What Was The Black Manifesto?

The Black Manifesto, written by civil rights activist James Forman in 1969, wasn’t just a call to action, it was a demand for reparations, justice, and power for Black Americans. Forman, the executive director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), presented the Black Manifesto to the National Black Economic Development Conference (NBEDC) on April 26 of that year, according to SNCC Digital. His message was loud, clear, and unapologetic: America—especially white religious institutions—owed Black people. 

The conference—which was partially funded by the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, the Episcopal Church, and the National Council of Churches—aimed to create a space where Black leaders could come together to explore ways to implement Black Power—not just socially, but economically. It was in this environment that Forman introduced his idea for a 2,500-word manifesto, a bold call to action that quickly gained traction among the 400 to 700 participants in attendance. United by a shared vision for progress, many saw the manifesto as a powerful tool to drive meaningful change in Black communities across the nation and around the world.

A month later, Forman put his plan into action. While reading the manifesto during a church service at New York City’s iconic Riverside Church on May 4, 1969, Forman demanded $500 million in reparations from white churches and synagogues across the United States. He argued that these institutions had either directly benefited from slavery or stood silently complicit while Black communities suffered under centuries of systemic oppression.

Land, Media, and Business: Cornerstones of the Black Manifesto’s Vision.

To make things right, the detailed manifesto outlined a strategic and ambitious plan to empower Black communities through long-term investment in self-sufficiency and cultural preservation. Central to the vision was the creation of a Southern land bank, backed by $200 million, to support Black farmers in establishing cooperative farms and reclaiming agricultural independence.

Forman also called for the development of major Black-owned publishing and printing industries in four key cities: Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York. These hubs, according to the civil rights leader, would serve to amplify Black voices and narratives across the country. 

“These TV networks will provide an alternative to the racist propaganda that fills the current television networks,” Forman’s manifesto read in part.

To protect the global image of Black people, the manifesto requested that $20 million of the proposed funds be allocated to the creation of a Black Anti-Defamation League. Additionally, Forman envisioned a scientific and futuristic audio-visual network with centers in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C.—a bold move to ensure that Black innovation and storytelling had access to cutting-edge media platforms.

A cornerstone of the plan included a national research center dedicated to studying and addressing the systemic challenges facing Black communities. To help bring these initiatives to life, Forman specifically demanded that churches and synagogues contribute $30 million toward this research effort alone.

Job security and Black business development were core principles of the Black Manifesto. The critical proposal called for the development of the National Black Labor Strike and Defense Fund,  aimed at supporting Black workers and their families fighting against “racist” and exploitative working conditions in the U.S. The plan also included an International Black Appeal department, designed to strengthen and support Black-owned businesses both in the United States and across Africa.

It wasn’t just about economics; The Black Manifesto also issued a moral challenge.

Forman called on white Christians and Jews to practice the nonviolence and justice they so often preached. He had long expressed frustration with the role of religious institutions in the civil rights movement, particularly criticizing the National Council of Churches for its conservative stance and for attempting to tone down the voices of more radical activists—like their objections to John Lewis’s speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

The response to the Black Manifesto was, perhaps unsurprisingly, deeply divided. While a handful of progressive religious leaders and white religious organizations expressed support for its overall goals, the vast majority of churches rejected its core demand for reparations. As noted by SNCC Digital, some predominantly white congregations voiced sympathy with the spirit of the manifesto but stopped short of endorsing financial restitution. 

Instead, they chose to expand existing charitable programs rather than directly fund the proposed initiatives. One notable example was New York’s Riverside Church, which committed to donating a fixed percentage of its annual income to anti-poverty efforts. Though some contributions were made to the NBEDC, most of those funds were funneled through the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organizing (IFCO) or directed toward smaller-scale projects in Black communities.

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