Libcom.org's reading guide on the American black power movement of the 1960s-70s and its key groups as well as some readings on the civil rights movement.

Maoist-influenced black power organisation, whose combination of community projects and militant image made it arguably the most important of all the Black Power groups at the time. It would eventually become subject to some of the heaviest repression in post-World War 2 America.

Black workers' organisation formed in 1969, based largely in the car factories of Detroit, it was formed of different Revolutionary Union Movements (RUMs) such as DRUM (based at the Dodge Main factory), FRUM (based at Ford) and others, they took on both management and United Autoworkers Union in fighting against racism and for better conditions on the shopfloor.

Islamic black separatist organisation which was one of the major actors in the early civil rights and black power movement.

A proletarian critique of the Nation of Islam - Melancholic Troglodytes - Pamphlet looking at the Nation Of Islam's history and evolution, the way it exploits its membership and its promotion of anti-working class, sexist, homophobic and racist ideology.

The transgression of a laborer: Malcom X in the wilderness of America - Ferruccio Gambino - Analysis of Malcolm X's development, from prison and the factory to the Nation of Islam, and his deviation from the traditional state-allocated path of ethnic leadership.