Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America

From the Publisher

Peniel Joseph represents the best of a new generation of scholars whose work will substantially revise our understanding of the Black Freedom Movement. Provocative and masterfully written, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour not only reveals the radical roots of Black Power but places the key activists and struggles within a global framework. It is one of those critically important books that will be read and debated for many years to come.

--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

Raymond Arsenault

While some readers may find this attempt to redeem the Black Power movement a bit strained and unconvincing, it is difficult to fault an author who brings such a fresh perspective to a topic in dire need of reexamination.
— The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

Whereas black nationalism can be traced to Marcus Garvey (and his predecessors), Black Power was first articulated by Stokely Carmichael in 1966. This accessible survey looks at "the murky depths of a movement that paralleled, and at times overlapped, the heroic civil rights era," beginning in the late 1950s, with the rise of the Black Muslims, and ending in 1975. Joseph, who teaches Africana studies at SUNY-Stony Brook, brings to light less-known characters like the Rev. Albert Cleage Jr. of Detroit, who helped organize the 1963 Walk for Freedom a month before the March on Washington, as well as fresh judgments on figures like Malcolm X, "black America's prosecuting attorney." He analyzes the negative media coverage of Black Power, offers a discerning take on Carmichael and Charles Hamilton's 1967 book, Black Power, and recounts the emergence of the Black Arts movement. The Black Panthers also get consistent attention, in rise and decline. Drawing on a rich set of sources, including interviews and oral histories, the book also illuminates flash points in Newark, N.J.; Oakland, Calif.; and the Sixth Pan-African Congress in Dar es Salaam in 1974. Though it focuses more on politics than culturee.g., the 1968 Olympics protest gets just a footnoteit's a good introduction to the topic. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

During the early 1960s, the struggle of African Americans to break the grip of white supremacy in the United States began to develop in different directions, eventually leading to a new kind of radical movement, the Black Power movement. Rather than simply detailing the history of radical organizations, Joseph (Africana studies, SUNY at Stony Brook) also profiles several famous leaders and uses their stories to spearhead a discussion of the intellectual and practical history of Black Power as a political movement. Through this lens, Joseph offers an eloquent and accessible history of the large-scale political developments that shaped the course of the Black Power movement, from its origins in the black community in Harlem and international developments like the Non-Aligned Movement at the Bandung Afro-Asian Conference in 1955, through contemporary effects such as the development of African studies programs at U.S. colleges and radical African American labor organizing in Detroit. Enthusiastically recommended for public and academic libraries.-Emily-Jane Dawson, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The rise, fall and legacy of the Black Power movement, traced from its roots in 1950s Harlem through its explosion and fadeout in the following two decades. In his well-paced debut, Joseph (Africana Studies/SUNY Stony Brook) gets beyond Black Power symbolism-afros, shades, black-gloved fists raised in the air-to examine the movement's origins, ideologies and key players. As he tells it, Black Power sprang from the intellectual tumult in northern cities like New York and Detroit, where writers and activists such as James Baldwin and Malcolm X sought to define a new, more assertive African-American identity at the same time that Martin Luther King Jr. was leading marches and sit-ins in the South. This new identity, based on black pride and awareness of history, was linked to world events such as the Cuban revolution and Ghanaian independence. As the civil-rights movement won landmark legislative victories, including the 1965 Voting Rights Act, African-Americans split on how to push toward full political and economic equality. In 1966, the young activist Stokely Carmichael coined the phrase "Black Power," calling for self-sufficiency and distancing himself from King's nonviolent approach. With the Vietnam war raging and American society in turmoil, race-related violence broke out in dozens of U.S. cities. This mayhem, combined with the assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy, fueled the rise of the Black Panthers, a militant group eventually done in by the FBI and its own poor leadership. By the 1970s, the movement's energy had splintered into other efforts, such as abortion rights, women's rights and school desegregation. Many people today, Joseph writes, associate Black Power solely withgun-toting revolutionaries. He believes it should be recognized for fostering among African-Americans an assertive identity and cultural pride. Vividly illuminates the personalities and politics of a turbulent time.