The Conspiracy of Civil Rights: 1968

After the regime change of 1968, which for all intents and purposes effectively re-installed the restrictive hegemony of the severely limited Civil Rights ideology, in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, the proud mantle of Black Self-Determination was once again under massive attack; no longer simply from without, however now the battle for the hearts and minds of the Black community was also largely engaged from within. In many ways, this was simply a replay, or to say it another way, it was merely a continuation if you will, of the Black on Black cultural / class / ideological warfare which had marked the concentrated Talented Tenth-US Government aided assault that had been launched decades earlier, first upon the strident voices of the New Militancy which survived the regime change of 1909, and then in a more direct manner on The Garvey Movement one decade later. The New York Boulee was formed Dr. Dubois had said in 1916, “in order to steal the Black professional away from the Garvey Movement”. Fifty years later, the devastating effects of this protracted class warfare upon the Black community had become patently clear.