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This chapter discusses how black professional associational life developed during the Black Power era. Black professional associations emerged from a combination of two principal factors: unprecedented black access to both white-collar employment and higher education, and the Black Power movement ideology of “closing ranks” by establishing independent black organizations. The simultaneous rise of Great Society antipoverty programs led to a gathering of black professionals in both government and non-profit programs serving the black poor, which makes for an ideal case in examining the process of intra-organizational social movements (IOSMs). The chapter also describes the relationship between the action and organization of black social workers and the framing of the Black Power movement.

This concluding chapter revisits popular conceptions of the Black Power movement, considering its role in the development of black professional associational life. It explores the idea of treating the Black Power era as a transition period in race relations. The Black Power movement created interracial interactions in established integrated organizations, and was the prevalent organizing frame for African Americans seeking change within them. While the civil rights movement took significant action against racial discrimination, it had concerned itself primarily with access to institutions that had previously been closed to African Americans, which is not enough. African Americans had to mobilize Black Power ideas, norms, strategies, and tactics within various organizations in order to devise organizational structures that promote racial equality.

This introductory chapter outlines the armed resistance of African Americans during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, otherwise known as the Black Power era. It serves as an entry point in the entire discussion of book, which explores black protection efforts in various southern and northern locales, and analyzes the evolution of armed militancy, the significance of tactical nonviolence, and the intricate relationship between self-defense and manhood. Armed resistance served as a significant auxiliary to nonviolent protest in the southern civil rights struggle. Such protective efforts helped local freedom movements survive in the face of white violence, bolstered the morale of civil rights activists, instilled pride in black protectors, and sometimes served as an additional means of coercion in the fight against racism and inequality, specifically against the Jim Crow laws.