African American History

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Black Nationalism and American Nationalism
Black Nationalism is an element that has marked the American history with instances of black power and supremacy. It was a movement that was fueled by ideas that were associated with the quest of the African Americans to separate from the state and form their own sovereign statehood. Starting in the early 1920s, it went well into the 60s and gained a lot of support from the African Americans at the time. Most of the people from African American communities believed that it was benign to try and achieve equality in a land that was marred by policies and ideologies the dehumanized the African Americans. Most of the Africans having come from slave families had experienced the horrors of the white supremaciststhatdeemed the Africans as slaves and animal-like(Digitalhistory.uh.edu). Most of the policies at the time reduced the rights of the African Americans to nil, as they were not supposed to take part in any nationally acclaimed activities such as voting, immigrating to other states, holding state jobs, holding political positions, forming parties and even intermarriages(Kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu).
Marcus Garvey was one of the key figures at the time and one of the key pillars of the movement. In 1918, Garvey, founded the movement that was called the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)(Encyclopedia.com). Hailing from Harlem, it became the largest black movement in the history of the United States of America. The movement was avehicle to seek political autonomy for the African Americans. At the time views about anticolonial values were greatly under pressure from various quarters in the states. Most of the African Americans shared the school of thought that, it was not possible for African Americans or any other race in the united states other than Americans and generally the whites to find a congruent solution to racial profiling and discrimination(Digitalhistory.uh.edu). Policies and the general attitude towards the African Americans were vile and loathed their presence, yet they had been shipped to America as slaves against their own will. Black Nationalism was largely about the racial identity for the blacks, which were now tired of the mistreatment they got in America. Although there were other groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which advocated for the redefinition of the civil rights of the African Americans, most of the blacks believed in their sovereign right to find their way back to Africa or get a chance to form their state(Encyclopedia.com). This was a view that was common with Garvey and the likes of James T. Holly and Cyril Briggs, the latter having found the African Blood Brotherhood movement. Malcolm X followed in the footsteps of his predecessors such as Garvey but took on a more radicalized view of the African liberty and identity. Working with National of Islam and later his own organization the Organization for Afro-American Unity, Malcolm sought to liberate the African Americans from the western supremacy and oppression and to establish and free state ...