Stokely Carmichael Biography

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“Ready for the revolution!” Stokely Carmichael, also known as Kwame Ture, was born in the Port of Spain, Trinidad, on June 29, 1941. He is best known for his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement as well as the Black Power Movement during the 1960’s. Carmichael began his journey to becoming a prominent figure in African-American History when he was accepted into Howard University in 1960, even though he had been offered scholarships to other prominent universities, Carmichaels choice was Howard, due to the fact that he wanted to stay close to the Civil Rights Movement and be around those that were active in it. This is where he would start learning and questioning the rights of blacks and the treatment thereof, and participate…show more content…
This would become more apparent after James Meredith, who started a March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson in 1966, to protest against racism, and subsequently was shot down . Carmichael along with others picked up where Meredith left off; by the time the marchers arrived in Greenwood, Mississippi; they were arrested by the police. After Carmichaels release from jail, he would make his famous “Black Power” speech in which he called for "black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, and to build a sense of community.” Even though this slogan had been used before by Richard Wright and others, this was a first for the Civil Rights Movement. From here, Carmichael’s outlook would change and he would start looking at it from a self-defense aspect and trying to rally young blacks to his cry for revolution. He started to unite these young men and women under the motto of “Black Power,” in order to develop real power within their community and prove to not only them, but also the rest of the nation that Blacks would no longer step aside and allow the Whites to continue to manipulate and dominate a system that would hinder not only them, but the Civil Rights Movement as well. Instead there were men like Carmichael, who used his eloquence and intelligence to convey to their community that…show more content…
In one year Stokely took the number of registered black voters from 70 to 2,600, but unsatisfied with the response from the major political parties, he founded his own party and called it the Lowndes County Freedom Organization and chose a black panther for its logo. When he became the chairman for SNCC in 66’, he pulled the organization out of the White House Conference on Civil Rights, stating that they were ignoring the real problems faced by blacks. This left other leaders of the movement questioning his tactics. Roy Wilkins director of the NAACP said that “ “Black Power” can mean in the end black death,” Carl T. Rowan said that “Black Power was phony,” as well as Dr. King disagreeing with Stokelys tactics, yet he still worked with SNCC. With the “black power” slogan appealing to blacks across the country and symbols for black power were showing themselves more each day (the raised fist above the head) the strength of the movement was growing. Even though whites were afraid of Carmichael, he felt as if people did not understand his views, so he helped write a book explaining them titled Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America. As its chairman, Carmichael continued to help support and organize the group, helping it to grow nationwide, but as the Civil Rights Movement
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