Black Power

noun

variants or black power

: the mobilization of the political and economic power of Black Americans especially to compel respect for their rights and improve their condition

—often used before another noun

the Black Power movement

Black Power salutes

black power groups/organizations

Examples of Black Power in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Last Poets, which originally consisted of Mr. Kain, David Nelson and Abiodun Oyewole, were aligned with the Black Arts Movement — the cultural corollary to the broader Black Power movement of the 1960s and ’70s — of which the activist poet and playwright Amiri Baraka was a central figure. —Alex Williams, New York Times, 18 Mar. 2024

Göran Hugo Olsson, 2011 This film utilizes 16mm footage of the Black Power movement in America, shot by Swedish journalists between 1967 and 1975. —Kim Gordon, Variety, 13 Mar. 2024

Arrested and expelled for asserting Black Power A key event in the struggle of 1970 was when the Black Student Union disrupted a concert on campus. —Debbie Elliott, NPR, 28 Feb. 2024

Remember, these were the years immediately following the 1960s, the hippies, Woodstock, the Summer of Love, the Black Power Movement, feminism, peak Vietnam, Watergate. —Chadd Scott, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024

Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (Peacock) MOVIE: The Reading (BET+) FEB. —EW.com, 26 Oct. 2023

Half a century later, during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements and 25 years after Woodson’s 1950 death, the association expanded Negro History Week to Black History Month. —Tobi Raji, Washington Post, 4 Feb. 2024

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and raised in Cincinnati, Giovanni rose to fame as one of the pioneers in the Black Arts Movement (BAM), which drew heavily from both the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. —Ken Makin, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Jan. 2024

Perhaps the most notable absence in the Rustin film—and in much of the writing about him—is the scale and the significance of his dispute with Malcolm X and, later, with the Black Power movement. —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1954, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

black power

noun

often capitalized B&P

: the use of the political and economic power of American blacks especially to achieve racial fairness