A history of African American separatism in the United States

Abstract

This article analyzes the history of the development of the phenomenon of radical African-American movements classified as separatist. The roots of the phenomenon go back to the abolitionist movement of the mid-19th century, but most of these movements appeared in the USA in the 1920s–1960s, after the migration of African Americans from the southern states, referred to the “black belt” to the industrialized states of the North and their concentration in ethnically homogeneous ghettos of large cities with a disadvantaged socio-economic situation. Irredentist movements that appealed to the construction of African American identity based on ethnic and cultural nationalism, such as Back to Africa, which aimed at universal immigration of blacks from the United States, and interpreting the religion Nation of Islam, gained particular popularity. Separatist movements acted as a radical alternative to the Civil Rights Movement, and the figure of activist Malcolm X, who came out of the Nation of Islam, became a counterweight to Martin Luther King. With the development of the anti-colonial movement in third world countries, organizations such as the Black Panthers and the Republic of New Africa turned to the right of nations to self-determination and left-wing anti-imperialist rhetoric. The activities of other organizations, for example, the Black Liberation Army, can be characterized as terrorist. Later organizations, such as the New Black Panther Party, are often characterized by experts as “hate groups”. Although with the success of the integration policy, the popularity of separatist demands has fallen, the actions of African-American nationalist organizations in the conditions of polarization of modern American politics indicate that the forms of struggle of the African-American community for political independence in the future are not exhausted.