it to be too radical and counterproductive. In contrast, Malcolm X (Black Power) often derided and belittled Dr. King, going so far as to call King’s March on Washington the “farce on Washington.” And yet, beneath it all, there was an undeniable kinship (if not outright friendship) between the two of them. Two of the greatest orators in American history; both principled, both driven, and both so feared by their enemies that they were cold bloodily murdered.
the never ending story
As a white dude studying Black History I’ve learned that it is better to keep my mouth shut and continue reading than to espouse opinions from an outsider’s position of privilege. I read about Dr. King and that fires me up to read about Bayard Rustin. I read about Malcolm X and that sends me on a quest to learn more about Stokely Carmichael. I read about Angela Davis and all of a sudden I’m buying books on Assata Shakur. There seems to be no end to the histories of intolerance and injustice in this country and every book, like this one, fuels my advocacy and activism.
February 14, 2008
This book does what none other has done to date. Puts the Black Power movement into the larger context of civil rights in the United States. By looking at its starting point the 40s (sorry to tell you but the 60s was not when it all started)this narrative paints the most accurate picture of the development of Black Power and its impact on public policy and social movements. This author takes black power beyone the macho mythos and offers solid evidence of its real impact.
Great read and solid overview . . . but how could my brother write such a "comprehensive narrative" and not even a page on on Ella Baker . . ? ...and where is Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, Kathleen Cleaver, Elaine Brown? Can you say Fannie Lou Hammer?
What could have been the defenitive book . . . falls into the same trap of the 70s black power movement by ignoring the power and leadership of black women.
...maybe next time.
Great read and solid overview . . . but how could my brother write such a "comprehensive narrative" and not even a page on on Ella Baker . . ? ...and where is Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, Kathleen Cleaver, Elaine Brown? Can you say Fannie Lou Hammer?
What could have been the defenitive book . . . falls into the same trap of the 70s black power movement by ignoring the power and leadership of black women.
...maybe next time.
June 20, 2020
Waiting "Til the Midnight Hour is a wonderful book that I read in the Winter of 2017. You see the different philosophies, and different forms of execution for said philosophies, that existed within the Black Power Movement of the late 60s & early 70s.
One of those books that writes necessary individuals and groups into their rightful place in history.
One of those books that writes necessary individuals and groups into their rightful place in history.
November 9, 2014
A very good synthetic history of "Black Power" from its intellectual and political origins in the 1950s (with appropriate glances back at the deeper history) to its slow and tragic unraveling in the mid-70s. When I read the book the first time, my immediate response was that there wasn't much in it I wasn't already familiar with. To some extent that's still true--I've followed the story from the time it was in the newspaper through the more recent academic reconsiderations, including Joseph's biography of Stokely Carmichael. But this time, I was impressed with the way Joseph locates a clear narrative without simplifying the complications of the central figures and the political philosophies they grappled with and bequeathed to their descendants in crucially altered forms. Clearly sympathetic to the movement, as am I, Joseph does his best to give a sympathetic hearing to the cross currents of Black Power that emphasized economics (the Panthers in their international socialist phase), aggressive confrontation with a reformist agenda (SNCC as it transitioned out of the interracial "civil rights" phase), Malcolm's evolving view of Islam, Pan-Africanism (Carmichael in conversation with Nkrumah and Sekou Toure), culturally inflected black nationalism (Baraka at the height of his political, though not literary, importance). He doesn't duck the sexism or the grandstanding, and he understands clearly that the women--Kathleen Cleaver and Angela Davis chief among them--have aged better than almost all of the guys except for Malcolm. Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour is definitely the best place to start for anyone looking for a measured, highly readable entry into the Black Power story.
July 27, 2023
"The revolution is not about dying. It's about living."-Stokely Carmichael, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
"Although after World War II black Americans would enjoy new rights, yet more freedoms remained to be claimed; it was the space between new rights and unclaimed freedoms that would fuel Black Power activists."
Waiting til the midnight hour: A narrative history of Black Power in America by Peniel E. Joseph reminds us that the Black Power Movement is still relevant and important today. The Development of the Black Power Movement was influenced by white backlash to the civil rights movement. It focuses on the Black Power Movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's.
