Legacies of the Cold War Historical Consciousness Of Black American Civil Rights Organizers

Abstract

Black American civil rights organizers were frequently forced to align with either liberal democracy or communism due to the bipolar Cold War order. During this period, any critiques of the US system were vulnerable to being disingenuously associated with communist rhetoric, which were then met with extreme scrutiny. This fraught environment required activists to adapt their strategies to carefully and covertly align with communist groups, as in the case of the Black Panther Party (BPP); or, on the other hand, to appeal to liberal democratic institutions, as in the case of the National Negro Congress (NNC). This choice resulted in drastically different historical
legacies of these two activist groups. The BPP’s successful utilization of communist rhetoric has left a lasting imprint on the modern consciousness of civil rights activism, while the NNC’s failed appeals to liberal democracy resulted in them fading from popular memory.