Black pride is a movement in response to dominant white cultures and ideologies that encourages black people to celebrate black culture and embrace their African heritage.[1] In the United States, it was a direct response to white racism especially during the Civil Rights Movement.[2] Related movements include black power,[2] black nationalism,[2] Black Panthers and Afrocentrism.

The black pride is a major theme in some works of African American popular musicians. Civil Rights Movement era songs such as The Impressionss hit songs Were a Winner[3] and Keep on Pushing[4] and James Browns Say It Loud – Im Black and Im Proud[4] [5] celebrated black pride. Beyoncés half-time performance at Super Bowl 50, which included homages to Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, has been described by the media as a display of black pride.[6] [7]

Beauty standards are a major theme of black pride. Black pride was represented in slogans such as black is beautiful[8] [9] which challenged white beauty standards.[10] Prior to the black pride movement, the majority of black people straightened their hair or wore wigs.[9] The adoption natural hair styles such as the afro, cornrows, and dreadlocks were seen as expressions of black pride.[9] [10] [11] [12]

In the 1960s-1970s, kente cloth and the Black Panthers uniform were worn in the U.S. as expressions of black pride.[9] Headscarves were sometimes worn by Nation of Islam and other Black Muslim Movement members as an expression of black pride and a symbol of faith.[11] Other women used scarves with African prints to cover their hair.[9]

Maxine Leeds Craig argues that all-black beauty pageants such as Miss Black America were institutionalized forms of black pride created in response to exclusion from white beauty pageants.[11]

The black pride movement is very prevalent in Brazil, especially throughout their poorer population, and it is found in the Brazilian funk music genre that began to arise in the late 1960s, as also in the called Funk carioca, that emerged in late