Joseph begins with a brief description of Marcus Garvey's black nationalism, and then traces the movement for black empowerment through history to the present day, focusing on Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis and Huey Newton. He notes that the relationship between the traditional civil rights movement as embodied by King, and the Black Power movement. It's insightful, intersectional and page turning.
"Although after World War II black Americans would enjoy new rights, yet more freedoms remained to be claimed; it was the space between new rights and unclaimed freedoms that would fuel Black Power activists."
Waiting til the midnight hour: A narrative history of Black Power in America by Peniel E. Joseph reminds us that the Black Power Movement is still relevant and important today. The Development of the Black Power Movement was influenced by white backlash to the civil rights movement. It focuses on the Black Power Movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's.
Joseph begins with a brief description of Marcus Garvey's black nationalism, and then traces the movement for black empowerment through history to the present day, focusing on Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis and Huey Newton. He notes that the relationship between the traditional civil rights movement as embodied by King, and the Black Power movement. It's insightful, intersectional and page turning.
December 15, 2017
Great history of the black power movement, but I think it might be better to read Malcolm X's biography, Black Against Empire, and Stokely as this is just a mix of the story of those movements. It's a much needed correction to the false narrative of the black power movement that I've read elsewhere.
February 14, 2015
so, uh, any women in this movement? just saying that some elements of these groups were sexist doesn't mean that your book, which talks about very few women in more than a passing manner, isn't.
July 24, 2024
The story of the Black Power Movement from the 1960’s is such a complex, inspiring and a misunderstood one. My initial knowledge of the movement and of the BPP was an image of all black, leather coat wearing, righteous, gun-toting revolutionaries who demanded the correction of racial injustice. What I happened to learn was how affective and Influential the group was, contributing to a multiplicity of social justice movements.
At the same time I expressed my massive disappointment in our corrupted domestic intelligence infrastructure and the misuse of unchecked government power in an attempt to eliminate these activists. The clandestine operation of Cointelpro might not have surfaced if not for Watergate.
My only gripe is having some difficulty with understanding the multitude of political references to Marxism, Leninism and communism. You have to do a background read on these political movements to comprehend the differences between leaders’ political beliefs and desires. I would have loved the opportunity to meet Stokley Carmichael and Huey Newton ✨
At the same time I expressed my massive disappointment in our corrupted domestic intelligence infrastructure and the misuse of unchecked government power in an attempt to eliminate these activists. The clandestine operation of Cointelpro might not have surfaced if not for Watergate.
My only gripe is having some difficulty with understanding the multitude of political references to Marxism, Leninism and communism. You have to do a background read on these political movements to comprehend the differences between leaders’ political beliefs and desires. I would have loved the opportunity to meet Stokley Carmichael and Huey Newton ✨
April 7, 2013
The mythology of the civil rights movement taught in school goes something like this. We had slaves, that was bad. We fought the civil war and Lincoln freed the slaves, but some bad people in the south still treated black people badly. One day Rosa Parks was tired after work, and refused to give up her seat. Martin Luther King gave a speech, and the problem was solved. But then blacks got greedy, and wanted lots of special privileges. The slightly more nuanced version adds that after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, during the 1950's lots of people marched, held sit-ins, and the Supreme Court ruled in their favor. There was a giant march on Washington, and Congress passed the Civil Rights Laws. But then blacks abandoned protest, and instead started shouting black power, carrying around guns, rioted--burning down the cities, and destroying great cities like Detroit and Chicago's westside. In addition, blacks began demanding special privileges, so now reverse racism is as big a problem as racism used to be in the 50's.
Joseph has done us all a favor by removing "Black Power" from this cartoonish history, and instead placing it in context. He begins with a brief description of Marcus Garvey's black nationalism, and then traces the movement for black empowerment through history to the present day, focusing on Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and Huey Newton. He notes that the relationship between the traditional civil rights movement as embodied by King, and the Black Power movement has always included elements of cooperation at the same time as there was competition. The Deacons for Defense provided armed protection to King and other leaders of non-violent protests; Carmichael started out in SNCC dedicated to non-violence. The Panthers believed in self defense, but also believed in running social service programs (e.g, breakfast for school kids).
