Black Power and the American Myth

by C.T. Vivian

In 1970, C. T. Vivian, a close colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr. and a member of his executive staff, sat down to take stock of the civil rights movement and the progress it had made. His assessment was that it failed, and that the blame lay in the existence of myths about America.

As prophetic today as it was 50 years ago, Vivian's voice rings out as a critique and a call to action for a society in deep need of justice and peace.

The civil rights struggle that began when Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, decided to sit in the front of a bus has deeply altered American society and the American conscience. Yet from several perspectives, that movement has resulted in failure. The Black struggle for independence is more of an uphill climb than ever. Why?

C. T. Vivian asserts that the civil rights movement failed because it was built on certain myths about America:

- the myth that Americans will do what is right as soon as they know what is right.

- the myth that legislation leads to justice.

- the myth that America is an open society where any minority group can advance.

- the myth that an ethic of love forms the core of the American conscience.

We had assumed that America held the answers. But more than that, we assumed that America would implement those answers once we presented our case clearly to the nation. And again we were wrong. For we found not only that the answers did not exist, but further, that there was not even any concern about them. No one sought those answers, and no one would put them into effect once they were given. - C. T. Vivian

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook

136 pages, Hardcover

Published February 2, 2021

Reviews

[Jacopo Quercia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a friend and fellow political organizer. I am most grateful. As someone who grew up in an affluent suburb with less than 10 Black students in a graduating class of around seven hundred, I don't think I should have even been allowed to finish grade school until I understood every point about racism throughout US history in 'Black Power and the American Myth.'

The first chapters provide a sobering and satisfactory introduction to the text, with my only regret being C. T. Vivian's lack of footnotes and endnotes. Such is understandable, of course, since this book was clearly meant to be widely shared outside of academia. That said, I highly recommend a footnoted and annotated edition of 'Black Power and the American Myth' be produced immediately. The ideas covered in this book are a treasure trove for social scientists.

The fifth chapter was a tour-de-force, a smack upside the head of more than two centuries of US history. Chapters 9, 10, and 11 were also excellent and contained the most persuasive arguments I've read on separatism as opposed to integration. "The System" in particular offered horrifying insight into racism in housing and schooling, and how such practices preserve institutional racism incapable of change. This is must-read material for all Americans, and I would very much like to see how the United States today measures against the "The System" C.T. Vivian wrote about.

There's one passage in particular that stood out to me on page 86: "Most whites cannot and will not understand Black Power because they cannot and will not understand Blacks, the position Blacks have in American society, or the function Blacks have in the American mind." This is something I believe all Americans need to be taught at a very early age because there is no undoing the damage racism has literally imprinted in the population's DNA. White people will never fully understand this because they will always be less attuned to such injuries than those who experience them every day.

I believe I am and always have been racist in ways I am incapable of perceiving without correction by an outside agent. And while I suspect white people will always be this way in America, I will always defer to those more familiar with racism in the United States before asking what to do about it.

Read this book. Share this book. It's essential reading for all Americans. 5 stars.

[JRT · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Throughout their history in America, both as individuals and as a group, Blacks have always faced the same cruel dilemma: whether to allow themselves to be destroyed slowly by the conditions which were imposed upon them, or to strike back and be destroyed quickly by the reaction that would follow.” There is clarity in understanding America’s true nature. Historian, preacher, and SCLC veteran C.T. Vivian provides this clarity is this striking assessment of the failures of the Civil Rights Movement. Why did the Movement fail, according to Vivian? Because it was anchored to a number of myths about America—particularly white people—that clouded the activities’ judgement. This book, written in 1970, provides an analysis of the roots of the Movement and its initial organizing principles (which he would later expose as anchored to myths about the country). These organizing principles included (1) breaking down the Black American “slave psychology”, (2) seeking to mobilize the Black middle class to find common cause with the Black masses, (3) striving to around changing the hearts and minds of the white masses, and (4) implementing the new method of “non-violent direct action.”

After tracing these pillars of the Movement, Vivian was left to ponder and detail what accounts for the failure of the Movements. According to Vivian, “As long as we believed what the nation said about itself we chose strategies which in no way corresponded to the reality we faced, strategies which were bound to fail.” In short, the set of presuppositions about America that Black people internalized hindered effective struggle and organization. For Vivian, this began with the belief in the possibility of “integration.” This belief was rooted in the myth that white America possessed the will to live with Black Americans as “equals.” However, as Vivian noted, the nature of American racism exposed this as delusion, leading many activists to abandon the goal of integration and adopt new strategies rooted in Black “separatism.”

Vivian also identified the myth of the “melting pot,” detailing how American society is rooted in division and strife—including among white people of different ethnic and national origins. The only time America stopped fighting s exploded by the failures of the Movement. Activists realized that the only thinking keeping America from implosion from “white” in “white” hatred and exploitation was the foundational tenant of anti-Blackness.

He next traced the the myths of democracy. (“the Movement discovered that democracy, for all practical purposes, is not the working ideology of America”) and Christian love, showing that America placed white nationalism above human dignity, even in contravention to the nation’s supposed highest ideals.

The myth of a “single ideology” was perhaps the most intriguing, and haphazardly articulated. While I agree that ideological cohesion across a vast social group cannot serve as a precondition for effective resistance and organization, Vivian’s proposed solution (to accept as valid any and every direction or agenda that Black people might engage in, including Black capitalism) was fool-hearty. Vivian failed to acknowledge the inherent contradictions and hindrances that certain ideologies and practices present in relation to the goal of Black liberation. This was surprising, given how clear he had been throughout the book on denouncing practices and beliefs that stifled the Movement.

Ultimately, I felt a feeling of great futility after reading this book. Even after Vivian recognized the various failed assumptions and myths that sunk the Civil Rights Movement, he ended the book by listing out new sets of assumptions that he felt would aid the Movement. Ultimately, those assumptions (allyship, in particular) were just as fallacious as the ones he had dispelled.

[Jason Scoggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poised, but timely. Vivian proposes that the United States, despite minor social advancements, will reluctantly always revert back to it's original, settler Colonial ideals. In this current climate, I wholeheartedly agree. Excellent, quick read

[Isaiah Nunez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book from the perspective of a man who saw the Civil Rights movement FIRSTHAND. Took a more realistic approach through an economic and political lens as opposed to the leader of the movement, Martin Luther King Jr., who utilized a more spiritual lens to uplift the people. This book is the main reason why I say "the Civil Rights Movement failed."

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this short volume published in 1970, Vivian reflects on The Movement of the previous decade, outlining the goals of the nonviolent civil rights movement and explaining why it seemed to fail. He listed the myths that Americas believe about the problems, and the assumptions of the organizers of The Movement that turned out to be false.

[Gregory Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book got everything that is wrong, right. It correctly identifies many necessary realizations to the civil rights movement and its end and aftermath.

[Emily Feldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved this perspective. a memoir of sorts.