As in South Africa, black identity and protest against racial domination in the United States built upon earlier solidarity, culture, and shared experience. African-Americans were long constrained by repression and regional division, if not the ethnic divisions evident in South Africa. Over the long run, however, central state abandonment of Reconstruction, which allowed for heightened racial domination imposed locally, also provoked greater efforts at forging black unity as the basis for protest. Economic changes made possible by stability then further reinforced African-American solidarity and potential power. Black identity was affirmed, not received, in a contested process. Such identity consolidation had to and did precede actions by such a self-conscious group in response to resources and opportunities, the more conventional focus of study. And opportunities for mobilization were both taken and made, forcing responses from white authorities. Even before black protest reached its high point with the civil rights movement, the dynamic between state policy and black activism was evident.

Toward Racial Solidarity

Well before Jim Crow, blacks were conscious of their common distinctive experience and culture. They had earlier formed separate Methodist churches. But before abolition, the prominent identity among African-Americans was as slaves, and the pressing issue was freedom. Bondsmen engaged in various forms of resistance, and on occasion revolted. Most slaves or freedmen saw no option for or attraction to inclusion in American society.