Joseph's bottom line is that both the traditional non-violent civil rights movement and the black power movement fractured because of the contradiction inherent in both movements--was the fundamental problem race or class. Neither ever fully answered that question, and ultimately the class conflicts inside the movements broke into the open, fracturing both movements.
The struggle continues.
Joseph has done us all a favor by removing "Black Power" from this cartoonish history, and instead placing it in context. He begins with a brief description of Marcus Garvey's black nationalism, and then traces the movement for black empowerment through history to the present day, focusing on Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and Huey Newton. He notes that the relationship between the traditional civil rights movement as embodied by King, and the Black Power movement has always included elements of cooperation at the same time as there was competition. The Deacons for Defense provided armed protection to King and other leaders of non-violent protests; Carmichael started out in SNCC dedicated to non-violence. The Panthers believed in self defense, but also believed in running social service programs (e.g, breakfast for school kids).
Joseph's bottom line is that both the traditional non-violent civil rights movement and the black power movement fractured because of the contradiction inherent in both movements--was the fundamental problem race or class. Neither ever fully answered that question, and ultimately the class conflicts inside the movements broke into the open, fracturing both movements.
The struggle continues.
April 28, 2017
Waiting ‘til The Midnight Hour A Narrative History of Black Power in America reminds us of the importance of the Black Power Movement and why it’s still relevant. If asked, only a handful of Black America can tell you of the movement that is part of their History.
Waiting ‘til The Midnight Hour A Narrative History of Black Power in America reminds readers of the relevancy of the Black Panther movement who inspired poetry and race consciousness of the Black Arts movement.
Harold Cruse…charged while communists and black radicals with failing to recognize that the key to African American liberation resided in the last place anybody cared to look: in the black community’s indigenous, cultural, and artistic institutions.
Waiting ‘til The Midnight Hour A Narrative History of Black Power in America did a great job in teaching or reminding readers about the History of Black Americans who were being oppressed. The facts were clear and relevant.
Waiting ‘til The Midnight Hour A Narrative History of Black Power in America is not an exciting read as much as it is a necessary read. The timeline included was useful in following events as they happened.
Waiting ‘til The Midnight Hour A Narrative History of Black Power in America reminds readers of the relevancy of the Black Panther movement who inspired poetry and race consciousness of the Black Arts movement.
Harold Cruse…charged while communists and black radicals with failing to recognize that the key to African American liberation resided in the last place anybody cared to look: in the black community’s indigenous, cultural, and artistic institutions.
Waiting ‘til The Midnight Hour A Narrative History of Black Power in America did a great job in teaching or reminding readers about the History of Black Americans who were being oppressed. The facts were clear and relevant.
Waiting ‘til The Midnight Hour A Narrative History of Black Power in America is not an exciting read as much as it is a necessary read. The timeline included was useful in following events as they happened.
September 8, 2017
In an exceptionally readable narrative, the author synthesizes the black political movements that occurred from 1967-1972 in a the US South, North, and West Coast, paying special attention to a handful of important figures from Malcolm X and MLK to Huey P. Newton and Stokely Carmichael and beyond, all while keeping a close conversation with national and global politics. It is intersectional and insightful, page-turning, and fair. I came to this book having very little knowledge of the who-what-where-when-why-how of Black Power in America, and am walking away with an excellent overview and thirst to learn more! Definitely recommend.
October 11, 2015
As one of the blurbs says, an excellent synthesis of black resistance movements since the mid-'50s as they relate to the idea of Black Power. It would be a handy read for anybody concerned with souring racial relations in this country.
April 12, 2021
I’m still processing what I read, and I’m sure I’ll revisit this book in the future. What I can appreciate is that it truly showed the various facets of Black Power and the varying ideologies of its biggest names. As someone who often has trouble reading and understanding historical readings, I found this fairly comprehensible.
