Monday, December 24, 2007

NATIONAL BLACK POLITICAL CONVENTION

NATIONAL BLACK POLITICAL CONVENTION The first Na­tional Black Political Convention was held in Gary, Indiana in March 1972. Attended by over three thousand voting delegates and another five thousand observers, the Convention failed to resolve differences between those blacks content to work within the traditional two-party American political system and those desiring to create an independent black party. Other differences which tended to disrupt the conclave were those over integra­tion and political cooperation with whites. Among resolutions which passed were those calling for radical socioeconomic changes in American society; a condemnation of American pol­icy toward the white regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia; a denunciation of busing as a means of achieving racial balance in the public schools; and a refusal to endorse any candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Similarly, the second National Black Political Convention was characterized by continued argumentation about the desirability of a separatist political party. Held in Little Rock, Arkansas in March 1974, a resolution calling for the establishment of a national black political party was defeated; the NAACP and National Urban League were criticized for not sending repre­sentatives to the Convention; a resolution urging the creation of a black "united fund" with the goal of raising $10 million by 1976 was passed; and African liberation movements were given a blanket endorsement.

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