*Please note: The exact date of this document’s publication is unknown.
Bayard Rustin’s influential pamphlet “Black Power and Coalition Politics,” distributed by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, critiques the rising nationalist slogan “black power” and argues that sustainable social change requires interracial coalitions with labor, liberals, and religious groups to secure economic and political reforms rather than separatist withdrawal or violent confrontation.
Amid the 1966–1967 rise of Black Power rhetoric in SNCC, CORE, and urban ghettos, Rustin published this pamphlet to counter calls for separatism and militancy, warning that rejection of nonviolent integrationist strategies would isolate the civil rights movement. He urged activists to harness the momentum of the 1964 Civil Rights and 1965 Voting Rights Acts by building a multi-racial political majority capable of enacting a broad “Freedom Budget” addressing unemployment, housing, and education.
Downloadable PDF.
Rustin, Bayard. “ ‘Black Power’ and Coalition Politics.” Pamphlet. Distributed by A. Philip Randolph Institute. New York, 1967.
