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Black nationalism is anationalist movement which seeksrepresentation forBlack people as a distinctnational identity, especially inracialized,colonial andpostcolonial societies.[1][2][3][4][5] Its earliest proponents saw it as a way to advocate for democratic representation inculturally plural societies or to establish self-governing independentnation-states for Black people.[3] Modern Black nationalism often aims for the social, political, and economic empowerment of Black communities withinwhite majority societies, either as an alternative toassimilation or as a way to ensure greaterrepresentation andequality within predominantlyEurocentric cultures.[1][6][7][8]
As an ideology, Black nationalism encompasses a diverse range of beliefs which have variously included forms ofeconomic,political andcultural nationalism, orpan-nationalism.[7][9][10] It often overlaps with, but is distinguished from, similar concepts and movements such asPan-Africanism,Ethiopianism, theback-to-Africa movement (also known as Black Zionism),Afrocentrism, andGarveyism.[5] Critics of Black nationalism compare it towhite nationalism andwhite supremacy, and say it promotesracial andethnic nationalism,separatism andBlack supremacy. Most experts distinguish between these movements, saying that while white nationalism ultimately seeks to maintain or deepen inequality between racial and ethnic groups, most forms of Black nationalism instead aim to increase equality in response to pre-existing forms of white dominance.[11][12][13]
Black nationalism reflects the idea that, in racialized societies, people of diverse African descent are often treated as a single racial, ethnic and cultural group (such asAfrican Americans in the US orBlack Britons in the UK).[14][15] Because of a shared history of oppression and a distinct culture shaped by that history, Black nationalism argues that Black people in theAfrican diaspora therefore form a distinctnation (or multiple distinct nations) and so have a right torepresentation orself-governance.[16][17][18][19] Black nationalists therefore seek to acquire political and economic power to improve the quality of life and freedoms of Black people collectively.[1][10]
Black nationalists tend to believe inself-reliance andself-sufficiency for Black people,solidarity among Black people as a nation, andpride in Black achievement and culture, in order to overcome the effects ofinstitutionalized inequality, self-hate andinternalized racism.[20]
The roots of Black nationalism extend back to the time of thetransatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, when some enslaved Africans revolted or formed independent Black settlements (such as theMaroons), free of European control. By the 19th century, African Americans such asPaul Cuffe andMartin Delany called forfree andfugitive Black people to emigrate to Africa to help establish independent nations.[21] In the early 20th century,Jamaican activistMarcus Garvey moved to the US and, inspired byZionism andIrish independence, promoted Black nationalist andPan-African ideas, which collectively became known asGarveyism.[22][21]
Modern Black nationalist ideas coalesced as a distinctmovement during the era ofracial segregation in America, as a response to centuries of institutionalizedwhite supremacy, the discriminationAfrican Americans experienced as a result, and the perceived failures of the nonviolentcivil rights movement of the time.[1][21][11][5] After theassassination of Malcolm X in 1965, the Black nationalism movement gained increased traction in variousAfrican American communities. A focus on returning to Africa became less popular, giving way to the idea that Black people constituted a "nation within a nation," and therefore should seek better rights and political power within amulticultural US.[23]
Black nationalists often fought racism, colonialism, and imperialism,[23] and influenced theOrganization of Afro-American Unity,Black Panther Party,Black Islam, and theBlack Power movement.[21][1]
There are similarities betweenBlack separatism and Black nationalism, since they both advocate for the civil rights of Black people. While Black separatists believe that Black people should be physically separated from other races, primarily whites, Black nationalism focuses primarily oncivil rights,self-determination, anddemocratic representation.[10]
These two ideologies can also overlap as "separatist nationalism", which typically manifests in the belief in a literal or metaphorical secession from white American society, and is especially popular among those who have become disillusioned with "deferred American racial equality". Separatist nationalism often rejects integration into white society—which may extend into rejection of existing political systems—preferring to organise alternative structures. In this schema, Black nationalism without Black separatism is called "cultural nationalism". Black cultural nationalism often focuses on engagement with societal and political structures to enact change, such as by attempting to elect Black representatives at the local and national level. Black cultural nationalism has broader support among African-Americans than separatist nationalism; the latter is more popular among young men and people of lower economic status. Examples of Black separatist organizations include theNation of Islam and theNew Black Panther Party.[10]
Black nationalists often reject conflation withBlack supremacy, as well as comparisons withwhite supremacists, characterizing their movement as ananti-racist reaction to white supremacy andcolor-blind white liberalism as racist.[24][25][5] Additionally, while white nationalism often seeks to maintain or re-establish systems of white majority dominance, Black nationalism instead aims to challenge white supremacy through increased civil rights and representation (or independence) for black people as anoppressedminority.[3][6][8] According to theSouthern Poverty Law Center, Black nationalist groups have "little or no impact on mainstream politics and no defenders in high office", unlike white supremacists.[11]
Black nationalism may also be divided into revolutionary or reactionary Black nationalism. Revolutionary Black nationalism combinescultural nationalism withscientific socialism in order to achieve Blackself-determination. Proponents of revolutionary Black nationalism say it rejects all forms of oppression, including class-based exploitation under capitalism.[26] Revolutionary Black nationalist organizations such as theBlack Panther Party and theRevolutionary Action Movement also adopted a set of anti-colonialist politics inspired by the writings of notable revolutionary theorists includingFrantz Fanon,Mao Zedong, andKwame Nkrumah.[27] In the words of Ahmad Muhammad (formerly known as Max Stanford) the national field chairman of the Revolutionary Action Movement:
We are revolutionary black nationalist[s], not based on ideas of national superiority, but striving for justice and liberation of all the oppressed peoples of the world. ... There can be no liberty as long as black people are oppressed and the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America are oppressed by Yankee imperialism and neo-colonialism. After four hundred years of oppression, we realize that slavery, racism and imperialism are all interrelated and that liberty and justice for all cannot exist peacefully with imperialism."[28]
Professor and authorHarold Cruse said revolutionary Black nationalism was a necessary and logical progression from other leftist ideologies, as non-Black leftists could not properly assess the particular material conditions of the Black community and other colonized people:
