ABSTRACT
The Black Power movement had a profound affect on the symbolism, rhetoric, and tactics of radical activism outside the African American community during the era of tumultuous political and social change in the late 1960s. Scholars have long credited the civil rights movement with fomenting the emerging liberation movements of women, gays, and others in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While the black struggle for civil rights undoubtedly affected the growing efforts of other marginalized and oppressed groups in the United Sates, it was the Black Power movement that had some of the most visible influences on the radical activists struggles of Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans, giving rise to a visible movement of radical ethnic nationalism and new constructions of ethnic identity. Young activists of all backgrounds had been impressed and inspired by the militancy, political analysis, organization, and symbolism of black nationalists and Black Power advocates. No organization influenced these burgeoning militants more than the Black Panther Party (BPP).
