White power
White power is a white supremacist political slogan. The slogan and its variations are a frequently used white supremacist chant. The slogan was originally used in reference to a kind of pan-white white supremacy espoused by George Lincoln Rockwell, unlike other types of white racism which prioritized Aryan or Nordic conceptions of racism, excluding Slavic or Mediterranean peoples, or traditionally American forms of racism that were anti-Catholic. The term is also sometimes used generically to refer to many different forms of white racist activism collectively, or as a particularly extreme strain of white supremacy. It is also the name of the movement and subculture that follows the ideology, the white power movement. White power as a subculture is active in both the United States and Europe, from which stems the white power music scene and white power skinheads.
The white power slogan was coined in 1966 by neo-Nazi political activist George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party, as a counterslogan to black power. This came with a shift in Rockwell's politics from Nazi racial politics to the white power brand of pan-white racial supremacy, which became the white power racial ideology. Shortly after its coinage, Rockwell utilized the slogan in a high profile counter-march to Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago, which resulted in coverage of the slogan. The ideology broadened the appeal of white supremacy in America and is popular among white supremacists following Rockwell. Rockwell propounded these ideas in a book, published posthumously after his 1967 assassination, entitled White Power. The white power ideology also influenced the development of white nationalism.
Concept and ideology
White power is a political slogan, a political movement, and an ideology, which serves as an organizing principle for white supremacists. Its original coinage was related to the concept of pan-white supremacy or "white unity". This is opposed to the previous conceptions of specifically "Aryan" or "Nordic" white supremacy, without a hierarchy of ethnicity outside of the umbrella of "white". The white power ideology also did not exclude Catholics. This ideology included groups like Mediterraneans, Slavic peoples, and other groups of white people then considered "foreign" to the United States, in its conception of the white race. The most important thing was that one be neither black nor Jewish. Scientifically, the idea of race is not considered to be a biological reality and ideas of race vary greatly. Though this white power ideology arose out of American neo-Nazism, it differed from the established racial ideas of contemporary American white racists, who were instead entirely Protestant and more focused on Nativism. It also differed from Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party's idea of race, which was only focused on Nordic-Germanic peoples as the "master race" and had other European ethnic groups at varying levels on a hierarchy of race.Outside of its usage as a slogan, the original Rockwell definition of white power is not universal and many alternative definitions exist, several of which conflate or equate it with other, similar terms, or distinguish them. It is sometimes used as the overarching term for the many different types of white racist ideologies. Patricia Ventura and Edward Chan defined white power as "the current extremist form of white supremacy" and also to refer to a "conglomeration of ideologies and activities commonly designated as white supremacy, white nationalism, white separatism, ethnonationalism, and the far right". Scholar Kathleen Belew defined the white power movement more generally to refer to "the social movement that brought together members of the Klan, militias, radical tax resisters, white separatists, neo-Nazis,and proponents of white theologies such as Christian Identity, Odinism, and Dualism between 1975 and 1995", also referred to as the racist right, white nationalists, white separatists, or white supremacists. She drew a distinction between white nationalism and this definition of white power, with white nationalists desiring a less violent outcome. According to Betty A. Dobratz and Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile, white supremacist John C. Sigler III said it was "a generic term denoting a pro-white position".
History
Coinage and development
The term "white power" and the associated ideology were coined in 1966 by neo-Nazi political activist George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party. At the time, the slogan black power and the associated raised fist symbolism, popularized by Stokely Carmichael and used by the black nationalist movement, was making the news nationwide. This frightened many white people and provided fuel for militant racists across the United States. Rockwell, seeing an opportunity here, coined "white power" as a counterslogan and promoted the slogan, and related ideology, as a counter to black nationalism, and to rally white people around racism. Rockwell also called the ideology "White Unity". In the development of this idea, Rockwell was assisted by neo-Nazi Bruno Ludtke.This came with a shift in his party from explicit Nazi imagery to white power in an effort to give it wider appeal, something he had struggled with for years. With the slogan came the ideology. He had previously written of the need for the National Socialist movement to adapt and said that "white racial political unity" had to be their key goal. Rockwell justified this change from Hitler's racial ideology because, given the amount of immigrant white people to the United States, largely of Eastern or Southern European descent, any racist movement that did not also include and appeal to them had no prospects. A key member of Rockwell's party, John Patler, was also ethnically Greek, leading to disputes over his presence. Patler coined a slogan used by the party that reflected the white power ideology: "The color of your skin is your uniform."
The change in doctrine towards the white power pan-white ideology, at odds with the ideas of Hitler, was extremely controversial among Rockwell's followers and members of the American Nazi Party. Some members of the party, especially Matt Koehl, abhorred this change and believed Rockwell had been too influenced by Patler, resulting in a schism between several high-ranking party members and Rockwell: the Rockwell "White Unity" faction, which believed in pan-white white supremacy, and Koehl's "Aryan Unity" one, which kept strictly to Hitler's original racial ideas. This schism was ultimately resolved and Rockwell's side won out.
1966 White Power marches
By mid-1966, the white power slogan had been adopted by white supremacists across the United States. That year, Martin Luther King Jr. and his supporters were marching for racially integrated housing in Chicago, then one of the biggest segregated cities in the Northern United States, as the Chicago Freedom Movement; this came at a time when King's political advances had slowed, and he was seeking proof that his peaceful strategy was more effective, rather than a militant one. Rockwell saw this as an opportunity to test the white power tactic, with Chicago's working class being made up of white working class people of largely Slavic and Mediterranean immigrant origin who he expected to put up resistance to King. In response, the ANP organized "White Power" marches there to counter King and his supporters.On August 5, 1966, King and his supporters marched in Chicago, and were met by resistance far beyond what they expected and what they had previously received in the Southern United States. Over a thousand people displayed racist flags, attacked them with objects, and chanted racist slogans; the most used slogan that day was Rockwell's "white power" slogan. The imagery of the white power slogan was heavily covered in news reporting on the march. Rockwell was a significant presence that day, distributing white power paraphernalia and cheering on the rioters with a megaphone. He followed King throughout Chicago and harassed him, resulting in large amounts of publicity for both Rockwell and the American Nazi Party.
The conflicts and white power protests continued through September, and ANP's Chicago area chapter continued to distribute white power materials; while they had previously seen little interest from locals, several picked up their materials. An August 14 protest in Marquette Park by the ANP resulted in what an attending police officer called the closest thing to war he had ever seen. The American Nazi Party received over in donations from the Chicago area populace. On August 29, Rockwell was arrested for disorderly conduct in response to his actions, garnering even more coverage. Andrew Young, an associate of King, said the response in Chicago was in some ways far more frightening than the violence they had experienced in the South. The response in Chicago depressed King, who later expressed to journalists that:
The Chicago white power marches were one of Rockwell's biggest successes. This was short-lived and surface level, with Rockwell being disavowed by those who had marched with him in short order. However, Rockwell, seeing the protest as evidence of the success of white power ideology, decided to change the American Nazi Party's name to the National Socialist White People's Party and to abandon the Nazi elements including replacing their slogan "Sieg Heil" with "White Power". He also began work on a book of the same name, White Power, and planned a new periodical for the NSWPP. In February 1967, during a speech at Mankato State College, Rockwell declared that "the only answer is white power." Rockwell was assassinated on August 25, 1967, by Patler. His book White Power, published posthumously, espoused these viewpoints, and became a great influence on the ideology of future white supremacists.