Revolutionary nationalism has not waited for Western Marxian thought to catch up with the realities of the "underdeveloped" world...The liberation of the colonies before the socialist revolution in the West is not orthodox Marxism (although it might be called Maoism or Castroism). As long as American Marxists cannot deal with the implications of revolutionary nationalism, both abroad and at home, they will continue to play the role of revolutionaries by proxy.[29]
HistorianWilson Jeremiah Moses suggests the development of Black nationalism can be examined over three different periods, giving rise to the various ideological perspectives within today's Black nationalism.[30] The first period of pre-classical Black nationalism began when the first Africans were brought to the Americas as slaves through theAmerican Revolutionary period.[31] Many of theseslaves rebelled against their captors or formedindependent Black societies, beyond the reach of Europeans.[32][33] The second period of Black nationalism began after theRevolutionary War, when educated Africans within the colonies became disgusted with the social conditions of Black people, and sought to create organizations that would unite Black people and improve their situation.[34] The third period of Black nationalism arose during the post-Reconstruction era, as community leaders began to articulate the need to separate Blacks from non-Blacks for safety and to collectivize resources. The new ideology of this third period informed the philosophy of groups like theMoorish Science Temple and theNation of Islam.[30]
In theNew World, as early as 1512, African slaves escaped from Spanish captors and either joined indigenous peoples or eked out a living on their own.[35] The first recordedslave rebellion in the region occurred in what is today theDominican Republic, on the sugar plantations owned by AdmiralDiego Columbus, on 26 December 1522.[36] Especially in the Caribbean, escaped slaves began to form independent Black communities either in exile or withIndigenous American groups, becoming known asmaroons. Maroons armed themselves to survive attacks by hostile colonists while also obtaining food for subsistence living and setting up their own communities.[37][38] Other enslaved Africans were freed or bought their freedom, and began to seek their own independence, away from white society. This often included calls to emigrate to Africa and help build independent Black nations there.[31][32][33]
On some of the larger Caribbean islands, maroon communities were able to grow crops and hunt for food. As more slaves escaped fromplantations, their numbers could grow. Seeking to separate themselves from colonisers, the maroons gained in power amid increasing hostility. They raided and pillaged plantations until the planters began to fear a massive slave revolt.[39]
As early as 1655, escaped Africans had formed communities in inlandJamaica, and by the 18th century,Nanny Town and otherJamaican maroon villages began to fight for independent recognition.[40] Jamaican Maroons consistently fought British colonists, leading to theFirst Maroon War (1728–1740). By 1740, the British governor of theColony of Jamaica,Edward Trelawny had signed two treaties promising them 2,500 acres (1,012 ha) inCudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) andCrawford's Town, bringing an end to the warfare between the communities and effectively freeing the Maroons a century before theSlavery Abolition Act came into effect in 1838.[41]
InCuba, maroon communities formed in the mountains when escaped African slaves joined the indigenousTaínos. Before roads were built into the mountains ofPuerto Rico, heavybrush kept many escaped maroons hidden in the southwestern hills where many also intermarried with the natives. Escaped slaves sought refuge away from the coastal plantations ofPonce.[42] In the plantation colony ofSuriname, escaped slaves revolted and started to build their own villages. On October 10, 1760, theNdyuka signed a treaty with the Dutch recognising their territorial autonomy; it was drafted by Adyáko Benti Basiton ofBoston, a formerly enslaved African from Jamaica.[43][44]
In the mid-to-late 18th century,Methodist andBaptist evangelists during the period of theFirst Great Awakening (c. 1730–1755) encouraged slave owners to free their slaves, in their belief that all men were equal before God. They converted many slaves to Christianity and approved Black leaders as preachers; Blacks developedtheir own churches.[45]
After theRevolutionary War, educated Africans within the colonies (specifically within New England and Pennsylvania) had become disgusted with the social conditions of Black people. Individuals such asPrince Hall,Richard Allen,Absalom Jones,James Forten, Cyrus Bustill and William Gray sought to create organizations that would unite Black people, who had been excluded from white society, and improve their situation collectively. Institutions such asBlack Masonic lodges, theFree African Society, and theAfrican Episcopal Church of St. Thomas lay the groundwork for the independent Black organizations and communities that would follow.[34]
Meanwhile, Black people were relocated from the Americas and Britain to new colonies inSierra Leone andLiberia, paving the way for Black-led nations in those countries. Back in the Caribbean, theHaitian Revolution proved to disparate Black communities across the Americas that they could achieve independence or equality in the law, if theycooperated and worked together.[46][47][48][49][50]
TheFirst Great Awakening (c. 1730–1755) was a series ofChristian revivals that sweptBritain and itsthirteen North American colonies. The revival movement permanently affectedProtestantism as adherents strove to renew individualpiety and religious devotion. NorthernBaptist andMethodist preachersconverted both white and Black people, whether the latter were free or not.[45]
The message of spiritual equality appealed to many enslaved people and, as African religious traditions continued to decline in North America, Black people accepted Christianity in large numbers for the first time. Black people even began to take active roles in these mixed churches, sometimes even preaching.[51][45] Many leaders of the revivals also proclaimed that enslaved people should be educated so that they could read and study theBible. This helped establish a new class of educated black people in America.[52]
Before theAmerican Revolutionary War of 1775–1783, few slaves were manumitted. On the eve of the American Revolution, there was an estimated 30,000 free African Americans in Colonial America which accounts for about 5% of the total African American population. The Revolutionary War greatly disrupted slave societies and showed Bl
With the 1775proclamation of Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, the British began recruiting the slaves of American revolutionaries and promised them freedom in return.[53] Free Blacks likePrince Hall proposed that Blacks be allowed to join the American side, believing if they were involved in founding the new nation, it would aid in attaining freedom for all Black people.[54] TheContinental Army gradually began to allow Blacks to fight in exchange for their freedom.[53]
Between 1713 and 1758, theFortress of Louisbourg on Île-Royale (nowCape Breton Island) became the first Black community in Nova Scotia. During this early period, 381 Black people, some free and others enslaved, escaped or were brought to the Fortress, mostly from the Francophone Caribbean colonies.[55] It was home to a mix of freed and unfree enslaved Africans, who undertook a variety of trades and professions, such as gardeners, bakers, stonemasons, musicians, soldiers, sailors, fishermen, hospital workers, and more.[56][55]
