Liberation culture : African American culture as a political weapon in the 1960s civil rights movement.

This thesis addresses the use of African American culture as a political weapon in the
1960s civil rights movement. It argues that African American culture was an important
weapon for the movement and focuses on how the three major 1960s civil rights
organisations - the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Congress of Racial
Equality and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference - engaged with cultural
forms such as song, theatre, literature and art. It also examines smaller groups, such as
the Free Southern Theater, the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project, the Black
Panther Party and Us, and important individuals such as Guy Carawan, Robert F.
Williams, Amiri Baraka and Malcolm X. A particular concern of the thesis is the role
that education played in spreading the civil rights movement's message. Although based
in historical method, it is also grounded in cultural theory, addressing Antonio
Gramsci's conception of hegemony and oppositional culture and incorporating ideas of
identity and memory.
It presents SNCC's 1964 Summer Project as a central event of the civil rights
movement, where the relationship between education, culture and the movement
peaked. In doing so, the thesis addresses the periodisation of the movement, suggesting
that 1964 be interpreted as the turning point of the movement. Implicit in the thesis is
the relationship between the civil rights organisations and the North. The thesis argues
that the movement started to look north prior to 1965. It suggests that African American
culture proved to be a unifying force between the 'Civil Rights' and 'Black Power' eras
and examines events and individuals that straddled both periods. It therefore proposes
that the relationship between these historical phenomena be re-examined and that Black
Power be reassessed as an outgrowth of the civil rights movement.