Black Power and Palestine (eBook)

Transnational Countries of Color

Michael R. Fischbach (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2018
296 Seiten
Stanford University Press (Verlag)
978-1-5036-0739-2 (ISBN)

Infos

The 1967 Arab-Israeli War rocketed the question of Israel and Palestine onto the front pages of American newspapers. Black Power activists saw Palestinians as a kindred people of color, waging the same struggle for freedom and justice as themselves. Soon concerns over the Arab-Israeli conflict spread across mainstream black politics and into the heart of the civil rights movement itself. Black Power and Palestine uncovers why so many African Americans-notably Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali, among others-came to support the Palestinians or felt the need to respond to those who did.Americans first heard pro-Palestinian sentiments in public through the black freedom struggle of the 1960s and 1970s. Michael R. Fischbach uncovers this hidden history of the Arab Israeli conflict's role in African American activism and the ways that distant struggle shaped the domestic fight for racial equality. Black Power's transnational connections between African Americans and Palestinians deeply affected U.S. black politics, animating black visions of identity well into the late 1970s. Black Power and Palestine allows those black voices to be heard again today.In chronicling this story, Fischbach reveals much about how American peoples of color create political strategies, a sense of self, and a place within U.S. and global communities. The shadow cast by events of the 1960s and 1970s continues to affect the United States in deep, structural ways. This is the first book to explore how conflict in the Middle East shaped the American civil rights movement.

Autor

Michael R. Fischbach is Professor of History at Randolph-Macon College. The author of four previous books, he was awarded grants by The MacArthur Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace. He has presented at numerous academic and diplomatic settings in sixteen countries on four continents.

Inhalt

Contents and Abstracts1Black Internationalism: Malcolm X and the Rise of Global Solidarity chapter abstractThis chapter examines Malcolm X's Black Power vision of global black solidarity in a struggle pitting the "black" world against "white" imperialism, detailing in the process his brief 1959 trip to East Jerusalem and his longer visit to Gaza in 1964. It then discusses the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)'s strong attacks on Israel in the summer of 1967—the first public Black Power stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict—as well as the anti-Israeli sentiments expressed at the National Conference for New Politics later that summer.2The Fire This Time: SNCC, Jews, and the Demise of the Beloved Community chapter abstractThis chapter notes the harsh white reaction against SNCC's pro-Palestinian stance in the wake of the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, notably among Jews. It details the attitudes toward Israel and the Palestinians held by two of SNCC's most significant national figures, Stokely Carmichael and James Forman, and discusses SNCC's defense of its position and the toll that this stance took on the group's viability3Reformers, Not Revolutionaries: The NAACP, Bayard Rustin, and Israel chapter abstractThis chapter discusses how mainstream civil rights groups and leaders reacted to Black Power attacks on Israel. It focuses on the Congress of Racial Equality, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the National Urban League, as well as the tireless efforts of the pro-Israeli stalwart Bayard Rustin.4Balanced and Guarded: Martin Luther King Jr. on the Arab-Israeli Tightrope chapter abstractThis chapter offers a detailed examination of where Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the great pains he exerted when expressing himself publicly on the topic. It sheds light for the first time on what King did during his 1959 visit to East Jerusalem and the West Bank, including how he was treated there by a local doctor and how he later lunched with the mayor and other Palestinian dignitaries. The chapter also discusses King's plans for an international pilgrimage to Israel and the West Bank that were dashed by the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.5The Power of Words: The Black Arts Movement and a New Narrative chapter abstractThis chapter examines how Black Power support for the Palestinians surfaced within the Black Arts Movement, among black writers and journalists, as well as at black political conferences like the National Black Political Convention. It also relates the story of a group called the Committee of Black Americans for Truth About the Middle East, who in late 1970 placed a pro-Palestinian newspaper advertisement in the New York Times in response to a pro-Israeli advertisement placed earlier in the year in the same newspaper by Bayard Rustin.6Struggle and Revolution: The Black Panthers and the Guerrilla Image chapter abstractThis chapter details the Black Panther Party's changing stances toward the Arab-Israeli conflict, starting with a revolutionary pro-Palestinian position stated by Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver in the late 1960s and moving toward the more moderate position articulated by Newton in the early 1970s. It also notes how the Black Panthers used the art of Emory Douglas to create revolutionary visual images depicting the Panthers as warriors in much the same way that Palestinian artists did for their people.7Middle East Symbiosis: Israelis, Arabs, and African Americans chapter abstractThis chapter focuses on the transnational relationship between American Black Power and the Middle East. It details how Black Power ideology spread to Israel in the "Global 1960s" with the formation of a Black Panther organization among Mizrahi/Sephardic Israelis in 1971. It also relates the story of various Black Power advocates who visited Palestinians in the Middle East, including famous figures such as the boxer Muhammad Ali and lesser-known activists who were invited to visit Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan in 1970. The chapter also dissects the rumors that Palestinian guerrillas were training Black Panthers in Middle Eastern camps.8Red, White, and Black: Communists, Guerrillas, and the Black Mainstream chapter abstractThis chapter lays out how Black Power pro-Palestinianism had begun to spread to other sectors of Black America by the early 1970s. On the left this included the Communist Party USA, as well as underground armed black groups such as the New Afrikan Freedom Fighters and the Symbionese Liberation Army. Black Power ideas on the Arab-Israeli conflict also began affecting hitherto mainstream groups like the American Committee on Africa and the Congressional Black Caucus.9A Seat at the Table: Bayard Rustin, Andrew Young, and Black Foreign Policy chapter abstractThis chapter examines how differing black attitudes toward the Arab-Israeli conflict impacted their visions of American foreign policy in the Middle East in the mid-1970s. It charts the continued pro-Israeli activism of Bayard Rustin and the group he formed, the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee. It pays particular attention to the embittered black response that emerged after the United States' ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, was forced to resign after secretly having met with an official of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1979.10Looking over Jordan: Joseph Lowery, Jesse Jackson, and Yasir Arafat chapter abstractThis chapter details the trips to the Middle East made by mainstream black civil rights leaders in response to the controversy surrounding the Andrew Young Affair. Joseph Lowery led a delegation from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to meet the Palestine Liberation Organization leader, Yasir Arafat, in the fall of 1979, just as Jesse Jackson of Operation PUSH did shortly thereafter. These were expressions of black insistence that African Americans had a positive diplomatic role to play in furthering the Arab-Israeli peace process. Although supported by various religious and secular black organizations, the trips to meet Arafat were condemned by other black leaders, including Bayard Rustin, who organized a delegation to meet with Israeli officials and reassure them of black support for the Jewish state.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 20.11.2018
• Reihe/Serie: Stanford Studies in Comparative Race and Ethnicity
• Reihe/Serie: Stanford Studies in Comparative Race and Ethnicity
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► 20. Jahrhundert bis 1945
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Europäische / Internationale Politik
• Schlagworte: African Americans • Arab-Israeli Conflict • Black Power • Civil Rights • Israel • Martin Luther King jr. • palestinians • transnational
• ISBN-10: 1-5036-0739-9 / 1503607399
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5036-0739-2 / 9781503607392