February 13, 2022
This is an intriguing look at the Black Power Movement from the 1950s to the 1970s. It covers a lot of ground, but its main focuses are Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panthers. For Malcolm X, it looks at his ascendency in the Nation of Islam. It talks less about the specifics of its ideology than about his reactions to specific events, especially in terms of the Civil Rights Movement and his eventual rift with Elijah Muhammad. He stood as a charismatic and principled man who felt that blacks had to make their own way, criticizing MLK for essentially begging white for acceptance. Over time, his views moderated, although still significantly divergent from King's. Part of this change was disillusionment with the NOI and some came from a trip to Saudi Arabia where he saw a more multiracial islamic society. His death at a relatively young age, and the fact that he didn't have to deal with the divisions in the black nationalism movement in the late 60s and 70s cemented him as THE spokesman for black nationalism in the public's mind.
Carmichael was also a charismatic leader, influenced by Malcolm X, but with significant differences in philosophy. Carmichael started as a SNCC organizer is some of the most difficult places in the south, Mississippi and Alabama. He tried to work with the Democratic Party, but soon became disillusioned and realized that blacks in the south would have to organize themselves. In 1966, he became the leader of SNCC. Even though it was organized to be decentralized, his position of leadership gave him significant influence as a spokesman. His frank style of speaking mixed with his love of theory and ideology and his vocal opposition to the Vietnam War to garner him substantial fame, some of which was resented by the SNCC leaders. He resigned the leadership of SNCC after barely a year in the position. From there, he continued to speak around the country for another year before he began looking for more international solutions to the problems blacks had in America, turning to Pan-Africanism. He travelled to Africa for a year and became friends with prominent African leaders. He returned to the United States for a few years, but his influence was significantly diminished. It is not clear if that is because there were many other new voices for black nationalism or because his Pan-African message did not resonate with African-Americans. He connected with the Black Panthers for a short time, as with a few other groups, but eventually move back to Guinea to focus on his Pan-African dreams.
The Black Panthers began as a civic organization in Oakland, but almost immediately began morphing. Its leader, Huey Newton, was an attractive intellectual who believed that America had failed blacks and so blacks had to organize themselves. He advocated armed self-protection against police brutality. He was soon arrested after a conflict with police that left one dead and one injured. This became a cause celebre for the organization and blacks across the country. Newton was convicted but that was overturned on appeal. Nevertheless, many other Panther leaders had been arrested at that time, leaving a vacuum that Newton was not able to adequately fill upon his release. The movement began to splinter between those favoring socialism, those favoring and African-American nationalism and those favoring Pan-Africanism. In addition, they faced factionalism that was more about personality than ideas or methods.
Overall, the book is an excellent overview of the ebbs and flows of the movement in this time. By the mid-70s, it was largely spent. The author is clearly sympathetic to the ideas of the movement and finishes with an almost romantic analysis of what was and what could have been. Even with this sentimental attachment, I would use this book in a class on race relations because it offers a broad analysis, beyond even the three foci that I have mentioned here. It isn't completely objective but it is still very informative.
Carmichael was also a charismatic leader, influenced by Malcolm X, but with significant differences in philosophy. Carmichael started as a SNCC organizer is some of the most difficult places in the south, Mississippi and Alabama. He tried to work with the Democratic Party, but soon became disillusioned and realized that blacks in the south would have to organize themselves. In 1966, he became the leader of SNCC. Even though it was organized to be decentralized, his position of leadership gave him significant influence as a spokesman. His frank style of speaking mixed with his love of theory and ideology and his vocal opposition to the Vietnam War to garner him substantial fame, some of which was resented by the SNCC leaders. He resigned the leadership of SNCC after barely a year in the position. From there, he continued to speak around the country for another year before he began looking for more international solutions to the problems blacks had in America, turning to Pan-Africanism. He travelled to Africa for a year and became friends with prominent African leaders. He returned to the United States for a few years, but his influence was significantly diminished. It is not clear if that is because there were many other new voices for black nationalism or because his Pan-African message did not resonate with African-Americans. He connected with the Black Panthers for a short time, as with a few other groups, but eventually move back to Guinea to focus on his Pan-African dreams.
The Black Panthers began as a civic organization in Oakland, but almost immediately began morphing. Its leader, Huey Newton, was an attractive intellectual who believed that America had failed blacks and so blacks had to organize themselves. He advocated armed self-protection against police brutality. He was soon arrested after a conflict with police that left one dead and one injured. This became a cause celebre for the organization and blacks across the country. Newton was convicted but that was overturned on appeal. Nevertheless, many other Panther leaders had been arrested at that time, leaving a vacuum that Newton was not able to adequately fill upon his release. The movement began to splinter between those favoring socialism, those favoring and African-American nationalism and those favoring Pan-Africanism. In addition, they faced factionalism that was more about personality than ideas or methods.
