Saying It Loud: 1966—The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement

The year 1966 saw the emergence of “Black Consciousness” as “both a state of mind and a badge of identity,” marking a “dramatic shift in the long struggle for racial justice in America,” according to this eye-opening history. Journalist Whitaker (Smoketown) spotlights the year’s milestone events, from the January 3 murder of Sammy Younge, a Tuskegee Institute student activist gunned down at a gas station for asking to use the “whites-only” restroom, to the start of the first Kwanzaa celebration on December 26. Particular attention is paid to the background and charisma of voting rights activist Stokely Carmichael, an early leader and symbol of the Black Power movement. Whitaker also draws incisive sketches of Black Panther leaders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale; 24-year-old Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, the highest-ranking woman in the civil rights movement; and Bob and Dottie Zellner, white activists who met and married while working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Throughout, Whitaker elevates the movement’s lesser-known figures, analyzes how internal and external forces splintered the movement, and contextualizes cultural developments including the free jazz of John Coltrane and Charles Mingus and the emergence of the Afro as a symbol of Black liberation. It adds up to a comprehensive and character-driven portrait of the “first Black Power generation.” Photos. (Feb.)