Reading Discussion Questions

"Waiting ‘til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America"

1) How did the "Meredith March" begin to reveal the changing tactical and ideological differences that were growing between the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)?

2) How and why did Black Power activists amplify the growing civil unrest in America's inner cities, as well as change the very nature of the expression of this unrest?

3) Why did activist feel that America's presence in Vietnam was hypocritical and why did the gulf between the government's Vietnam policy and outspoken political dissent increase?

4) How did the Black Power revolution actually give voice, rather than inspire the outrage of the masses from below?

5) Why did some people feel that Black Power(the written manifesto of Black Power philosophy) retreated from "an unsparing examination of the American political and economic systems?"

6) How did the trial of Huey Newton help to catapult the Black Power movement into mainstream American society?

7) How did Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver alter the image of the Black Panthers after Carmichael's departure?

8) What role did the FBI and COINTEL play in fracturing the effectiveness of the Black Panthers and the organization's ability to put their political agenda into place? Why do you think black nationalists continue to emerge today?