Ruth Turner Perot was a special assistant to the national director of CORE in 1967.

Black power to CORE means the organization of the black community into a tight and disciplined group, for six purposes:

  1. 1. Growth of political power.
  2. 2. Building economic power.
  3. 3. Improvement of self-image.
  4. 4. Development of Negro leadership.
  5. 5. Demanding federal law enforcement.
  6. 6. Mobilization of Negro consumer power.

Let me give some examples of how CORE programs the concept:

  • In Baltimore, MFU, an independent union organized by CORE, raised wages of nearly 100 members, workers regular labor unions did not want to organize, from $0.35 to $1.50.
  • Baltimore, CORE’S 1966 Target City, also demonstrated black power in the November elections. As a result of intensive mobilizing and organizing by CORE and other groups, Negroes switched 35 to 1 to vote for Republican [Spiro] Agnew over “Home is your castle” [George P.] Mahoney. Mahoney was defeated. We were so effective, in fact, that the Ku Klux Klan has chosen Baltimore as [its] Target City.
  • CORE ran eight Negro candidates for school board elections in Democratic primaries in Louisiana. All won, first time since Reconstruction.
  • Also—Louisiana (Opelousas)—Sweet potato cooperative. 375 farmers, 15 white, growing their sweet potato crops. This is economic black power. 
  • Watts, Operation Bootstraps, “Learn, Baby, Learn.” 12 teenagers, graduates of [a] computer course, have set up their own business, offering up-to-date skills for pay.
  • Freedom School in Baltimore and plans for Black Arts and Afro-American Institute. A place where black people can learn of history and contributions to world culture and civilization. Power of self-knowledge. Also in Baltimore, a leadership training [program] for neighborhood people.
  • As a result of CORE insistence, federal examiners sent to South Carolina and Mississippi counties. Result: registration climbed.

We believe that these building blocks will become a bulwark that will protect the next Adam Clayton Powell, multiplied many times over. There is no other choice. If power for the powerless is not achieved so that changes within its structure can be made, this nation will not survive. 

Source: “Black Power: A Voice Within.” From “Black Power: A Voice Within,” by Ruth Turner Perot in Oberlin Alumni Magazine LXIII (May 1967). From The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle, 1965-1990. New York: Penguin Books, 1991. Copyright Blackside, Inc. 1991.

Document 5.21.6

“Black Power: A Voice Within” by Ruth Turner Perot