The Universal Negro Improvement Association, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Black Panther Party ; Lessons for Understanding African American Culture-Based Organizing

This work examines the organizing models of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Black Panther Party. Literature on the work of each organization is examined to uncover the organizing theory underlying the efforts of each group. Components of Rothman's community-organizing analysis framework, including (a) social philosophy, (b) power perspective, (c) goals, (d) mobilization methods, and (e) change strategies, are used to analyze first-person nonfiction and scholarly literature describing each movement. The analysis results in a five-component framework describing a theory of African American culture-based organizing, which includes (a) a definition of the target community, (b) a definition of community problems, (c) empowering oration, (d) antiracist hegemony focus, and (e) strategies that challenged existing power relationships. This article concludes with a discussion of the implications for conceptualizing community practice in African American communities, social work pedagogy, and future research.