Ebony in Exile: An Examination of Revolutionary Black America and the Cuban Influence 1960s-1980

In the 1960s Black America began to embrace an ideology of revolution shifting their civil rights movement from a peaceful reformist approach to a platform of self-defense and active revolution. This change was very much influenced by the successes of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and a relationship was cultivated between a burgeoning revolutionary Black America and a new socialist Cuba. The experiences in Cuba by Black exiles fleeing persecution by the U.S. government and oppressive hate groups like the KKK, infused the growing Black Power Movement with a revolutionary fervor and sparked a complicated relationship that lasted strong for over three decades. Through this interaction between the two radical forces, the language of guerrilla warfare was cultivated in Black America along with an active movement of revolution that promoted freedom, power, and self-love through armed struggle.