ABSTRACT
On August 8, 1966, Robert F. Williams, the Black Power icon and former NAACP leader from Monroe, North Carolina, gave a speech in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, where he was living in exile. Yet, while the Black Power movement provided a major source of opposition to the war in Vietnam, its relationship with the mainstream antiwar movement was not always harmonious. Activists, commentators, and scholars have argued about the meaning of "Black Power" since the slogan first shot to national, and international, prominence in the summer of 1966. But to generalize, Black Power advocates can be divided into two camps: Pluralists and nationalists. Common to most iterations of Black Power ideology, though, was the idea that the African American struggle was part of the global revolt among people of color against US racism, imperialism, and oppression.
