This study helps to fill a major void in the literature on African American politics, third parties, and mass movements. Established in 1980, the National Black Political Party (NBIPP) existed for six years and represents the most ambitious attempt by African Americans to establish an independent third-party movement. At its height, NBIPP had chapters throughout the country and had attracted to its membership a young, well-educated, often professional following which had been influenced by the black power movement of the 1960s. This is one of the very few book-length studies of this interesting and important movement.

Holmes focuses on a party chapter in Akron, OH, and examines the impact of party building on local mass movement activities an on the political development and continuing political involvement of party members. Utilizing the political process model and issue evolution theory, Holmes explores the linkage between mass movements and normal politics within the African American community. The book makes a very important contribution to our understanding of the current resurgence of black nationalism and how this resurgence fits into a more general pattern of African American politics in which the (sometimes antagonistic) interaction of mass movements and institution building serves to define the African American political agenda a select the elites who will implement it.

This book will be useful for students of African American Politics, Sociology of Mass Movements, and Third-Party politics. It will be valuable to the research in those areas, as well as the more general reader who is interested in the African American experience.