Stokely Carmichael was a prominent African-American who was at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Carmichael was born in 1941 on the island of Trinidad which is located in the West Indies. Though he was a Trinidad native, at the ripe age of eleven years old, his family, including him, moved to New York City. Carmichael later continued his secondary education at Howard University, a prestigious all-black institution located in Washington, D.C. In 1964, Carmichael graduated with an astute bachelor’s degree in philosophy. It was while attending Howard University that Carmichael began to participate in social activism, as he was an active participant in numerous African-American civil rights protests and movements throughout the South. Perhaps his greatest achievement towards the civil rights movement occurred in the early 1960s, when Carmichael co-founded the renowned Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) In 1966, Carmichael was elected as chairman of the organization, and as such the philosophy of the organization was altered to better fit Carmichael’s personal beliefs. The organization was originally intended for the promotion of nonviolence protests, but later evolved into a movement known as “Black Power,” in which alternative forms of protest were promoted. Stokely Carmichael was also involved in other civil rights organizations in addition to the SNCC; briefly, in 1969, Mr. Carmichael was the “prime minister” of the Black Panther party, the militant sect of the civil rights movement. Following the succession of the civil rights movement, Carmichael and his wife opted to migrate back to Africa, and became citizens of the country of Uganda in 1973. As part of his cultural revival, Carmichael also elected to change his name to Kwame Toure, a traditional African name.
The Black Power movement was a political movement that spanned throughout the 1960s. The movement’s ultimate objective was to promote racial pride among African-Americans, as well as provide a sense of cultural identity and awareness. Critics of the movement often argue (albeit in hindsight) that the movement promoted “reverse racism” as well as encouraged further segregation between the two races. To the contrary of other civil right movements and campaigns in the United States, the Black Power organization did not want to attain unity between the races, rather they wanted to establish a seperate black society. The seperate societies would be governed by representatives of their respective races, and all aspects of their lives would be segregated. Malcolm X, an African-American Muslim leader who participated in the Black Power movement and was a significant contributor towards black civil rights in the 1960s, suggested that the black communities were suffering from internal turmoil and such problems must be addressed at the roots. Essentially, Malcolm X, as well as many of the Black Power leaders, believed that first and foremost, the concerns and needs of the black communities needed to be addressed before racial integration was a viable option.
Ultimately, critics and supporters of the movement alike agree that the Black Power was primarily a movement focused on establishing a sense of identity for African-American communities whilst allowing them to gain knowledge and recognition of their African roots and heritage. Those who participated in the movement would often wear traditional African clothing and attempted to reject the “new” white American culture, in order to revert back to their African culture. The origins of the Black Power movement are largely rooted in the progressive ideals of civil rights organizers who recognized a need for an increase in black political power.
The terminology of “Black Power” was first experienced in an SNCC march in Mississippi, in which protesters began chanting the phrase in front of nationwide media. As a result of media coverage, the phrase and its ideals began to spread rapidly throughout the United States. The term was a center of controversy, as many whites portrayed such ideals as a threat towards their race. Gradually, the Black Panther Party became the only organization strongly advocating such ideals, and thus the movement died following the demise of the party.
