Mainstreaming Black Power

Mainstreaming Black Powerupends the narrative that the Black Power movement allowed for a catharsis of black rage but achieved little institutional transformation or black uplift. Retelling the story of the 1960s and 1970s across the United Statesand focusing on New York, Atlanta, and Los Angelesthis book reveals how the War on Poverty cultivated black self-determination politics and demonstrates that federal, state, and local policies during this periodbolsteredeconomic, social, and educational institutions for black control.Mainstreaming Black Powershows more convincingly than ever before that white power structures did engage with Black Power in specific ways that tended ultimately to reinforce rather than challenge existing racial, class, and gender hierarchies. This book emphasizes that Black Power's reach and legacies can be understood onlyin the context of an ideologically diverse black community.