After theRevolutionary War, General Washington urged the British to return theBlack Loyalists as stolen property, under the Treaty of Paris (1783). The British attempted to keep their promise to the Loyalists by relocating them outside the US.[57] The British transported more than 3,000 Black Loyalists andJamaican Maroons to resettle inNova Scotia (part of present-dayOntario). Between 1749 and 1816, approximately 10,000 Black people settled in Nova Scotia.[58] Those settlers who remained in Nova Scotia would go on to found large communities of freed Black people, forming 52 black settlements in total, and would develop their own national identity asBlack Nova Scotians.[59][60][61][62]
Meanwhile, in 1786, theCommittee for the Relief of the Black Poor, a British organization with government support, launched its efforts to establish theSierra LeoneProvince of Freedom, a colony in West Africa forLondon's "Black poor". After Nova Scotia proved a hostile environment for many of the new settlers, with extreme weather as well as racism from the white Nova Scotians, about a third of the Loyalists, and nearly all of theJamaican Maroons, petitioned the British for passage toSierra Leone as well, eventually leading to the founding ofFreetown in 1792. Their descendants are known as theSierra Leone Creole people.[63]
Since most sources of welfare at the time were controlled by whites, free blacks across the early United States created their own mutual aid societies. These societies offered cultural centers, spiritual assistance, and financial resources to their members.[64] TheFree African Union Society, founded in 1780 inNewport, Rhode Island, was America's first Africanbenevolent society. Founders and early members included Prince Amy, Lincoln Elliot, Bristol Yamma, Zingo Stevens andNewport Gardner. It became the model for multiple similar organizations across the Northeast.[65]
In 1787,Richard Allen andAbsalom Jones formed theFree African Society (FAS) of Pennsylvania. It became famous for its members' work as nurses and aides during theYellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, when many other residents abandoned the city.[66] Notable members included African-American abolitionists such asCyrus Bustill,James Forten, and William Gray, as well as survivors of theHaitian Revolution inSaint-Domingue, as well asfugitive slaves escaping from the South.[67]
The FAS provided guidance, medical care, and financial advice. The last became particularly important, and would establish a model for later African American banks. It operated ten private schools for Blacks across Pennsylvania, performed burials and weddings, and recorded births and marriages. Its activity and open doors served as motivator for growth for the city, inspiring many other Blackmutual aid societies to pop up.
In 1793, Jones and several other FAS members also founded theSt. Thomas African Episcopal Church, anondenominational church specifically for Black people. This in turn paved the way for the first independentBlack churches in the United States.[68][69] The church and its members played a key role in the abolition/anti-slavery and equal rights movement of the 1800s and it would later be involved in the civil rights movement.[70][71]
Mutual aid became a foundation ofsocial welfare in the United States until the early 20th century.[citation needed]
Following theAmerican Revolutionary War, the population of freepeople of color in the US had grown from 60,000 in 1790 to 300,000 by 1830. The prevailing view of white people was that freepeople of color could not integrate into U.S. society and slaveowners feared these free Blacks might help their slaves to escape orrebel.[72] In addition, manyWhite Americans believed thatAfrican Americans were inherently inferior and should be relocated.[73]
In Boston, Black Quaker and activistPaul Cuffe advocated settling freed American slaves in Africa. He was a successful ship owner and in 1815, he attempted a settlement for freedmen onSherbro Island.[74] By 1811, he had transported some members of theFree African Society toLiberia. He also gained broad political support to take emigrants toSierra Leone, and in 1816, Cuffe took 38 American Black people toFreetown.[75] He died in 1817 before undertaking other voyages.[76] By 1821, his Sherbro Island settlement had failed and the survivors also fled toSierra Leone.[74]
In 1816, modeled after Cuffe's work and the British resettlement of Black people inSierra Leone,[76]Robert Finley founded theAmerican Colonization Society (ACS). The ACS and organizations like it aimed to encourage and support the migration offreeborn people of color andemancipated slaves to the continent ofAfrica.[77] The African American community, who wanted to keep their homes, overwhelmingly opposed the ACS, as did theabolitionist movement.[78][79] Many African Americans, both free and enslaved, were pressured into emigrating anyway.[80][81][82][83][84][85]
By 1833, the Society had transported only 2,769 individuals out of the U.S. and close to half the arrivals in Liberia died from tropical diseases. During the early years, 22% of the settlers in Liberia died within one year.[86][81] According toBenjamin Quarles, however, the colonization movement "originated abolitionism" by arousing the free Black people and other opponents of slavery.[87]
Between 1822 and the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War in 1861, more than 15,000 freed and free-bornAfrican Americans, along with 3,198Afro-Caribbeans, relocated to Liberia.[88] The settlers carried their culture and tradition with them, gradually developing a Blacknational identity asAmerico-Liberians.[89] Liberia declared independence on July 26, 1847, becoming the first African republic to proclaim its independence and Africa's first and oldest modern republic.[90] The U.S. did notrecognize Liberia's independence until February 5, 1862.[89]
The Haitian Revolution was a successfulinsurrection byself-liberated slaves againstFrench colonial rule inSaint-Domingue (now the sovereign state ofHaiti). The revolt began on 22 August 1791,[91] and ended in 1804 with the former colony's independence. From the revolt, the ex-slaveToussaint Louverture emerged as Haiti's most prominent general. The revolution was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state which was both free fromslavery (though not fromforced labour)[92] and ruled by non-whites and former captives.[93]
The successful revolution was a defining moment in the history of theAtlantic World[49][50] and the revolution's effects on the institution of slavery were felt throughout the Americas. Independence and theabolition of slavery in the former colony was followed by a successful defense of the freedoms the former slaves had won, and with the collaboration of alreadyfree people of color, of their independence from white Europeans. This had the effect of encouraging other Black communities suffering under slavery or colonialism to imagine independence and self-rule.[46][47][48]
The third period of Black nationalism arose during the post-Reconstruction era, particularly among various African-American clergy circles. Separated circles were already established and accepted because African-Americans had long endured theoppression of slavery andJim Crowism in the United States since its inception. The clerical phenomenon led to the birth of a modern form of Black nationalism that stressed the need to separate Blacks from non-Blacks and build separate communities that would promote racial pride and collectivize resources.[citation needed]
