BECAUSE THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT has been marginalized in the sociological study of social movements, its impacts have been underestimated. While the black cultural transformation it ushered in is critically important, the movement also had significant institutional outcomes. The Black Power movement shaped interracial interactions in established and emerging integrated organizations, and was the dominant organizing frame for African Americans seeking change within them during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The content of the movement gave form to the relationships within the organizations that African Americans found themselves in. While the civil rights movement had made great strides against racial discrimination, it had concerned itself primarily with access to institutions and organizations that had previously been closed to African Americans. But when access was finally gained, the work was not done. Indeed, African Americans mobilized Black Power ideas, norms, strategies, and tactics within a variety of organizations to hold them accountable for new norms of interracial interaction and to craft organizational structures that promoted racial equality. These struggles often resulted in the development of independent black organizations, which was in line with a central call of the Black Power movement. Most of the independent organizations that developed were founded on Black Power principles and sought to support the goals of the movement, which included challenging white racism, affirming a unique black identity, providing safe spaces to develop black agendas, and protecting the interests of African Americans embedded their institutional contexts. These institutional changes and independent organizations, many of which still exist today, are primary outcomes of the Black Power movement that are worthy of further investigation, and suggest the need for reexaminations of this era as a period of racial transformation and the movement itself as an important precursor to contemporary projects for racial equity that have benefited the black middle class.
RACE RELATIONS IN TRANSITION
Tensions and uncertainties surrounded the uneasy transition to the fuller, more complete integration happening in U.S. society during the Black Power movement. Rising numbers of black professionals entering integrated workplaces intersected with the dominance of the Black Power ideology to create some tense interracial interactions. This assessment of black social workers organizing during the movement reveals a complex set of relationships between blacks and whites, often characterized by black desires to hold whites accountable for the changes to racial etiquette and practice required by the Black Power movement along with white responses of resentment, fear, and defensiveness. These relational tensions were played out in struggles over institutional change within the profession.
This study also reflects a much broader transformation in relations between blacks and whites in American society. However, there is a relative dearth of studies that attempt to delve into the relational aspects of race relations during the transition to integration. Elizabeth Lasch-Quinn’s Race Experts (2001) is one example. In her book, she attempts to analyze “what happened to racial etiquette in the era of integration” (8) through an examination of popular culture sources, developments in black scholarship, and the development of the “diversity industry.” She writes a seething critique of the so-called race experts—the diversity counselors, academics, activists, etc.—whom she claims hijacked the colorblind vision of the civil rights movement, turning it on its head to actually reinscribe racial oppression by valuing difference rather than disavowing it. Drawing on both contemporary and historical popular culture sources, ranging from Tom Wolfe’s essay “Radical Chic” to the film Jerry McGuire, Lasch-Quinn argues that a cultural script of black assertiveness and white submission and guilt became the central mode of “doing the interracial thing” as a result of the Black Power era.
My points of agreement with Lasch-Quinn (and this line of argument in general) are few. I do agree that it is necessary to examine this crucial transition period in race relations, and that there are insights from this period that help us to understand how American society has progressed in the project of racial justice. However, my research does not support her notion that racial etiquette shifted in such a way that black assertiveness was met with white submission. Rather, an analysis of these interactions in the field of social work shows that black demands for respect, representation, and new organizational arrangements to support these shifts were more often met with white resentment and anger rather than submission as Lasch-Quinn would suggest. Whites did not stop using belittling and patronizing language about their black colleagues even in the face of black assertion. From arguing that people of color were “beguiled by their own rhetoric” when they made demands to accusing them of being “guilty of overkill” when they were given concessions, many white reactions primarily served to downplay black concerns. Further, white leadership often found ways to subvert black demands with partial responses and symbolic concessions, continuing to feel that they knew what was best. So contrary to Lasch-Quinn’s assertions, this research does not find whites simply cowering in the face of a big black threat. Still, though it is this relationship that she argues resulted in the current state of diversity politics, it is simply not the case that black requirements for racial sensitivity by whites made the bed we now lie in. Lasch-Quinn and other critics of identity politics would have us believe that whites were more than willing to throw out all racial distinctions and that black people, because they insisted on affirming a uniquely black identity and asserting new ways of doing race, are to blame for ongoing racial inequality. But the historical record simply does not support this characterization.
