Black Nationalism In America And The Nation Of Islam

Black Nationalism plays a significant role in the course of racial redemption byAfrican Americans. Similar with all Nationalism in the general sense, BlackNationalism reflects an ethos that is directed to power, freedom and prosperity of aNation. However, the social background that dictated the rise of American BlackNationalism endowed the American faction with stronger separatism and moredistinct strategies. The discussion of this paper on Black Nationalism mainlyincludes thoughts and practices that followed the separatist strategy and weredirected to racial redemption.This thesis offers an overview on Black Nationalism and attempts to examinethe origin of the Nation of Islam. There existed some early practices that wereunsystematic and sporadic, they are discussed nevertheless for their nationalistfeatures. Separatism was a common theme of Black Nationalism in the19C.American Colonization Society pioneered in practicing this theme. Apart fromseparatism, W.E.B.DuBois’s Pan-Africanism and Booker.T.Washington’s TuskegeeMode made active explorations on the theme of self-reliance. During the early20C,Marcus Garvey inherited all these Nationalist traditions and expanded them to a newheight. The Nation of Islam reflected the peak of Black Nationalism during the1960s for its distinct separatist doctrine and comprehensive explorations in allsocial-political areas. This thesis explores the relationship between the Nation ofIslam and early Black Nationalism, and especially how Garveyist ideologies likepolitical self-autonomy, black religion and black economy developed to influence theblack Muslim movement represented by the Nation of Islam.Also, the thesis examines the transformation and continuation of BlackNationalism under the leaderships of Malcolm X, Wallace Muhammad and LouisFarrakhan.