In the immediate aftermath of the EuropeanRevolutions of 1848, French aristocrat CountArthur de Gobineau wrote the pseudoscientificAn Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (Essai sur l'inégalité des Races Humaines), legitimizingscientific racism and decryingrace-mixing as thedoom of civilization.[94][95][96][97] Gobineau's writings were quickly praised bywhite supremacist,pro-slavery Americans likeJosiah C. Nott andHenry Hotze, who translated his book into English, but omitted around 1,000 pages, including parts that negatively described Americans as a racially mixed population.[95][94] He inspired a racist social movement in Germany, namedGobinism, and his works were influential on prominentantisemites likeRichard Wagner,Houston Stewart Chamberlain,A. C. Cuza, and theNazi Party.[95]
In 1885,Haitiananthropologist andbarristerAnténor Firmin publishedDe l'égalité des races humaines (On the Equality of Human Races) as a rebuttal to CountArthur de Gobineau's work, challenging the idea thatbrain size was a measure of human intelligence and noting the presence ofBlack Africans in Pharaonic Egypt.[98][99] Firmin then explored the significance of theHaitian Revolution of 1804 and the ensuing achievements of Haitians such asLéon Audain, Isaïe Jeanty and Edmond Paul. (Both Audain and Jeanty had obtained prizes from theAcadémie Nationale de Médecine.)[100] Though marginalized for his belief in the equality of all races, his work influenced Pan-African and Black nationalist thought, and thenégritude movement.[101] Firmin influencedJean Price-Mars, the initiator of Haitianethnology and developer of the concept ofIndigenism, and 20th-century American anthropologistMelville Herskovits.[101]
Martin Delany (1812–1885), an African Americanabolitionist, was arguably the first proponent of Black nationalism as we understand it today.[102][103] Delany is credited with thePan-African slogan of "Africa for Africans."[104] Born as afree person of color in what is nowWest Virginia, and raised inPennsylvania, Delany trained as a physician's assistant. In 1850, Delany was one of the first three Black men admitted toHarvard Medical School, but all were dismissed after a few weeks because of widespread protests by white students.[105][106] During thecholera epidemics of 1833 and 1854 in Pittsburgh, Delany treated patients, even though many doctors and residents fled the city out of fear of contamination.[107]
Beginning in 1847, Delany worked alongsideFrederick Douglass in Rochester, New York to publish the anti-slavery newspaperThe North Star.[108] Delany dreamed of establishing a settlement in West Africa. He visitedLiberia, a United States colony founded by theAmerican Colonization Society, and lived in Canada for several years, but when theAmerican Civil War began, he returned to the United States. When theUnited States Colored Troops were created in 1863, he recruited for them. Commissioned as a major in February 1865, Delany became the first African Americanfield grade officer in theUnited States Army.
After the Civil War, Delany went to the South, settling in South Carolina, where he worked for theFreedmen's Bureau and became politically active, including in theColored Conventions Movement. Delany ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor as anIndependent Republican. He was appointed as a trial judge, but he was removed following a scandal. Delany later switched his party affiliation. He worked for the campaign ofDemocratWade Hampton III, who won the 1876 election for governor in a season marked by violent suppression of Black Republican voters byRed Shirts and fraud in balloting.[citation needed]
After Emancipation, the back-to-Africa movement eventually began to decline. In 1877, at the end of theReconstruction era, it would experience a revival as many Black people in the American South faced violence from groups such as theKu Klux Klan.[109] Interest among the South's Black population in African emigration peaked during the 1890s, a time when racism reached its peak and the greatest number of lynchings in American history took place.[110]
During the period known asNew Imperialism (1833 to 1914), European nations colonized and occupied Africa in the "Scramble for Africa". This mobilized Black people in the diaspora to activism in their home nations.Ethiopia and Liberia were the only Africancountries to maintain their sovereignty and independence during this time.[111][112]The African Times and Orient Review would later encourage others to emigrate to Ethiopia as part of theback-to-Africa movement.[113] In 1919, Marcus Garvey became President of theBlack Star Line, designed to forge a link between North America and Africa and facilitate African-American migration toLiberia.[114][115]
DuringWorld War II,Liberia supported theUnited States war effort againstNazi Germany, and in turn received considerable American investment in infrastructure, which aided the country's wealth and development. PresidentWilliam Tubman encouraged economic and political changes that heightened the country's prosperity and international profile; Liberia was a founding member of theLeague of Nations,United Nations, and theOrganisation of African Unity.[90]
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In the 1930s, thePeace Movement of Ethiopia (PME) emerged in the United States as a Black nationalist organisation that advocated for African American emigration to West Africa. The PME found an unlikely ally in Mississippi SenatorTheodore G. Bilbo, a white supremacist who attempted to pass the Greater Liberia Bill, which proposed federal funding to support the voluntary emigration of Black Americans to Liberia. While Bilbo's motivations were rooted in white supremacy, PME members saw the bill as a potential path towards Black autonomy and self-determination.[116]
Florence Kenna, a leader within the PME, praised the senator for his efforts to bring national attention to the emigration cause.[116] Other notable Black nationalist women, includingMittie Maude Lena Gordon and Ethel Waddell, were instrumental in promoting the legislation. These women formed strategic alliances to advance the goals ofBlack separatism and economic independence, reflecting a broader tradition of Black women's leadership in nationalist organisations during the early 20th century, despite marginalization within both Black and mainstream political movements in the United States.[116]
In 1914, Jamaican activistMarcus Garvey established theUniversal Negro Improvement Association with his then-wife,Amy Ashwood Garvey, inKingston. He moved to New York in 1916, and founded the first American UNIA chapter in Harlem in 1918. The UNIA is often considered one of the most powerful Black nationalist movements to date, claiming around a thousand chapters worldwide.[117][118]
Marcus Garvey encouraged African people around the world to be proud of their race and see beauty in their own kind. Garvey used his own personal magnetism and understanding of Black psychology to create a movement that appealed to working class African Americans. Garvey's movement, known asGarveyism, was opposed by mainstream Black leaders, and crushed by government action. However, its many alumni remembered its inspiring rhetoric.[117]
A central idea to Garveyism was thatAfrican people in every part of the world were one people and that, to advance, they should put aside their cultural and ethnic differences to unite under their shared history. He was heavily influenced by the earlier works ofBooker T. Washington,Martin Delany, andHenry McNeal Turner.[119] By the 1910s, Alexander Bedward became convinced that God had intended for him to beAaron to Garvey'sMoses — paving the way for the younger man to deliver his people into thePromised Land. Bedward led his followers intoGarveyism by finding the charismatic metaphor: one thehigh priest, the other theprophet, both leading thechildren of Israelout of exile.[120][121]