On the contrary, it is elite responses, rooted in a desire to maintain power relations “as is” while doling out token representation and engaging in symbolic celebrations of difference rather than really answering the call to relinquish privilege and control in favor of more egalitarian race relations that resulted in the “multiculturalism” we still see today. It is true that many whites responded to Black Power with fear, which lead them to cling more tightly to the power they had. In the case of social work professional associations, this reaction was framed as a desire to value “establishment” and to not be pressured into giving up old ways of doing things just because “hot-blooded” militant blacks said so. But the central problematic of U.S. race relations is white power, white privilege, and white racism, not some sort of adherence to domination in a general neutral sense. In this way, it is white resistance to Black Power that resulted in us missing the racial equality boat the movement may have launched.
REVISITING BLACK POWER
The important and lasting impact of African American activism in the professions forces us to rethink what Black Power was in a way that expands the boundaries of the movement. To be sure, the Black Power movement is more important than popular accounts let on. While the Black Panther Party and similar organizations were vital parts of the movement, their story is not the whole story. The truth is, African Americans who were both inspired and emboldened by the movement’s ideas and figures brought Black Power with them into the institutional context of their lives. Indeed, African American professionals struggled to insert themselves and their interests into civil society through movement-like phenomena within organizations. This Black Power “march through the institutions” should be seen as a part of the movement that, while not the same as more radical manifestations of the movement, had an important impact in society. These efforts to carve out space in existing institutions and build new institutions for the purpose of developing, guarding and promoting black interests shaped and continue to shape the civil sphere in the United States.
In all, black organizing within the professions had at least three important effects. First, the creation of black professional associations—along with the creation of black studies programs, black student associations, and so forth—changed the organizational landscape that all individuals encounter as we make our way through professional training and development. The existence of black professional associations in many of the professions continues the tradition of maintaining the black institutional space that African American professionals built during the Black Power era. Secondly, that black professional associations were so strongly influenced by Black Power created a blueprint for a black professional identity and a commitment to “race politics” as a new professional ethic, an ideology which continues today and works to create a real dividing line around what it means to be authentically black in the world of professional work. Third, the activism of black professionals changed the norms of interaction between blacks and whites, creating frames for understanding workplace racism and how to go about challenging it. In many ways, these norms provide a more effective vehicle for challenging workplace racism than the relatively impotent policies developed around racial harassment. While the law purportedly protects people of color from discrimination in hiring decisions, it does little to protect them from the kinds of interpersonal racism that African Americans embedded in white organizations often face. The development of new professional norms that provide people of color a framework for checking and managing racist behavior from white colleagues is in some cases the only protection that African Americans have in the workplace, particularly against the kinds of racism that create hostile work environments.
Along with these impacts, white responses to black professional organizing laid the roots for a form of corporate and educational “diversity” project that is now nearly completely devoid of its liberatory roots in the Black Power movement. Elite responses, firmly rooted in white emotional reactions to being the targets of dissent in these institutional spaces, created a framework for conciliatory symbolic concessions that were never intended to result in actual power sharing. In other words, white resistance to relinquishing privilege—coupled with Black Power’s emphasis on representation and identity—in many ways paved the path to multiculturalism. Indeed, contemporary forms of diversity and multiculturalism are often examples of the tokenism and symbolic representation that Black Power advocates struggled against: acts of recognition, celebration even, that are devoid of any challenge to existing power relations. They are exactly what Carmichael and Hamilton (1966) warned against when they said that, “Black visibility is not Black Power” (48).
Finally, these middle class black professionals, inspired by the Black Power movement, sought a solution to the white subordination of the black community through the racialization of social issues. One way to conceive of this outcome is that, whether intended or not, black social workers’ solution to white patronization of the black poor can sometimes be characterized as a changing of the guard from white to black officials rather than a real challenge to the practice of social control. As Adolph Reed (1979) put it, “the movement failed because it succeeded.” He argues:
Through federal funding requirements of community representation, reapportionment of electoral jurisdictions, support for voter “education” and growth of the social welfare bureaucracy, the Black elite was provided with broadened occupational opportunities and with official responsibility for administration of the Black population. The rise of Black officialdom in the latter 1970s signals the realization of the reconstructed elite’s social program and the consolidation of its hegemony over Black life.
(84)
In other words, by placing black bodies in previously white positions, the movements of the period, combined with new directions in social welfare, did little to overthrow the structure of power relations that maintained domination writ large. Their success in changing professional structures and organizations, however, suggests that Black Power had unexpected benefits for the black middle class.
