THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT
The Black Arts Movement entered its place in the African American literary tradition for a ten-year period, but came in with voices raised to new heights that changed the direction of artistry with lasting impacts. Although the dates may vary depending on the source, it is generally agreed upon that the years from 1965-1975 mark the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and follow the timeline all the way to the rise of spoken word and hop-hop. In other words, it is regarded as a transitional movement that bridged civil rights activism to alternate ways to assert black intellectual and cultural activism. In this section of the text, you will learn about the political, social, and cultural events of the Black Arts decade, identify leading literary figures, engage with representative texts, and reflect upon interesting questions about the movement.
To place this period in context, it is important to know about several key events that launched the movement. First, at the starting point, the assassination of Malcolm X on Feb 21, 1965 unleashed a new hurt and anger among the more radical voices of the civil rights movement who began to challenge the non-violent, civil disobedience approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Just weeks later on March 7, 1965, fire hoses, German Shepherd dogs, and batons would be used on demonstrators like the late John Lewis in Selma, Alabama resulting in what we refer to now as “Bloody Sunday.”
A third key marker came in the summer of 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1965 on August 6th, granting reinforcement to the Fifteenth Amendment which provided voting rights to formerly enslaved Black males in 1867. Black families also experienced a transition from segregation to legal integration during these years. Imagine growing up seeing signs in public places that marked water fountains, elevators, restaurants, theaters, public transit, and more as “For Whites Only” or “Colored” and gradually seeing the signs come down legally. Students from Georgia’s historically black colleges and universities, namely Savannah State, Fort Valley State, and Albany State, joined with thousands from across the country on freedom rides to advance the civil rights movement that helped to advance the Black Arts Movement. As barriers came down, the creative forces of the movement began to articulate for a more assertive rhetoric that would evolve from “Freedom Now” to raised fists shouting “Black Power” and “Black is Beautiful.”
“Black Power” and “Black is Beautiful” became not only cries for political power, but aesthetic elements as well in terms of music, performances, and African-inspired styles and fashions. This time period for the literary arts was set against the sounds of the Sam Cooke, Temptations, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, and even the Beatles along with supportive white folk singers Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. The 1968 hit of James Brown was a rallying cry which inspired poets and writers to, “Say it Loud; I’m Black and I’m Proud.” While the musical beats played out, students celebrated black life with Afros and dashikis as symbolic messages of pride. In 1965 when Amiri Baraka opened the doors to the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem, it was nation-building time with creative tools as weapons.
Even in the smallest grassroots communities across the United States, the new radical movement used writing to communicate with what they regarded as the ‘masses. Many neighborhood newsletters were cranked out on typewriters and old mimeograph machines to announce voter registration, boycotts, and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. These were underground contacts, but were just as effective as today’s forms of social media. Technology and spaces were very limited compared to today, but artists found ways to produce. Cultural nationalists who emerged would just call for writing groups to meet in personal homes where much poetry, drama, and fiction got started. For example, in Southeast Georgia, the Third Saturday Artists met to write, share, and discuss their work alongside the political issues of the day.
The ultimate goal for the Black Arts authors was to speak against the outcomes of enslavement, poverty, and discrimination with strong anti-government language, written at the risk of being charged with treason or raided. This particularly affected members of the Black Panther Party who were regular targets. The political prisoners rounded up by police just fueled the public venues for the Black Arts Movement manifested under the government-funded Model Cities Program which oversaw urban renewal, recreational, educational workshops, and housing improvements. For example, one program in South Georgia was known as “The Academy of Black Culture” and it hosted black youth after school for classes in writing, visual arts, and black history. These nationalist groups, community schools, college students, and even political prisoners produced change leaders that would later be identified as the voices of the Black Arts Movement.
When Baraka published the poem “Black Art” in 1966, he threaded the themes of the artistic movement between the lines and other artists later articulated themes and causes in their writings, music, and performances. According to Baraka, “The artist’s role is to raise the consciousness of the people.” The poet Sonia Sanchez noted that Black art controls the ‘Negro’s’ reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images.” In the decade of the BAM, artists produced to address police brutality, point out economic disparities and poverty, pride in African roots, preservation and representation of African culture, vernacular, and traditions, the legacies of enslavement, advancement of a Black aesthetic, the use of revolutionary imagery and vernacular, and opposition to oppression in all forms. The BAM was inclusive of all genres and mixed the arts of music, drama, and poetry. In general, the Black Arts Movement, as observed and experienced, was a call to back up calls for Black Power with Artistic Power. By the end of the decade, the calls for Black Power subsided, affected by ideological battles and assimilation. The next generation leveled up the performance of poetry in juke joints and community centers. Performing poetry against a jazz soundtrack was not as hip. The old vanguard transitioned into professors, editors, critics, published artists on the speaking circuit. The end of the movement gave rise to the beginnings of spoken word and a new thing called hip-hop!
Some of the most influential names in African-American literature are identified with this period, although they may also overlap in Urban Realism and the Contemporary period. If authors are still living from one period to the next, they are still writing and reflecting the times. A list of well-known authors should include, but not be limited to Amiri Baraka, Alex Haley, The Last Poets, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, Sonia Sanchez, June Jordan, Ntozake Shange, Gil Scott-Heron, Toni Cade Bambara, Ishmael Reed, and Larry Neal.
This unit ends with episode three of Key Topics in African American Literature. In this segment of the podcast series, the panelists examine Giovanni's "And So It Comes to This," which is part of her recent collection Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose; Sonia Sanchez's Poem for Some Women; Amiri Baraka's Somebody Blew Up America, and Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," The trio also sheds lights on the extent to which modern artists attempt to engender social and political change through their poetry and music.