WriterFrantz Fanon fought on the side of the Allies during WWII, and spent several years in France, where his experiences of racism led him to write his first book,Black Skin, White Masks. An analysis of the impact of colonial subjugation on the African psyche, it changed the way people thought of Blackness more generally. While in North Africa, Fanon producedThe Wretched of the Earth, where he analyzes the role of class, race, national culture and violence in the struggle fordecolonization. Fanon expounded upon his views on theliberating role of violence for the colonized, as well as the generalnecessity of violence in the anti-colonial struggle. Fanon's books established him as one of the leading anti-colonial thinkers of the 20th century, influencing Black nationalist and decolonial movements worldwide.[122]
Ignited by the 1965assassination of Malcolm X, and the urban riots of 1964 and 1965, the Black power movement emerged from thecivil rights movement of the United States.[123] Seen as a reaction to the mainstream civil rights movement's more moderate tendencies and motivated by a desire for safety, the movement was partially inspired by ideologies and individuals from outside the United States, such as American expatriates in newly independentGhana,[124] but it also impacted others outside of the United States, such as theBlack Power Revolution inTrinidad and Tobago.[125] Black power organizations such as theBlack Panther Party (BPP) emerged, supporting philosophies ranging fromsocialism to Black nationalism.[125] Black power activists foundedblack-owned bookstores,[126] food cooperatives,[127] farms,[128] media,[128]printing presses,[128] schools,[128][129] clinics and ambulance services.[130][131][132]
In 1967,Stokely Carmichael and political scientistCharles V. Hamilton wroteBlack Power: The Politics of Liberation, drawing on Black nationalist ideas to define the concept ofBlack power.Stokely Carmichael stated thatwhite supremacy,colonialism, andsystemic racism were drivers ofdisenfranchisement and racism.[133] The authors believed Black power not only lay in dismantling white supremacy, but also in establishing camaraderie within the African American community. The authors disavowed liberal, conformist politics, instead emphasizingsovereignty for the Black community, similar to the goals of Black nationalism.[134]
Modern Black nationalism encompasses multiple different movements, organizations and philosophies. In America, Black nationalists began to "do what other 'ethnic' groups had done" — i.e., "pursue their interests in a pluralistic political system, subsumed by a capitalistic economic one".[8] InBlack Nationalism in America, John H. Bracey Jr., August Meier and Elliott Rudwick argue, "In the arena ofpolitics, black nationalism at its mildest isbourgeois reformism, a view which assumes that the United States ispolitically pluralistic and thatliberal values concerningdemocracy andthe political process are operative."[135] Dean E. Robinson, meanwhile, argues that "modern black nationalism drew upon strategies for political and economic empowerment that had analogies in the wider political landscape."[8] According to the SPLC, Black nationalist groups face a "categorically different" environment than white nationalist groups in the United States; while white supremacy has been championed by influential figures within theDonald Trump administration, for example, Black nationalists have "little or no impact on mainstream politics and no defenders in high office".[11]
Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of theBlack Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, has called forreparations for slavery and historic racism in the form of "financial restitution, land redistribution, politicalself-determination, culturally relevant education programs, language recuperation, and the right to return (or repatriation)," and cited Frantz Fanon's work for "understanding the current global context for Black individuals on the African continent and in our multiple diasporas."[136]
TheNot Fucking Around Coalition (NFAC) is a Black nationalist andBlack separatist organization in the United States. The group advocates for Black liberation, and has been described by some news outlets as a "Blackmilitia", though they have avoided violence.[137][138] The NFAC gained prominence during the2020–2021 United States racial unrest, making its first reported appearance at a protest nearBrunswick, Georgia, over the February 2020murder of Ahmaud Arbery,[139] though they were identified by local media as "Black Panthers".[140] Historian Thomas Mockaitis said that, "In one sense it (NFAC) echoes the Black Panthers but they are more heavily armed and more disciplined... So far, they've coordinated with police and avoided engaging with violence."[141]
John Fitzgerald Johnson, also known as Grand Master Jay and John Jay Fitzgerald Johnson, claims leadership of the NFAC[141][142] and has stated that it is composed of "ex military shooters".[139] In 2019 Grand Master Jay told theAtlanta Black Star that the organization was formed to prevent anotherGreensboro Massacre.[143][144] Johnson expressed early third period Black nationalist views, putting forth the view that the United States should either hand overTexas to African-Americans so they may form an independent country, or allow African-Americans to depart the United States to another country that would provide land upon which to form an independent nation.[145]
Black nationalism in Africa largely refers to the ideology of black nationalism brought by black communities who have migrated to Africa from the diaspora. It should not be confused with indigenousAfrican nationalism, which is an umbrella term for a group of political ideologies in sub-Saharan Africa, based on the idea of national self-determination and the creation of African nation states.[146]
African nationalism emerged during the mid-19th century among the emerging black middle classes inWest Africa. Early nationalists hoped to overcome ethnic fragmentation by creatingnation-states.[146] In its earliest period, it was inspired byAfrican-American andAfro-Caribbean intellectuals from theBack-to-Africa movement who importednationalist ideals current inEurope and theAmericas at the time.[147]
The early African nationalists were elitist and believed in the supremacy ofWestern culture but sought a greater role for themselves in political decision-making.[147] They rejectedAfrican traditional religions andtribalism as "primitive" and embraced western ideas ofChristianity,modernity, and thenation state.[147] One of the challenges faced by nationalists in unifying their nation after European rule were the divisions of tribes and the formation of ethnicism.
Ex-slave repatriation or the emigration ofAfrican-American,Caribbean, andBlack British former slaves to Africa occurred mainly during the late 18th century to mid-19th century. In the cases ofSierra Leone andLiberia, both were established by former slaves who were repatriated to Africa within a 28-year period.[148][149][150]
Americo-Liberian people are a Liberianethnic group descended fromAfrican Americans,Afro-Caribbeans, andliberated Africans. Americo-Liberians trace their ancestry to free-born and formerlyenslaved African Americans who emigrated in the 19th century and became thefounders of thestate ofLiberia, often as part of early black nationalist andback-to-Africa movements.
