The Politics of the Black Power Movement

Abstract

In notable ways, analysis of the Black Power Movement (BPM) by political scientists has been woefully neglected in comparison to analyses proffered by historians, sociologists, and Black Studies scholars. This comparative neglect is partly owed to political science's reticence to meaningfully engage the ideological locus of the BPM, black nationalism, through rigorous theoretical or methodological analysis. In this review, I highlight some of the major contributions of political scientists to the analysis of the BPM while exploring some of the challenges and opportunities for further study and examination of this singular period in US and international politics.

The Politics of Reparations for Black Americans

“…According to historian Robin Kelley (2002, p. 119), Moore understood that reparations must be democratically controlled by ordinary people rather than administered in a top-down fashion. Indeed, the nonelite character of the movement and the association of reparations politics with Black nationalist movements may help to account for political scientists' relative inattention to the issue (Marable 2003, Taylor 2021.…”