Black Power Praxis
Theory, Practice, and Activist Intellectuals in Detroit's Black Power Movement
A close look at how social movements rise and fall
Description
Black Power Praxis shows how four groups of activist-intellectuals—James and Grace Lee Boggs, Richard and Milton Henry, Reverend Albert Cleage, and a group of college students called Uhuru—shifted the consciousness and political perspectives of Black Detroiters in the 1960s and 1970s. By developing theories that they could unite with community-organizing practices, these activist-intellectuals turned the focus of the grassroots movement for racial equality from Civil Rights to Black Power. Following the 1967 Detroit Rebellion, these Black Power activist-intellectuals were already positioned to harness the energy that emerged from the uprising and directed it into the city’s first citywide Black Power organization, the Citywide Citizens Action Committee.
Even as Black Power theories became dominant over Detroit’s grassroots movement, their influence faltered when they failed to develop community organizing practices corresponding to the lived experiences of Black Detroiters. Black Power Praxis reveals how the relationships between ideas, practices, leadership, material reality, and consciousness drove the historical development of Black Power. Ideal for readers curious about social movements, Detroit history, African American history, and African American Studies, the book sheds light on how, why, and when Detroit’s activist-intellectual leaders successfully showed everyday people how their power might be used in transformative ways.
Matt Birkhold is Co-Director of the Visionary Organizing Lab, a learning lab that supports people to experiment with creating self-reliant communities and dignity-affirming organizations.
Reviews
“Matt Birkhold’s Black Power Praxis provides a timely and important intervention in studies of Detroit, social theory, Black social movements, and Black Power Studies. While historians have debated the origins, character, and periodization of the Black Power movement in the U.S. for more than 15 years, Black Power Praxis uses the lens of historical sociology to analyze the roles that activist-intellectuals played in the shift from ‘Civil Rights consciousness’ to ‘Black Power consciousness’ in Detroit, which in many respects was the epicenter for development of Black nationalist and Black radical thought and praxis from 1950s to the 1970s.”
- David Goldberg, author of Black Firefighters and the FDNY: The Struggle for Jobs, Justice, and Equity in New York City
“Black Power Praxis is essential reading for understanding the origins and character of sixties Black radicalism in Detroit and the impact of formations like the Freedom Now Party, the Group on Advanced Leadership, and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers among others. Matt Birkhold draws on his long, intimate relationship with Detroit’s activist communities, as well as deep archival research to expand our understandings of the city’s radical past and future.”
- Cedric G. Johnson, author of After Black Lives Matter: Policing and Anti-Capitalist
“Black Power Praxis is an exciting and innovative study that makes significant contributions to the scholarly literature on the Black Power movement, the history of Detroit, and Black radicalism. It shapes our understanding of the historical development of Black social movements and informs debates about current and future political struggles. Black Power Praxis emerges as a must-read book for those interested in the Black Power movement and Detroit’s recent history.”
- Stephen Ward, author of In Love and Struggle: The Revolutionary Lives of James and Grace Lee Boggs