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New Day in Babylon

The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975

The most comprehensive account available of the rise and fall of the Black Power Movement and of its dramatic transformation of both African-American and larger American culture. With a gift for storytelling and an ear for street talk, William Van Deburg chronicles a decade of deep change, from the armed struggles of the Black Panther party to the cultural nationalism of artists and writers creating a new aesthetic. Van Deburg contends that although its tactical gains were sometimes short-lived, the Black Power movement did succeed in making a revolution—one in culture and consciousness—that has changed the context of race in America.

"New Day in Babylon is an extremely intelligent synthesis, a densely textured evocation of one of American history’s most revolutionary transformations in ethnic group consciousness."—Bob Blauner, New York Times

Winner of the Gustavus Myers Center Outstanding Book Award, 1993

388 pages | 38 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 1992

Black Studies

Culture Studies

History: American History

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: A Black Power Paradigm
1. What Is "Black Power"?
2. Precursors and Preconditions: Why Was There a Black Power Movement?
3. Who Were the "Militants"?
Black Power on Campus
Black Power in Sports
Black Power and Labor
Black Power and "Total Institutions"
4. The Ideologies of Black Power
Pluralism
Nationalism
5. Black Power in Afro-American Culture: Folk Expressions
Soul Style
Soul Music
Soul Talk
Soulful Tales
Soul Theology
6. Black Power and American Culture: Literary and Performing Arts
Defining "Whitey"
Identifying "Toms"
Understanding Black History
Achieving Liberation
Conclusion: Whatever Happened to Black Power?
Notes
Index

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