The making of the new ark: Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), the Newark Congress of African People, and the Modern Black Convention Movement. A history of the Black Revolt and the new nationalism, 1966-1976

Abstract

This study examines the history of the Black Revolt and the urban crisis, especially between 1966 and 1976, tracing the particular dynamics which propelled the writer, Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), into the ranks of Black leadership, and which transformed his organization, the Newark Congress of African People (CAP) into one of the most formidable Black Power groups in the country. The meteoric rise and fall of the hegemony of Baraka and CAP in the Black Revolt involved the unfolding of a cultural revitalization impulse--the Black Arts Movement; a grassroots urban social movement; and, a Modern National Black Convention Movement. This diverse Black awakening stirred all the basic social, economic, and political segments of the Black community to express their particular perspectives, concerns, and aspirations in the Black Agendas of the National Black Political Assembly, the African Liberation Support Committee, and the Black Women\u27s United Front. The study concludes that, contrary to the historical consensus, the Black Revolt did not end in 1968 with the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; instead it was transformed by the challenges of the urban crisis, and launched into a second phase, sustained by the Modern Black Convention Movement until 1976. This monograph is an oral history, based primarily on interviews with members of Newark CAP; secondly, on minutes, memoranda, and other documents of that organization; and thirdly, on the newspapers, journals, poetry, drama of the Black Arts Movement and the Black Revolt