Militant Ideologies and Organizational Contexts: The War on Poverty and the Ideology of “Black Power”

IN RECENT YEARS we have witnessed the emergence and widespread acceptance of a radical formulation of American racial problems--the ideology. The ideology first emerged in the mid-sixties as little more than a slogan. At that point the concept of was not clearly formulated and did not enjoy much support from Negroes. Yet, by the end of the decade a fairly coherent ideology had developed and gained a substantial following. The late sixties also saw the implementation of the War on Poverty. The Black power movement and the anti-poverty program shared the same social space and developed a complex interactive relationship. Their association in time and social location led some observers to argue that a causal relationship existed, i.e., that the War on Poverty in some way caused the growth of the Black power movement and its increasing militancy. Yet, the exact nature of the relationship is not well understood.