Overall, the book is an excellent overview of the ebbs and flows of the movement in this time. By the mid-70s, it was largely spent. The author is clearly sympathetic to the ideas of the movement and finishes with an almost romantic analysis of what was and what could have been. Even with this sentimental attachment, I would use this book in a class on race relations because it offers a broad analysis, beyond even the three foci that I have mentioned here. It isn't completely objective but it is still very informative.
February 25, 2013
"Although after World War II black Americans would enjoy new rights, yet more freedoms remained to be claimed; it was the space between new rights and unclaimed freedoms that would fuel Black Power activists." (5-6)
"'I don't play dozens with white folks. To set the record straight, the reason we are in this bag isn't because of my mamma, it's because of what they did to my mamma.'" (quoting Stokely Carmichael on the Moynahan report, 152)
"'The revolution is not about dying. It's about living.'" (quoting Stokely Carmichael, 240)
"Black Arts activists set out to exorcise the demons behind what [Amiri] Bakara called 'a John Coltrane people being ruled by Lawrence Welk.'" (256)
"'I don't play dozens with white folks. To set the record straight, the reason we are in this bag isn't because of my mamma, it's because of what they did to my mamma.'" (quoting Stokely Carmichael on the Moynahan report, 152)
"'The revolution is not about dying. It's about living.'" (quoting Stokely Carmichael, 240)
"Black Arts activists set out to exorcise the demons behind what [Amiri] Bakara called 'a John Coltrane people being ruled by Lawrence Welk.'" (256)
June 25, 2010
This book certainly does fulfill its promise to provide a "narrative history of black power in America" but, unfortunately, it lacks analytic & structural glue to hold it all together. Like another reviewer, I ended up with two pages worth of notes, people, events to follow up on (Nkrumah, Bayard Rustin, Elaine Brown...) but never really got a sense of direction or cohesion. Chapters jumped around and people were introduced or re-introduced with little to no context.
May 5, 2014
Copiously researched and elegantly written, “Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour” would have benefited from more dialog or direct quotation from documents or multi-media. An excellent review of the radical Black Power movement counterweight to Dr. King and the SCLC. Contains a “where are they now?” section at the end. In person, Peniel Joseph is an exciting speaker. He teaches down the street at Tufts University. I look forward to reading other books he’s written and hearing him speak again.
November 13, 2014
This was a really tough book to get through. At times it felt very scattered, for example the chapter on the Meredith March should have been titled the Carmichael Chapter and the chapter on the Newton Trial should have been titled A Whole Lot of Other Stuff Building Up to the Trial. Overall it is a good book. It was well researched and provides the reader with an extensive background on the Black Power Movement. That being said, this is not a summer read! :)
January 23, 2018
Book 2 of 2018.
I always hesitate to give a 3 star review because it feels like a rating of "meh" but goodreads' "liked it" description is the best fit for sure. This book provided a good into-level summary of the movement, which is what I was hoping for. The last quarter of was a little tedious but then it picked back up. I learned a ton and now have a better sense of who I want to read more about, and primary sources to look into. So overall I got what I needed.
I always hesitate to give a 3 star review because it feels like a rating of "meh" but goodreads' "liked it" description is the best fit for sure. This book provided a good into-level summary of the movement, which is what I was hoping for. The last quarter of was a little tedious but then it picked back up. I learned a ton and now have a better sense of who I want to read more about, and primary sources to look into. So overall I got what I needed.
February 1, 2016
A whirlwind overview spanning roughly eighty years and several dozen forms of Black Radicalism, structured around the most pivotal movements, leaders, and events. This well researched work heralds the efforts and accomplishments of many activists mainstream history has left largely forgotten, such as Jimmy and Grace Boggs, Angela Davis, and Stokely Carmichael.
October 9, 2017
This book was very well done, but I wanted it to progress more into the last 20 years. But I learned a lot about the Black Power movement, especially in the 60s and 70s. Enough to know that now I really want to read a histories of SNCC and the Black Panthers. And maybe something more detailed on Nation of Islam as well.
