Bolivian revolution (1952–1964) movement, among others, include Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Harold Cruse, Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti, Ed Bullins, Dudley Randall, Ed Spriggs, Nikki Giovanni, Conrad Rivers, and Mari Evans Two prominent contributions of the Black Arts movement are the growth of theater groups and black poetry performance Baraka, a prominent Black Arts practitioner, established Black Arts Repertory Theatre and School in Harlem Another prominent playwright of this era was Ed Bullins Unlike Ellison, Ed Bullins—true to the spirit of the Black Arts and Black Power movements—denied the whites in his plays Poets such as Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, and Angela Jackson experimented with verse forms with the intention of differentiating from white literary culture and thus asserting cultural autonomy Though the radical political agenda of the Black Arts movement was severely criticized by the later artists, the movement’s thrust toward cultural autonomy brought black creativity to new heights Eventually, the Black Power movement was increasingly met with violence from white counterparts Strict government measures such as Cointelpro and IRS probes later disrupted the activities of the Black Power movement Finally, though the Black Power movement failed to enact concrete political changes, it marked a crucial phase in the evolution of African-American politics on the eve of the civil rights era See also Civil Rights movement, u.s Further reading: Carson, Clayborne In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981 Cleaver, Eldridge Soul on Ice New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968 Dickstein, Morris Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties New York: Basic Books, 1977 Van Deburg, William L New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965–1975 Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992 Wilson, William J Power, Racism and Privilege: Race Relations in Theoretical and Sociohistorical Perspectives New York: Free Press, 1973 Sathyaraj Venkatesan Bolivian revolution (1952–1964) Beginning in 1952 Bolivia underwent a social and economic revolution, spearheaded by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario, MNR), a political party founded in 1941 and led by the economist Victor Paz Estenssoro and the lawyer and former president’s son Hernán Siles Zuazo The roots of the revolution can be traced to Bolivia’s 67 humiliating defeat by Paraguay in the Chaco War (1932– 35); decades of military dictatorship and politically exclusionary rule by the landowning and military elite; the country’s long history of class and racial inequality and extreme poverty among its mostly indigenous population; and the emergence of new leftist political forces from the early 1940s, particularly its labor unions, peasant leagues, and Marxist-oriented political parties Coming to power through both electoral victory and popular mobilizations, after 1952 the MNR instituted a range of far-reaching social and economic reforms By the late 1950s the revolutionary process stalled in consequence of mounting conservative opposition, growing factionalism and corruption within the MNR, and U.S support to conservative elements In 1964 the MNR was overthrown in a military coup The Bolivian revolution left an enduring legacy, with much of the popular unrest and indigenous political organizing of the 1990s and 2000s finding important antecedents in the revolutionary period half a century before Coming to power on April 16, 1952, after a wave of strikes and street protests, the MNR under Paz Estenssoro launched an ambitious program of land, labor, and social reform Establishing universal suffrage in July, the regime expanded the electorate from around 200,000 to over one million voters It also slashed the size and power of the military In October it nationalized the country’s largest tin mines and established the state-run Mining Corporation of Bolivia (Corporación Minera de Bolivia, COMIBOL) The act fulfilled a longtime goal of the Union Federation of Bolivian Tin Workers (Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia, FSTMB), founded in 1944 and led by Juan Lechín, the country’s largest labor union with some 60,000 members Following the MNR’s assumption of power, in 1952 Bolivian trade unions formed the Bolivian Workers’ Center (Central Obrera Boliviana, COB), with the FSTMB as its largest affiliate The COB exercised a major political influence throughout the period of MNR rule In August 1953 the MNR initiated a sweeping program of agrarian reform in an attempt to eliminate forced labor and address the country’s extremely unequal landowning patterns Before 1953, percent of landowners controlled upwards of 90 percent of the nation’s arable land, and 60 percent of landowners controlled 0.2 percent While not all of the provisions of the 1953 Agrarian Reform Law were implemented, in later years land ownership became significantly less unequal Peasant leagues, forming armed militias, exerted considerable influence