Appreciating Barack Obama in Context

It is impossible to disconnect Barack Obama’s presidency and the civil rights activism of the 1960s. What is most notable about Obama’s ascendancy and what I appreciate most about it is that it requires students of history to rethink the binary of the Civil Rights Movement. The popular narrative celebrates the 1954-1965 decade long hegemony of Dr. King—the so-called ‘heroic period.’ This southern, nonviolent, church-based movement is usually contrasted against northern militancy, commonly couched in the terms of Black Power. Black Power becomes the enemy in many textbooks and classrooms—the force that brought down King and stunted the movement. Associated with Malcolm X—he is seen as its Don Corleone—Black Power is misunderstood. Barack Obama’s election clarifies this confusion, and forces students to rethink commonly held notions of Black Power—militancy was not the clarion call and Malcolm X, while an ideological forefather, was not the political harbinger.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X meet during a Senate Debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Source: Marion S. Trikosko, March 1964, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington DC.

Black Power was not violent revolution, but African-American self-determination and political power. Fed up with the slow process of racial equality and the lackluster effects of Great Society social programs, African-Americans, especially those sequestered in declining American metropolises (Oakland, Detroit, New York City, to name the three most obvious), turned inward. Collusion with the white-dominated power structure had failed. Even after the Civil Rights of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many African-Americans felt like an exploited colony within the American nation. Inspired by the brilliant and charismatic, Howard-educated, and SNCC-trained activist, Stokely Carmichael, African-Americans trumpeted political power. Carmichael joined SNCC while studying at Howard, and had been one of the earliest Freedom Riders. He rose to prominence during Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964 where his ability to connect with disfranchised Mississippians in the Delta became stuff of legend. The next year, Carmichael spearheaded a voter-registration and political action campaign in Lowndes County, Alabama. Choosing a snarling black panther as the Lowndes County Freedom Organization’s symbol, Carmichael labored to form an all-black political party. In late 1966, Carmichael challenged and defeated the venerable John Lewis, a disciple of Dr. King, for the chairmanship of SNCC. As chairman, Carmichael quickly took part in the Meredith March, during which he first hollered “Black people ought to demand Black Power!” Carmichael, the intellectual leader and personification of Black Power, pushed African-Americans to extend their franchise and take control of their political futures.

Barack Obama is an heir of Black Power. His election represents the national triumph of Carmichael’s call for black political strength. He is the product of both the heroic period and the Black Power Movement, and thus, he forces a profound reexamination of the Civil Rights Movement at large. Obama as Black Power fits together perfectly. The central goal of Mississippi Freedom Summer, Lowndes County, and national Black Panther Parties was always black political power. In the 1960s and early 1970s the party of Abraham Lincoln, the modern Republican Party, was disinterested in courting the African-American vote. The Democratic Party quietly courted the African-American voting bloc—it was, after all, black Americans that insured President Kennedy’s electoral victory over Richard Nixon in 1960—but because of the composition of the Democratic Party it rarely fought on the behalf of its black constituents. The Democratic Party was a fragile coalition of Northern liberals and Southern conservatives. The Northern half of the alliance feared alienating their Southern counterparts, thus rarely pushed for civil rights legislation. This stalemate enraged black voters. Black Power called for all-black political parties to separate African-Americans from Democratic betrayal. This severing was never fully realized, but inspired African-Americans to work within modern Democratic politics to fight for their fellow people. Obama owns this legacy.

Obama as heroic period also fits nicely. Dr. King and his contemporaries were orators, pragmatic, and tactical. All three traits define Obama’s first term. Perhaps because the presidency is all about winning a second term, the militancy that many voters expected from Obama has been stunted (it will be interesting to note whether a fierce more combative Obama, perhaps Barack 2.0, emerges in his second term). Instead of this aggressiveness, Obama’s first four years have been defined by inspirational speeches (think of the post-Gabrielle Giffords speech, as one prime example), realistic policy aims (a stimulus that would get passed, but as all economists agree was not big enough, watered down healthcare, abandoning climate change legislation), and strategic decisions (namely, drone warfare and assassinating Osama bin Laden). Obama forces historians to reexamine the historical record. It is time to revisit interpretations and analyses of the 1960s. Barack Obama’s election forces this rethinking. It couldn’t come soon enough.

Benji Cohen lives in Virginia but wants you to know he is from Massachusetts. He appreciates Cool Runnings and strawberry-banana smoothies.