Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America (Henry Holt Co) [Paperback]

Peniel E. Joseph (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2007 | Series: Henry Holt Co

"Once in a while a book comes along that projects the spirit of an era; this is one of them . . . Vibrant and expressive . . . A well-researched and well-written work." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

 

With the rallying cry of "Black Power!" in 1966, a group of black activists, including Stokely Carmichael and Huey P. Newton, turned their backs on Martin Luther King's pacifism and, building on Malcolm X's legacy, pioneered a radical new approach to the fight for equality. Drawing on original archival research and more than sixty original oral histories, Peniel E. Joseph vividly invokes the way in which Black Power redefined black identity and culture and in the process redrew the landscape of American race relations. In a series of character-driven chapters, we witness the rise of Black Power groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panthers, and with them, on both coasts of the country, a fundamental change in the way Americans understood the unfinished business of racial equality and integration.

Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour traces the history of the Black Power movement, that storied group of men and women who would become American icons of the struggle for racial equality.

Editorial Reviews

From 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 culture—e.g., the 1968 Olympics protest gets just a footnote—it's a good introduction to the topic. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Joseph, African studies professor, surveys the full geographic and political panorama of the black power movement. He begins with the Southern movement and the political organizing of SNCC and SCLC, then moves on to portray the crisis in the movement reflected by the rise of Stokely Carmichael and the breach of the traditional white-black alliance. From there, Joseph analyzes the shift to the West Coast, initiated through the rise of the Black Panthers and their leader Huey Newton becoming symbols of the black power movement. Finally, Joseph examines attempts at political organizing in the North, reflected in the black political convention in Gary, Indiana, in 1972 and Amiri Baraka's subsequent activism in Newark, which resulted in the election of a black mayor. While Joseph explores the interplay between SNCC and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as Malcolm X's symbolic engagement, he also highlights figures who were significant though more historically obscure, including Robert Williams, the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), and Harold Cruse, rounding out a more complete overview of this era. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (July 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805083359
• ISBN-13: 978-0805083354
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #216,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Humane, full-spectrum storytelling, February 23, 2007

By 

Paul Grant "historian-in-training, author, sp... (Madison, Wisconsin, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America (Hardcover)

This book is about more than politics. It's about people, people who are indeed political creatures, but are red-blooded people, with loves, and creativity, and petty rivalries, and regional differences.

Peniel Joseph has really served the public here. I hope this book is picked up by people (like myself) born after this narrative's conclusion. By moving beyond the waters of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver, and looking into the arts, and cultural developments like Kwanzaa, and religion, he was actually able to bring focus to the narrative.

It was very refreshing to see Martin Luther King as more than a teddy-bear on the one hand, and more than a broken record on the other. He was in the first instance a minister--meaning a person of faith who worked with people, in all their humanity. King changed his mind about realities, and grew, and related to people with a flexibility not shared by, say, philosophers.

Joseph leaves us with the stories of men and women, not always heroes, and not too unlike ourselves in their daily lives.

My only regret is the book's ending in 1974. It would have been nice to understand black power's interface with early hip hop, and such.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping story well-told, February 26, 2007

By 

Carlito's Way (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America (Hardcover)

This book is outstanding! I don't know what I was expecting. I thought, perhaps, that it was going to be an apologia regarding the Panthers. Or, if not that, it would be a polemic detailing how the Panthers "messed everything up". You see, there is a generally accepted narrative regarding the struggle for African-American equality in this country. The narrative goes like this: for a number of complicated reasons, Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery through the Emancipation Proclamation. Eventually, this was followed by Jim Crow segregation and "separate but equal". Various African-Americans engaged in a heroic civil-rights struggle, and they were aided in this struggle by whites (Communist and otherwise) and other sympathetic ethnic groups. The Civil-Rights Era coincided with and/or encompassed an age of general period of civil disobedience which included Vietnam War protests, Labor Union unrest and a continuing feminism movement. A number of solid victories came from the Civil Rights Era, namely, Brown v. Board of Education and the Voting Rights Act. Also, a number of iconic figures, and moments, emerged from this era, namely, Rosa Parks (and the Montgomery Bus Boycott), and Martin Luther King Jr. (and the March on Washington). Then these craaaaaaaazy kids came along, toting guns in San Francisco and following around cops in Oakland. Stokely Carmichael shouted "Black Power!!" at a March Against Fear in Mississippi in 1966. Olympic Medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave Black Power salutes on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics. In the 60 Minutes special, "The Hate That Hate Produced", Mike Wallace told America that a huge group of angry, angry, angry Muslims were proliferating in New York, and Malcolm X was the head nut. All of a sudden, crazy radicals replaced the politics of integration, non-violent protest and collaboration with that of aggressive "black self-esteem" and incendiary revolutionary rhetoric. As a result, these excesses dragged everything down, precipitating a Civil Rights decline. This, coupled with a conservative backlash, continues negatively to affect the lives of African-Americans today. That's the general narrative.

What Dr. Joseph's book does is blow up this narrative by examining the Black Power Movement as a legitimate movement separate and distinct from the Civil Rights Movement. His book illuminates the import and continuing influence of Black Power, while remaining cognizant of the flaws of its leaders. The book places Black Power within a global context, showing that Black Power was about more than the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam. (He writes about 1955 Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung and Catros's trip to New York in 1960, when he made a point of meeting with Malcolm X.) Of course, the book DOES scrutinize the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam as well. Dr. Joseph highlights the stars of this period: Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton and Stokely Carmichael. In fact, this book makes clear that Stokely Carmichael is such a seminal figure that he's worthy of having a separate book devoted entirely to him. But Dr. Joseph also tells the stories of lesser known figures such as William Worthy, Robert Williams, Albert Cleage, Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez. He argues persuasively that Lorraine Hansberry's, "A Raisin In the Sun" is actually a radical play. He identifies the radical roots of King and he eloquently disseminates what Baraka meant in his essay, "Black Is A Country".

When you look in the back of this book, you see that it has a 22-page bibliography. Sources include interviews and oral histories, as well as extensive archival material. It's clear Dr. Joseph has done his homework. Yet, when you read it, the book does not come off as an inaccessible ivory tower product full of incomprehensible jargon. He presents the story of Black Power as a gripping narrative. He shows the reader that, in a nutshell, the Black Power Movement provides lessons for today's generation of activists. When I read this book, I couldn't believe that no one thought to write such a book before now- a book that treats Black Power as seriously as "Bearing The Cross", "Parting The Waters", "Pillar Of Fire" and "At Canaan's Edge" treat the Civil Rights Era. If you want insight into the humanity of iconic Black Power figures and a clearer picture of the struggle that continues today, this book is the place to start.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Dusk 'Til Dawn, September 3, 2006

By 

Submariner (Woodstock, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America (Hardcover)

Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour has something for everybody. For the casual reader who has a layman's interest in American history it's a very accessible view into an often overlooked yet thrilling part of our national chronicle. For the more serious minded it skillfully presents Black Power as a deliberate, complex and multifaceted movement worthy of considered treatment. Like a good drama the cast of characters includes not only spectacular icons like Malcom X and the Black Panthers but also lesser stars like Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) and a host of obscure yet significant figures in supporting roles. To top it all off, the scenery shifts from Harlem to Havana to Oakland with even more exotic stops in between.