BLACK PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Citing the economic losses that black families experienced between 1968 and 1988, Audreye Johnson wrote, “NABSW arose out of the climate of times.” The founding of the National Association of Black Social Workers and other organizations like it were certainly responses to economic and social crises and to white racism. But they arose out of more than just the quantitative and qualitative condition of African Americans at the time. The NABSW and its counterparts were also products of the dominance of Black Power as a political and social ideology. Many of these organizations, however, are still in existence today, which begs the following questions: do they still reflect a black power ethic? Do they still serve the same functions as they did in the late 1960s and early 1970s?
The Black Power influence is certainly still obvious in the NABSW. Their history of struggle continues to be central to the organization’s contemporary identity. In the message from National Conference Co-chairs Zelma Smith and Judith D. Jackson printed in the 2008 commemorative program of the 40th meeting of the NABSW in Los Angeles, they write, “Remember why you are here! Also remember that our ancestors and founders made the supreme sacrifice to establish this significant and meaningful organization. The challenges we face today are no less than those that confronted our forefathers and foremothers. As they accepted their roles in the history of the struggle, so must we accept our roles and struggles.” Then-president Gloria Batiste-Roberts also wrote:
40 years ago NABSW began with a dream in California that has now grown into a vibrant national organization with international influence. So, in honor of our 40 years of advocacy and activism, we have returned to California to reflect on where we have been and to honor those whose shoulders carry us still. As NABSW moves into its fifth decade, we will use our time together this week to articulate and recommit ourselves—as a group and as individuals—to 40 more years of commitment to our community.
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The organization clearly pays homage to their founders and sees their legacy as crucial to their current identity.
Black professional associations, while having moved closer to the professional development side of their concerns, still retain an element of the earlier focus on protest. The NABSW, for example, continues to write position papers on issues they see as important to the black community, such as a 2002 published paper on welfare reform. The organization also maintains a civil liberties and social justice task force.
Black professional associations often take on issues of interest to their profession that may not be conceived of as such by their white counterparts. One case in point is the official statement issued by Association of Black Sociologists (ABS) on the Trayvon Martin case in 2010. In February 2010, Martin, a 17-year-old African American boy, was shot and killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman. His murder resulted in nationwide protests. In releasing such a statement, the Association of Black Sociologists affirmed its commitment to activism and encouraged sociologists to continue to use their research and other resources in the struggle against racism. The statement reads, in part,
As an organization historically committed to community action and social transformation, the Association of Black Sociologists (ABS) stands in support of these protest efforts. We encourage all ABS members to contact your local, state, and national legislators to continue to challenge the Justice Department and FBI to thoroughly investigate the crime, apprehend Zimmerman, and secure justice not only for Trayvon Martin and his family, but also for the nation as a whole. Furthermore, continued pressure is required to amend, reevaluate, and in many cases repeal “Stand Your Ground” legislation across this country—laws tantamount to state-sanctioned use of deadly force against innocent individuals. ABS members are encouraged to remain vigilant in the continued struggle to monitor and proactively respond to all forms of inequality experienced by marginalized people.
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While the activism of today’s black professional associations is certainly different than the kind of activism they engaged in during the Black Power movement, it reflects a continued commitment to social justice. Statements like this suggest that black professional associations still have something unique to offer those black professionals who are interested in creating a more just and equal society.
Members of black professional associations have varied motivations for membership and can have as many different needs from their associations as there are members. Still, there is evidence that many intend to continue serving the dual functions of professional development and advancement on the one hand and addressing issues important to the black community on the other. In her 2012 presidential address, Sandra Barnes, 36th president of the Association of Black Sociologists (ABS), challenged members to
re-imagine and re-embrace a time and a tradition of Black Sociology that reflects: 1. Our rich inheritance and customs associated with social activism; 2. Community service informed by rigorous research; 3. Dogged determinism to dismantle negative structural forces that undermine the lived experiences of oppressed groups everywhere; and 4. Personal initiative and sacrifice to think of others before ourselves.
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Both Dr. Batiste-Roberts and Dr. Barnes issue challenges to their members to recommit to the fight for social justice in black communities. This reflects the fact that while black professional associations today are primarily focused on professional development and coordination, the commitment to activism and racial justice remains. As such, this book identifies the space of possibility for black professional associations moving forward. One of the most important ways that black professional associations can continue to do racial justice work is by identifying the spaces within their field that affect people of color and concentrating their work there. Much like how black psychologists addressed the issue of racism in IQ testing and black social workers addressed racism in the child welfare system, today’s black professional associations can focus their work to create meaningful social change within their unique spheres of influence.