Midnight Hour Chapter Summary

Waiting ‘Til The Midnight Hour by Peniel E. Joseph is a narrative history of black power in America. This is a book that attempts to talk about black power within the context in American Democracy. Peniel E. Joseph is also the author of Dark Days, Bright Nights, Neighborhood Rebels and The Black Power Movement.
Joseph aimed to write a book that was a different view on the civil rights movement that was being portrayed. This book was written with the purpose of giving a more in depth look on what was actually going on during the time of the civil rights movement and gave detailed descriptions of the multifarious events that were the cornerstones of the time period and movement. Mr. Joseph talked about everyone from Malcolm X to Paul Robeson,

giving a better view to the events. Throughout the whole book, Joseph objected to the one-dimensional appearance of the words Black Power and aspired to give that slogan a new, real, twenty-first century meaning by writing about the trials and tribulations that each and every African American faced on a daily basis and paint a picture of the thirty years that it took for African Americans and everyone involved to reach their goal.
From what I was taught throughout my life, I didn’t think that there was more than what I was being told. As I read this book I started to understand and piece together the various facts I was taught and for me this book brought everything together.
The Black Power movement began in 1950’s in Harlem and continued on for the next twenty years.

The book right away talks about a black suspect being beaten and an Islam man named Johnson X, interrupts and says “Why don’t you carry the man on to jail?” (Joseph 18). This just showed that the police and even anyone of authority did what ever they wanted to people that weren’t white and they got away with it. One officer went on to say that Malcolm X had too much power but I agree with the fact that people looked up to him and the discriminated people had someone to believe in and put their trust in because if not, they would be overpowered by the white authoritative figures that most of them, all they would do is suppress

them.
Joseph uses the word Forernners as the title for chapter one, which is a term, used to describe the people that initiated the civil rights movement. The people mentioned in this chapter were vital to the movement because they were the people that organized and molded the movement. 1954 was the year when everything started. Triggered by the Brown vs. board of education decision, many activists started coming out from the woodwork to help aid in the beginning of the movement.
Malcolm X was described as “Frozen in memory as the era’s progenitor, a martyred people’s champion whose confident exterior, fiery speeches, and perpetual youth would symbolize the historic progress and unfulfilled promise of Afro-America” (Joseph 295). From that quote I disagree with the unfulfilled promise part because throughout what was stated in this book, I feel that he did more than enough to fulfill his promise. He was one of the main people that were part of the movement and reconstruction of today’s society. I feel that the author put too harsh of criticism on Malcolm X because again from that quote Malcolm X stood for more than just being a Black Power Movement symbol, he influenced people, black and white to stand up for themselves and do what they think is right no matter what the consequences are.
One of Joseph’s main arguments is that this movement was a movement of self-defense. I would agree with that because if you’re being suppressed for that long, there’s going to be a change that’s needed. I think that the title “Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour” is very descriptive of the movement because, for me, the title reminds me of the Underground Railroad and how they would wait until the right time to make a move. For this book, the title represents the events that happened throughout history and how they waited for the right time to make their move.
Throughout chapter 8, Storm Warnings, I was surprised that there weren’t more events that led to more confrontations with Black Panther Party and people of authority.

I think that some of these confrontations were just mentioned in passing and weren’t described in full detail to give the reader a better idea of what happened. For example, the face-off with police outside of the Ramparts building on page 186 was more of a list of what happened rather than a detailed view. I feel like there was more that happened because I feel that if someone is pointing a gun at a police officer, the police officer isn’t the one to put down his gun and let the man pointing the gun walk

away.
Another topic that wasn’t talked about in depth, that to many was the turning point for the revolution was the assassination of Martin Luther King. I think that throughout the book, this should have been talked about more because King was a vital piece of the civil rights movement.
Joseph did a good job of giving a new meaning to Black Power by portraying each public figures contributions to the movement. The Black Panther Party had what the SNCC was missing which was a ruthless desperation into reaching their goal by any means possible. On page 214, Joseph states “Newton’s incarceration left the Panthers with a leadership vacuum.” Carmichael was hoping that the Free Huey Movement would help organize poor blacks in the urban north but there was no connection made about it from the author.
All in all, this book was a new way to look at the events that took place. I think that Peniel E. Joseph did a tremendous job connecting events and having them flow like a story, giving political figures point of view and how the helped the cause. He showed how “Black Power advocates embraced a different political radicalism altogether, one that promoted self-reliance, self-defense, Pan-Africanism, internationalism, and cooperation among blacks” (Joseph 303.) There were some points that I think were left out but in the end it all made sense.