Meanings
black power1
- uncountableAlternative letter-case form of Black Power.
Black Power2
alternative black power
- uncountableA slogan and movement for self-determination for Black peoples.
1 more example
Meanwhile, Black Power groups such as SNCC and the Black Panthers were voicing support for the Arabs against Israel. This sometimes looked like a mere matter of black nationalism; after all, Egypt was a part of Africa, and black nationalist literature sometimes seemed to identify the Arabs as blacks fighting the white Israelis.
1970 June 8, Tom Wolfe, “Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's”, in New York Magazine - uncountableA slogan or movement of separatism for Black communities in predominantly non-Black countries.
I dey talk of Black power, I say (Water, him no get enemy!)
1975, Fela Kuti, “Water No Get Enemy”, in Expensive Shit1 more example
“Black Power” quickly became the controversial slogan for a movement that was largely perceived as rejecting the civil rights movement's nonviolent tactics and goals of integration in favor of a new ethos of black identity, self-defense and separatism.
2006 June 19, Peniel E. Joseph, “Black Power's Quiet Side”, in The New York Times, →ISSN - uncountableA slogan used to support Black supremacy.
Origin
From Richard Wright's book Black Power (1954), describing his travels to the Gold Coast and the rise of Pan-Africanism. In a US context later popularized by Stokely Carmichael.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
black power. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/black%20power
“black power.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/black%20power. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “black power,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/black%20power.
Source: black power on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.