The National Black Political Convention

[Isaiah Bradley]

of 1972

I just learned about this convention. I feel so disheartened to see the failure of the very idea/goal I always dreamed about and argued for. Now I realize that "black empowerment" is no longer a strong enough ideology to unite black folks of all tax brackets, education, political affiliation and religious belief

I now view the debates in the house of conscious threads as not a waste of time, but just another example of why it may be foolish and naive of me to think that it's possible to unite such a philosophically fragmented group. Each with their claims to want to better the community, but all want to be in charge/have it their way or they will not support it and thus undermine it...cot damn it

The illusion of Black unity was destroyed at the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Ind., on March 10-12, 1972. Attended by over 8,000 people, the convention marked the first large-scale gathering of the various currents in Black politics: radical nationalists, cultural nationalists, socialists, Maoists and Black Democratic elected officials.

The promises of continued support for the Democrats were not enough to stop a walkout by the convention's Michigan delegation. These delegates, many of whom were NAACP leaders and trade union officials, were worried that any association with the National Black Political Agenda would damage their relationship to the Michigan Democratic Part

ONLY 1,700 attended the second National Black Political Convention in Little Rock, Ark., in March 1974. Although there were once again several statements of support for an independent Black party sometime in the future, the convention reflected the politics of the few Black Democratic Party officials in attendance.

http://socialistworker.org/2013/03/22/the-national-black-political-convention

The disparate group included elected officials and revolutionaries, integrationists and black nationalists, Baptists and Muslims (the widows of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X -- Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz -- both attended). They met in Gary, Indiana, a majority black city where they were welcomed by a black mayor, Richard Hatcher. The one group that was excluded was whites (for that reason, Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, an organization that supported integration, criticized the meeting)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/milestones/m13_nbpc.html