Black Panther Party's Expression in the Black Arts Movement
Unite (First State), 1969, by Barbara Jones-Hogu The Black Arts Movement (BAM) emerged in the 1960s as the cultural side of the Black Power Movement, an alternative to the Civil Right’s protests. Instead of using the existing political system to ask for Black rights, members of the Black Power movement demanded change and aimed to dismantle the racist system that degraded them. BAM emphasized artistic expression as a tool for political and social change. By destroying White mainstream culture the BAM would forge a new society that served people of color. Aligned with organizations like the Black Panther Movement, BAM strived to promote self-determination and challenge systematic racism through art. Poems such as “For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide” and “Jesus was crucified, or it Must Be DEEP,” alongside the Black Panther Party’s “10-Point Program,” show that the Black Arts Movement functioned as a vehicle for empowerment by promoting self-definition, revolutionary resistance,...