Black anarchism

This article is part of a series about
Black power
History Black Arts Movement Black is beautiful Black power movement Black Power Revolution Kwanzaa Raised fist events of 1968 and 1972
Ideologies African socialism Africana womanism Afrocentrism Anti-Americanism Black anarchism Black feminism Black leftism Black nationalism Black pride Black separatism Black supremacy Intercommunalism Pan-Africanism
Organizations African People's Socialist Party Assata's Daughters Black Guerrilla Family Black Liberators Black Liberation Army Black Panther Militia Black Panther Party Black Radical Congress Black Revolutionary Assault Team Black Riders Liberation Party Black Women's Defense League British Black Panthers Conscious Community Five-Percent Nation George Jackson Brigade Huey P. Newton Gun Club League of Revolutionary Black Workers Lowndes County Freedom Organization May 19th Communist Organization MOVE Nation of Islam National Joint Action Committee New Black Panther Party Republic of New Afrika Revolutionary Action Movement Revolutionary Black Panther Party SNCC Symbionese Liberation Army US Organization Weather Underground
People Angela Davis Assata Shakur Donald DeFreeze Elaine Brown Eldridge Cleaver Fay Bellamy Powell Fred Hampton George Jackson Gloria Richardson Hakim Jamal Huey P. Newton John Africa Malcolm X Marcus Garvey Martin Luther King, Jr. Maulana Karenga Malik Zulu Shabazz Michael X Max Stanford Obi Egbuna Robert F. Williams Rosa Parks Stokely Carmichael Wadsworth Jarrell
Works A Taste of Power Black Power and the American Myth Ten-Point Program The Diary of Malcolm X Revolutionary Suicide
Related Anarchism Black Lives Matter Black Power gang Black Power in the Caribbean Black Power in Montreal Communism Feminism Hutu Power New Left Political hip hop Red Power movement Socialism The Troubles United States civil rights movement White power Youth rights
Category
v t e

Black anarchism, also known as New Afrikan anarchism or Panther anarchism, is an anti-authoritarian and anti-racist current of the Black power movement and anarchism in the United States. It is characterized by its intersectional analysis of different forms of oppression, its skepticism of both authoritarian socialism and Eurocentric anarchism, and its advocacy of community organizing, armed self-defense and revolutionary black nationalism.

Black anarchism draws its origins back to the work of Lucy Parsons, who developed a form of social anarchism with an intersectional analysis and called for Black self-determination. After World War II, links formed between anarcho-pacifists and Black activists of the civil rights movement, leading to the development of an anti-authoritarian tendency within the latter, with some groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) adopting a decentralized structure. Anarchism also partly inspired the programs of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and fit into its intersectional analysis of the relationship between white supremacy, economic exploitation and political repression by the state.

Black anarchism as a distinct tendency first emerged from the radicalization of some rank-and-file members of the BPP, who were critical of the centralization of power under the party leadership. These people included Ashanti Alston, Kuwasi Balagoon, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, Greg Jackson, and Martin Sostre. Their anti-authoritarian analysis of the BPP leadership led them to encounter anarchism, which they adopted due to its anti-authoritarian commitment to decentralization and consensus decision-making. Upon entering the American anarchist movement, these Black anarchists found that White anarchists were often unreceptive to their ideas on anti-racism and Black autonomy. As a result, Black anarchists established their own organizations, dedicated to pursuing anarchist approaches to anti-racist struggles and strengthening anti-racism within the anarchist movement.