March 15, 2023
Summary: The history of the Black Power movement is the lesser-known story of the end of the mid-20th-century civil rights movement.
Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour is the third book I have read by Peniel Joseph, but it was Joseph's first book, published in 2006. And as you would expect from an academic historian, his books tend to concentrate on overlapping characters and eras. He is a historian of the mid-20th century civil rights era, concentrating on the Black Power movement. I recommend his biography of Stokley Carmichael and the joint biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
I purchased the kindle book Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour about four years ago but did not get around to reading it until I picked up the audiobook for free as part of the Audible member Plus catalog. The audiobook was not well edited. The narration was fine, but it felt like the editing was not complete. There were many places with long pauses where it appears that the narrator was intentionally putting in a pause for editing purposes that the editor did not remove. And one where the narrator took seven or eight attempts at a name before saying it correctly and naturally in context, and obviously, the editing should have removed that. There were other places where the audio had short repetitions.
Those editing errors (except for the pauses) were all in the book's first half. So I wonder if the audiobook editing influenced my complaints about the disjointedness of the book's first part. And that may be the case. But the book felt like it took a while to really come together. The earlier portions of the book were more context of the development of the Black Power movement, which was also the part of the story I was most familiar with. So again, I may have been influenced by being more interested in the later sections of the book, where I was mostly hearing history that I was less familiar with.
I had three main takeaways from the book. First, I think the development of the Black Power movement was significantly influenced by white backlash to the civil rights movement. Stokley Carmichael's use of Black Power during the 1966 march in Mississippi in response to the James Meredith shooting was not the term's first use. (Richard Wright had a book in 1954 titled Black Power, and others used the phrase before Carmichael, but it was Carmichael's use that popularized it.) By 1966, Brown v Board of Ed had been decided 12 years earlier, and much of the country was still segregated. The 1964 Civil Rights act (making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race in restaurants or hotels, or other public settings) and the 1965 Voting Rights Act had both passed, but the march in Mississippi proved that the federal government was still reluctant to enforce the law. MLK Jr's assassination less than two years later gave further power to the frustrations of how civil rights were increasingly being thwarted through less overt means.
My second takeaway is that the Black Power movement had some level of sexism within the movement. SNCC, as an organization, identified sexism as a problem within traditional civil rights organizations early on. Ella Baker worked to design SNCC as a more egalitarian organization (both in gender and organizational structure) in response to the more authoritarian and leader-driven organizations like NAACP and SCLC. But as SNCC started to struggle internally, it appeared to become more oriented toward male leadership. Later, groups like the Black Panthers were even more hierarchical, and leaders like Huey Newton and Eldrige Cleaver were accused or convicted of rape. That is not to say that women were not involved in the Black Power movement or that it was an inherently sexist structure, but the sexism that did exist within the Black Power movement influenced the rise of Womanist thought as a reaction. Movements arise not just out of pure ideology but in response to events and as a reaction to earlier lines of thought.
Third, the cultural strength of Black Power as a set of ideals likely has had a more lasting impact than the organizations around the Black Power movement. The Black Panthers were not just about rejecting non-violence as the primary means of achieving civil rights but also about self-empowerment. There was an embrace of radical politics but also conservative ideas as well. And the role of the FBI and the federal and local governments actively planting agents to compromise the group's organizational structures and to create distrust among leaders played a role in weakening the sustainability of the organizations over the long term.
As with much of civil rights history, there has been a flattening of the history of the black power movement until it has become more caricature than nuanced history. Peneil Joseph has helpfully contextualized the black power movement, strengths and weaknesses, to help recover that transitional history from the earlier civil rights movement to the more recent history of a racialized United States.
Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour is the third book I have read by Peniel Joseph, but it was Joseph's first book, published in 2006. And as you would expect from an academic historian, his books tend to concentrate on overlapping characters and eras. He is a historian of the mid-20th century civil rights era, concentrating on the Black Power movement. I recommend his biography of Stokley Carmichael and the joint biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
I purchased the kindle book Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour about four years ago but did not get around to reading it until I picked up the audiobook for free as part of the Audible member Plus catalog. The audiobook was not well edited. The narration was fine, but it felt like the editing was not complete. There were many places with long pauses where it appears that the narrator was intentionally putting in a pause for editing purposes that the editor did not remove. And one where the narrator took seven or eight attempts at a name before saying it correctly and naturally in context, and obviously, the editing should have removed that. There were other places where the audio had short repetitions.
