Both the “New Negro” movement in the 1920s and the Civil Rights Movement fought against racial discrimination and worked towards equality for African-Americans in the USA. Their basic difference lies in the form of protest that each employed. The “New Negro” movement was envisioned and designed to be the new spirit of militancy. Right from the start, it was meant to be a militant protest. On the other hand, the Civil Rights Movement had always wanted to be a non-violent struggle.
Pan Africanism, the concrete and organized manifestation of the “New Negro” movement, called for economic self-reliance within the prevailing system where blacks were being segregated, all this amidst the fact that segregation was undeniably enmeshed even within the interstices of American economy.
The “New Negro” via Pan Africanism also aimed to establish an African Orthodox Church with a black Jesus and black Virgin Mary. The movement also called on African-Americans to return to Africa, either physically or spiritually. The movement essentially hated white colonialism and wanted self-reliance.
In the process, Pan Africanism gave up on the possibility of ever reforming the white society in the USA. What it wanted was to separate from this white society through the rediscovery of the black African heritage. The impassioned call was for pride of being black and African. Unfortunately, the movement ignored the American side of the African-American heritage. The goal was impossible to achieve right from the start because the movement wanted to establish an independent Africa right in the middle of America, and wanting to be African while being an American.
On the other hand, the Civil Rights Movement worked towards peaceful equality and coexistence for both blacks and whites at the ‘table of brotherhood’ as Martin Luther King Jr. aptly stated. The Civil Rights Movement that aimed primarily to end racial segregation in the South fought non-violently for the integration of blacks into white communities.
In other words, the militant “New Negro” movement was separatist while the non-violent Civil Rights Movement was integrationist.
Via Caribbean Impact
