A slogan popularized, though not created, by Stokely Carmichael during the James Meredith march through Mississippi in 1966. Black Power became the dominant ideology of the black movement throughout the second half of the 1960s, promoted by SNCC under Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, as well as by the Black Panthers. Black Power raised dread in the eyes of many whites, from southern reactionaries to liberal civilrights activists, who saw it as the death knell of an interracial movement.

Its most visible symbol, the clenched right fist, is most often recalled in association with the Mexico Olympics of 1968, at which sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos made the salute in protest on the medal podium. It was also associated in the minds of many with Malcolm X’s Autobiography (1965), Muhammad Ali’s rhetorical flourishes and with phrases like “Black is beautiful” which had widespread currency through the early 1970s, especially in music.