Black is beautiful

This article is part of a series about
Black power
History Black Arts Movement Black is beautiful Black power movement Black Power Revolution Kwanzaa Raised fist events of 1968 and 1972
Ideologies African socialism Africana womanism Afrocentrism Anti-Americanism Black anarchism Black feminism Black leftism Black nationalism Black pride Black separatism Black supremacy Intercommunalism Pan-Africanism
Organizations African People's Socialist Party Assata's Daughters Black Guerrilla Family Black Liberators Black Liberation Army Black Panther Militia Black Panther Party Black Radical Congress Black Revolutionary Assault Team Black Riders Liberation Party Black Women's Defense League British Black Panthers Conscious Community Five-Percent Nation George Jackson Brigade Huey P. Newton Gun Club League of Revolutionary Black Workers Lowndes County Freedom Organization May 19th Communist Organization MOVE Nation of Islam National Joint Action Committee New Black Panther Party Republic of New Afrika Revolutionary Action Movement Revolutionary Black Panther Party SNCC Symbionese Liberation Army US Organization Weather Underground
People Angela Davis Assata Shakur Donald DeFreeze Elaine Brown Eldridge Cleaver Fay Bellamy Powell Fred Hampton George Jackson Gloria Richardson Hakim Jamal Huey P. Newton John Africa Malcolm X Marcus Garvey Martin Luther King, Jr. Maulana Karenga Malik Zulu Shabazz Michael X Max Stanford Obi Egbuna Robert F. Williams Rosa Parks Stokely Carmichael Wadsworth Jarrell
Works A Taste of Power Black Power and the American Myth Ten-Point Program The Diary of Malcolm X Revolutionary Suicide
Related Anarchism Black Lives Matter Black Power gang Black Power in the Caribbean Black Power in Montreal Communism Feminism Hutu Power New Left Political hip hop Red Power movement Socialism The Troubles United States civil rights movement White power Youth rights
Category
v t e

Black is beautiful is a cultural movement that was started in the United States in the 1960s by African Americans. It later spread beyond the United States, most prominently in the writings of the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko in South Africa. Black is beautiful got its roots from the Négritude movement of the 1930s. Negritude argued for the importance of a Pan-African racial identity among people of African descent worldwide.

The movement aims to dispel the racist notion that black people's natural features, such as skin color, facial features, and hair, are inherently ugly.^[1] The movement also encouraged men and women to stop trying to eliminate African-identified traits by attempting to lighten or bleach their skin.^[2] John Rock was long thought to be the first person to coin the phrase "black is beautiful"—during a speech in 1858—but historical records indicate that he never actually used the specific phrase on that day.^[3] Bill Allen, a freelance writer for advertising agencies, claimed he coined the phrase in the 1950s.^[4]

The phrase “Black is beautiful” is meant to uplift the emotional and psychological well-being of black people. It promotes the Black culture and identity, where the Black past is seen as an inspirational source of cultural pride. It affirms the beauty of Black people's natural features, such as their variety of skin colors, hair styles and textures, as well as physical characteristics.^[5]   

This movement began in an effort to counteract the racist notion in American culture that features typical of Black people were less attractive or desirable than those of White people. Research indicates that the idea of blackness being ugly is highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalized racism.^[6] This idea made its way into black communities themselves^[7] and led to practices such as paper bag parties: social events which discriminated against dark-skinned African Americans by only admitting lighter-skinned individuals.