ManyRastafari believe that Ethiopia is thePromised Land of the black people. While some take this to mean Africa in the figurative sense, others take it literally and seek to join or establish independent black nations in Africa. In the 1960s, a Rasta settlement was established inShashamane,Ethiopia, on land made available byHaile Selassie'sEthiopian World Federation.[151] The community faced many problems; 500 acres were confiscated by the Marxist government ofMengistu Haile Mariam.[151] There were also conflicts with local Ethiopians, who largely regarded the incoming Rastas, and their Ethiopian-born children, as foreigners.[151] The Shashamane community peaked at a population of 2,000, although subsequently declined to around 200.[151]
Some Rastas have settled in Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia and Senegal.[151][152]
Sierra Leone Creole people are anethnic group ofSierra Leonedescended from freedAfrican-American,Afro-Caribbean,Black British, andLiberated African slaves who settled in theWestern Area of Sierra Leone between 1787 and about 1885.[148] Many of the black people who migrated to Sierra Leone did so as part of the early black nationalist andback-to-Africa movements. Thecolony was established by theBritish, supported byabolitionists, under theSierra Leone Company, as a place forfreedmen.[153] The settlers called their new settlementFreetown. Today, the Sierra Leone Creoles are 1.2 percent of the population of Sierra Leone.[154]
Born in 1848 inSaint Andrew Parish, north ofKingston, Jamaica, Alexander Bedward was one of the most successful preachers of JamaicanRevivalism in the 1880s, and would become the central figure of the Jamaica Native Baptist Free Church, or "Bedwardism".[155] Bedward's version of Revivalism was motivated by the inequality he saw between Black and white workers while in Panama, and incorporated African influences.[156] Bedward drew large groups of followers by conducting services which included reports of mass healings. He identified himself withPaul Bogle, the Baptist leader of theMorant Bay rebellion, and he stressed the need for changes to the inequalities in race relations in Jamaican society.[157]
In 1889, Harrison "Shakespeare" Woods, anAfrican-American immigrant, officially founded Bedwardism as a new religion inAugust Town, Saint Andrew Parish, withBedward as its prophet—referred to as "That Prophet" and "Shepherd."[158][159][160] Bedwardian literature described it as the successor to Christianity and Judaism, though its teachings differed little from those of most Christian denominations. Even so, because the movement likened the ruling classes to thePharisees, it met with disapproval and even suppression. Bedwardism originated the belief that August Town, Jamaica corresponds toJerusalem for the Western world, which would influence Rastafari beliefs.[161] Bedward also variously claimed to be the reincarnation of prophets such asMoses,Jonah andJohn the Baptist, and was twice ruled insane by the colonial Jamaican courts.[162] Bedwardism later drew inspiration from the rise of Marcus Garvey and hisUniversal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).[161][162]
The movement lost steam in 1921 after Bedward and hundreds of his followers marched into Kingston, where he failed to deliver on his claim to ascend into Heaven, and many were arrested. In 1930, Bedward died in his cell of natural causes.[163][164] Many of his followers became Garveyites andRastafarians, and brought with them the experience of resisting systems of colonial and white supremacist oppression. While some Rastafari castMarcus Garvey as a Messiah, Bedward sometimes takes the role ofJohn the Baptist.[165][163]
Rastafari emerged from early Black nationalism and shaped the Black nationalism that followed.[166][167] It was influenced by theGreat Revival of 1860–61, which converted large numbers of Black preachers in Jamaica;[167][168][169] and theEthiopian movement within Black churches,[170][169] which regarded the biblical "Ethiopia" as asynonym for Africa as a whole.[169] By 1916, someGarveyists, Ethiopianists andPan-Africanists believed Africa was poised for a great event, prophesied inPsalm 68:31 ofthe Bible: "Princes shall come ofEgypt;Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth its hands unto God".[171][172][173][174] Black Christians saw this as a promise of God's plan to lift Black people from oppression, as with the Israelites and early Christians before them, while early Black nationalists saw it as a call to action.[173]
By the 1920s, some Black Christian groups had begun to develop their own canon ofAfrocentric religious texts in opposition to theEurocentrism of mainstream Christian churches.[175] Between 1924 and 1928,Anguillan preacherRobert Athlyi Rogers, inspiredMarcus Garvey, wrote theHoly Piby, also known as the Black Man's Bible. It was intended for an AfrocentricAbrahamic religion, known as theAfro-Athlican Constructive Gaathly.[176] Rogers declared Garvey an "apostle of God" and dedicated the seventh chapter of theHoly Piby to him. Histheology described Black people as God'schosen people, and preached self-reliance andself-determination.[177] Around 1926, Jamaican preacherFitz Balintine Pettersburg wroteThe Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy, which decried white colonialism and the oppression of Black people.[178] In the book, Pettersburg declared himself "King Alpha" and his wife as "Queen Omega", suggesting a fulfillment of the Ethiopianist promise of Psalm 68.[179][178]
In August 1930,Marcus Garvey's playCoronation of an African King was performed in Kingston. Inspired by the coronation ofHaile Selassie that same year, and drawing on Psalm 68, it featured the coronation of a fictional Sudanese prince.[115] When Haile Selassie was crownedEmperor of Ethiopia in November, his Ethiopian title wasNəgusä Nägäst (literally "King of Kings", a common epithet forJesus). He was the firstsovereign monarch crowned incrowned in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1891.[169][180][181] According to Ethiopian tradition, Haile Selassie was descended fromKing David,King Solomon, and theQueen of Sheba. Some Jamaican preachers, such asArchibald Dunkley andJoseph Hibbert, saw Selassie's coronation as proof he was theBlack messiah they saw prophesied in theBook of Revelation, theBook of Daniel, and the Psalms.[169][180][181] That year, Dunkley proclaimedRastafari was the name of God, after Haile Selassie's pre-regnal title and name:Ras Tafari Makonnen. In 1933, he founded the King of Kings Ethiopian Mission in Kingston.[182] In 1931, Hibbert, a former member of the Ancient Order of Ethiopiamasonic lodge, concluded that Haile Selassie was divine after studying theEthiopian Bible. He left the Ethiopian Baptist Church, founded by the 18th-century Jamaican BaptistGeorge Lisle, and formed the Ethiopian Coptic Faith ministry, inSt. Andrew Parish. When he later transferred his ministry to Kingston, he foundLeonard Howell was already teaching similar doctrines.[183][184]
From 1933, Howell had begun preaching that Selassie was the "Messiah returned to earth"—an important symbol for theAfricandiaspora.[185][186][187][167] Under his Hindu pen name G. G. Maragh (forGangung Guru), Howell publishedThe Promised Key, which synthesized material from theRoyal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy and theHoly Piby.[188] Most significantly, the identities of "King Alpha and Queen Omega" were changed from Pettersburg and his wife to Selassie and EmpressMenen Asfaw, solidifying the prophecy of Psalm 68. This Howellite innovation became anarticle of faith for many Rastafari.[188] Howell later formed the Pinnacle settlement inSaint Catherine Parish that became associated with Rastafari.[189][190] Rastafari's new Black religiouscanon—with itsanti-colonial message, and promotion of a positive Black identity—threatened colonial authorities who attempted to quell the growing movement with the arrest, trial forsedition, and imprisonment of these early Black preachers.[167][182]
