Black Power describes a broad, revolutionary sentiment that emerged in the waning years of the civil rights movement. It had organized elements, but in a general sense it refers to a proud, assertive, militant spirit among Black Americans, in particular young people, who either had not come of age under Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership or had become disillusioned by nonviolent protest, which in their view had produced only incremental returns. Black Power militants differed from other civil rights activists in their willingness to use violence, or at least the threat of violence, as well as their hostility to interracial cooperation. After Henry Marrow’s funeral, Reverend Vernon Tyson and Thad Stem duck out of the protest march when militants raise their fists in the style of a Black Power salute.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 overturned nearly a century of Southern legislation and custom by making racial segregation a federal crime in places such as schools and public facilities, as well as in employment practices and voting. In truth, the Civil Rights Act merely restored the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which required equal protection for all citizens under the law.