Those editing errors (except for the pauses) were all in the book's first half. So I wonder if the audiobook editing influenced my complaints about the disjointedness of the book's first part. And that may be the case. But the book felt like it took a while to really come together. The earlier portions of the book were more context of the development of the Black Power movement, which was also the part of the story I was most familiar with. So again, I may have been influenced by being more interested in the later sections of the book, where I was mostly hearing history that I was less familiar with.
I had three main takeaways from the book. First, I think the development of the Black Power movement was significantly influenced by white backlash to the civil rights movement. Stokley Carmichael's use of Black Power during the 1966 march in Mississippi in response to the James Meredith shooting was not the term's first use. (Richard Wright had a book in 1954 titled Black Power, and others used the phrase before Carmichael, but it was Carmichael's use that popularized it.) By 1966, Brown v Board of Ed had been decided 12 years earlier, and much of the country was still segregated. The 1964 Civil Rights act (making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race in restaurants or hotels, or other public settings) and the 1965 Voting Rights Act had both passed, but the march in Mississippi proved that the federal government was still reluctant to enforce the law. MLK Jr's assassination less than two years later gave further power to the frustrations of how civil rights were increasingly being thwarted through less overt means.
My second takeaway is that the Black Power movement had some level of sexism within the movement. SNCC, as an organization, identified sexism as a problem within traditional civil rights organizations early on. Ella Baker worked to design SNCC as a more egalitarian organization (both in gender and organizational structure) in response to the more authoritarian and leader-driven organizations like NAACP and SCLC. But as SNCC started to struggle internally, it appeared to become more oriented toward male leadership. Later, groups like the Black Panthers were even more hierarchical, and leaders like Huey Newton and Eldrige Cleaver were accused or convicted of rape. That is not to say that women were not involved in the Black Power movement or that it was an inherently sexist structure, but the sexism that did exist within the Black Power movement influenced the rise of Womanist thought as a reaction. Movements arise not just out of pure ideology but in response to events and as a reaction to earlier lines of thought.
Third, the cultural strength of Black Power as a set of ideals likely has had a more lasting impact than the organizations around the Black Power movement. The Black Panthers were not just about rejecting non-violence as the primary means of achieving civil rights but also about self-empowerment. There was an embrace of radical politics but also conservative ideas as well. And the role of the FBI and the federal and local governments actively planting agents to compromise the group's organizational structures and to create distrust among leaders played a role in weakening the sustainability of the organizations over the long term.
As with much of civil rights history, there has been a flattening of the history of the black power movement until it has become more caricature than nuanced history. Peneil Joseph has helpfully contextualized the black power movement, strengths and weaknesses, to help recover that transitional history from the earlier civil rights movement to the more recent history of a racialized United States.
August 12, 2011
Good introduction to the ideas and the times, but the book is scatter shot and Joseph is far too laudatory. Everything Malcolm X and Carmichael says is portrayed as brilliant. Best part is the Black Panthers, because there is nuisance.
April 8, 2016
This. Is. A. Powerful. House. Book. When. You. Have. Taken. The. Time. To. Read. This. Book. My. Brothers. And. Sisters. You. Know. You. Have. Read. A. Good. One. Power. To. The. Peoples. Thanks.
August 6, 2007
Nice complement to Singh's Black is a Country.
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December 25, 2014Attempts to make a connection between the civil rights movement and the black power movement. The books is a compilation of stories of black leaders.
October 27, 2013
Quite informative for anyone who doesn't know much about the Black Power movement. Unfortunately the language has a "college thesis" tone to it and isn't very engaging.
December 3, 2013
lots of names and organizations but a lot of information not spread in other texts
January 5, 2016
Absolutely critical read to gain insight into one of the most important movements of the 20th century.
February 2, 2017
I liked this book because it brought together a few different strains of black power narrative that I'd picked up in other civil rights protest books.
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