In 1937, theEthiopian World Federation (EWF) was founded in New York City by Dr.Malaku Bayen andDorothy Bayen, under the advice of Haile Selassie.[187] Dr. Bayen was the cousin and personal physician of the Emperor, and a prince.[191][192] Dunkley, Hibbert and Howell would also join the organization,[182] which aimed to mobilize African American support for the Ethiopians during theItalian invasion of 1935-41, and to embody the unity of Black people worldwide.[187][193] Ethiopia's resistance against European imperialism made it a source of pride and inspiration among Black people in the diaspora.[111][112][182]
TheBlack Liberation Front (BLF) formed in London in 1971 and ceased activities in 1993.[194] Much more secretive than the British Black Panthers, most of their members remained anonymous,[195] but it was nevertheless considered one of the most effective Black Power organizations in the UK, despite threats and attacks from the National Front, the media and the police, as well as state surveillance.[194]
The BLF's politics were informed byPan-Africansocialism and black nationalism.[195] The BLF had links with Pan-African groups worldwide, often sending money back to Africa, and helped organize the Africa Liberation Day celebrations in the 1970s and 1980s. They also published theGrassroots Newspaper, which often featured creative work, alongside news on anti-colonial movements back in Africa and the Caribbean.[194]
BLF was especially concerned witheducational inequalities in the UK. Because black-authored books were extremely difficult to source in London at the time, the BLF established three book shops filled withblack history,black politics andblack literature. The Grassroots store front onLadbroke Grove was one of these book shops, and became a community hub. The Headstart bookshop provided information for young people and at the weekends, volunteers ran math, English and black history classes there.[194]
BLF ran prisoner welfare schemes, and schemes to support black women. UjimaHousing Association was established by the BLF to address issues around discrimination in housing. Young people and mothers were especially welcome. By 2008, when Ujima was merged into London and Quadrant, its assets were valued at £2 billion.[194]
The British Black Panthers emerged after a 1967 visit by Stokey Carmichael and Malcolm X to London. The British chapter was officially formed the following year byObi Egbuna andDarcus Howe. Egbuna had ambitions for the BBPM to be a militant, underground revolutionary organization. WhenAlthea Jones-LeCointe later came to lead the organization, she wanted it to remain a grassroots organization, focused on the plight of workers, the unemployed, and young people. The BBPM also published a newspaper,Black Peoples News Service, and focused on injustice in education, policing, and government. The chapter was dissolved in 1972, but famous members includedNeil Kenlock,Linton Kwesi Johnson,Olive Morris,Barbara Beese,Liz Obi andBeverley Bryan.[195]
TheBlack Panther Party (originally theBlack Panther Party for Self-Defense) was aMarxist–Leninist andblack power political organization founded by college studentsBobby Seale andHuey P. Newton in October 1966 inOakland, California.[196][197] Originally, the party organized in an emergent black nationalist tradition inspired byMalcolm X and others.[198] Upon its inception, the party's core practice was itsopen carry patrols ("copwatching") designed to challenge theexcessive force and misconduct of theOakland Police Department. From 1969 onward, the party created social programs, including theFree Breakfast for Children Programs, education programs, and community health clinics. The Black Panther Party advocated forclass struggle, claiming to represent theproletarianvanguard.[199]
The party was active in the United States between 1966 and 1982, with chapters in many major American cities, including San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles,Seattle, andPhiladelphia.[200] They were also active in many prisons and had international chapters in theUnited Kingdom and Algeria.[201]
Between 1953 and 1964, while most African leaders worked in thecivil rights movement to integrateAfrican-American people into mainstream American life,Malcolm X was an avid advocate ofBlack independence and the reclaiming ofBlack pride and masculinity.[202] He initially maintained that Black people were better served byseparatism—with control of politics and economics within their own communities—than the tactics of civil rights leader Rev.Martin Luther King Jr. and mainstream civil rights groups such as theSCLC,SNCC,NAACP, andCORE. Malcolm X believed that to achieve anything, African Americans would have to reclaim their national identity, embrace the rights covered by theSecond Amendment, and defend themselves fromwhite hegemony andextrajudicial violence.[203]
In April 1964, Malcolm X participated in aHajj (pilgrimage toMecca); Malcolm subsequently shifted to mainstream Islam and recanted many of his earlier opinions, including his prior commitment toBlack separatism.[204] He still supported Black cultural nationalism and advocated for African Americans to proactively campaign for equalhuman rights, instead of relying on white citizens to change the laws. Malcolm X articulated his new philosophy in the charter of hisOrganization of Afro-American Unity (which he patterned after theOrganization of African Unity), and he inspired some aspects of the futureBlack Panther Party.[205]
In 1965, Malcolm X expressed reservations about Black nationalism, saying, "I was alienating people who were true revolutionaries dedicated to overturning the system of exploitation that exists on this earth by any means necessary. So I had to do a lot of thinking and reappraising of my definition of black nationalism. Can we sum up the solution to the problems confronting our people as black nationalism? And if you notice, I haven't been using the expression for several months."[206]
Like Rastafari,Nation of Islam was partly influenced by Garveyism.[207]Wallace D. Fard founded the Nation of Islam in the 1930s as a reaction to the perceivedwhite supremacy of Christianity.[208][209][207] Since 1977, it has been underLouis Farrakhan's leadership. High-profile members included the Black nationalist activistMalcolm X and the boxerMuhammad Ali. The group believed Christianity had been forced on Black people during slavery, that Islam was the original religion of Black people, and that Black identity could be reclaimed through Islam.[207]
Deviating significantly from mainstream Islam, Muhammad also taught that Fard was a Messiah and that he himself was sent by God to prepare Black people for global supremacy and destruction of "the white devil".[210] The Nation promoted economic self-sufficiency for Black people, and talked of establishing a separate Black nation in Georgia, Alabama, or Mississippi.[211]
As hip hop is a music genre originally created and dominated byAfrican-Americans,political rappers often reference and discussblack liberation, black nationalism and the black power movement. Numerous hip hop songs expressanti-racist views, such as the popularThe Black Eyed Peas song "Where Is the Love?". Artists who advocate more radical black liberationist views have remained controversial. Artists such asPublic Enemy, Tupac Shakur,Ice Cube,Game, and Kendrick Lamar have advocated black liberation in their lyrics and poetry. In Tupac Shakur's poem, "How Can We Be Free", Shakur discusses the sacrifices of blackpolitical prisoners and the rejection of patriotic symbols.[citation needed]
In the 2010s, artists such asKiller Mike andKendrick Lamar have released songs criticizing theWar on Drugs and theprison industrial complex from an anti-racist perspective. Hip hop music continues to draw attention to the struggles of black people and attracts a young demographic of activists. Kendrick Lamar and many other rappers have been credited with creating discussions regarding "blackness" through their music.[212]
In hisLetter from Birmingham Jail,Martin Luther King Jr. characterized black nationalism with "hatred and despair", writing that support for black nationalism "would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare."[213]
Norm R. Allen Jr., former director ofAfrican Americans for Humanism, calls black nationalism a "strange mixture of profound thought and patent nonsense":
On the one hand, Reactionary Black Nationalists (RBNs) advocate self-love, self-respect, self-acceptance, self-help, pride, unity, and so forth—much like the right-wingers who promote 'traditional family values.' But—also like the holier-than-thou right-wingers—RBNs promote bigotry, intolerance, hatred, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, pseudo-science, irrationality, dogmatic historical revisionism, violence, and so forth.[214]
Tunde Adeleke, Nigerian-born professor of History and Director of the African American Studies program at theUniversity of Montana, argues in his bookUnAfrican Americans: Nineteenth-Century Black Nationalists and the Civilizing Mission that 19th-century African American nationalism embodied the racist and paternalistic values of Euro-American culture and that black nationalist plans were not designed for the immediate benefit of Africans but to enhance their own fortunes.[215]
InBlack Nationalism in America, John H. Bracey Jr., August Meier and Elliott Rudwick argue, "In the arena ofpolitics, black nationalism at its mildest isbourgeois reformism, a view which assumes that the United States is politically pluralistic and that liberal values concerning democracy and the political process are operative."[135]
Dean E. Robinson, meanwhile, argues that "modern black nationalism drew upon strategies for political and economic empowerment that had analogies in the wider political landscape" and that, shaped by circumstances in America, black nationalists merely began to "do what other 'ethnic' groups had done" — i.e., "pursue their interests in a pluralistic political system, subsumed by a capitalistic economic one".[8]
Black feminists in the U.S., such asBarbara Smith,Toni Cade Bambara, andFrances Beal, have also lodged sustained criticism of certain strands of black nationalism, particularly the political programs which are advocated by cultural nationalists. Black cultural nationalists envisioned black women only in the traditionalheteronormative role of the idealized wife-mother figure.
Patricia Hill Collins criticizes the limited imagining of black women in cultural nationalist projects, writing that black women "assumed a particular place in Black cultural nationalist efforts to reconstruct authentic Black culture, reconstitute Black identity, foster racial solidarity, and institute an ethic of service to the Black community."[216]
A major example of black women as only the heterosexual wife and mother can be found in the philosophy and practice called Kawaida exercised by theUS Organization.Maulana Karenga established the political philosophy of Kawaida in 1965. Its doctrine prescribed distinct roles between black men and women. Specifically, the role of the black woman as "African Woman" was to "inspire her man, educate her children, and participate in social development."[217] Historian of black women's history and radical politics Ashley Farmer records a more comprehensive history of black women's resistance to sexism and patriarchy within black nationalist organizations, leading manyBlack Power era associations to support gender equality.[218]
Due to the high-profile nature of changingAfrican American–Jewish relations,[219][220][221][222][223][224] there is much research onantisemitism among black nationalist groups and individuals.[225][226][227] In the late 1950s, bothMuslim and non-Muslim black nationalists engaged in antisemitism.[225] Some activists argued thatAmerican Jews, as well asIsrael, were "the central obstacle to black progress"[225] and thatJews were "the most racist whites",[226] or they portrayed Jews as "parasitic intruders who accumulated wealth by exploiting the toil of black people inAmerica's ghettos andSouth Africa".[226] Some black nationalists have alleged thatblack people "are the original Semites",[228] have engaged inHolocaust trivialization,[226] or may even beHolocaust deniers.[229][227]
Notable black nationalist leaders, particularlyLouis Farrakhan, have professed antisemitic sentiments.Amiri Baraka,Kwame Ture,Tamika Mallory have been accused of antisemitic comments. There has also been the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism in discussions about Black radical activists.
TheSouthern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said that while black nationalist andblack separatisthate groups exist, "The black nationalist movement is a reaction to centuries of institutionalizedwhite supremacy in America," and it also notes that there is a lack of high-level political support for black nationalist and black separatist groups as opposed to white supremacist groups.[11] According to the SPLC, black nationalist groups face a "categorically different" environment than white hate groups in the United States; while white supremacy has been championed by influential figures within theDonald Trump administration, black nationalists have "little or no impact on mainstream politics and no defenders in high office".[11]
The SPLC has designated a number of black nationalist groups as hate groups, including theBlack Riders Liberation Party,The Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, theIsraelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, theNew Black Panther Party, theRevolutionary Black Panther Party andThe United Nuwaupians Worldwide.
TheSouthern Poverty Law Center has previously been criticized for conflating black nationalism with hate more generally.[230] It later clarified that "black nationalists are assessed as a loose-knit network of various hate groups, charismatic leaders, as well as unaffiliated individuals who may identify as black nationalists, but [who] do not associate with black nationalist groups," and reiterated that "violent black nationalists" were distinct from other forms of black activism.[231] They also challenged the notion that black activists of diverse ideologies should be grouped as "black identity extremists" by the FBI.[231]
In October 2020, the SPLC announced that it would no longer use the category "black separatism", in order to foster a more accurate understanding of violent extremism and avoid creating a false equivalency between black separatism and white supremacist extremism. This change in the terminology which is used by the SPLC also includes the removal of "black nationalism" as a category of hate groups from the SPLC's website.[232][233]
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