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Stokely Carmichael Research Paper

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Stokely Carmichael also known as Kwame Ture was a Trinidadian-American political activist who was best known for leading the civil rights group SNCC in the 1960s. Carmichael was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on June 29, 1941. His parents immigrated to the United States when he was two and left him to live with his grandmother and two aunts. At the age of 11 Carmichael rejoined his parents by moving to Harlem, New York. Both of his parents had jobs, his mother Mabel R. Carmichael was a stewardess for a steamship line and his father Adolphus was a carpenter who also worked as a taxi driver. With a great educational background Carmichael was selected to attend an elite high school named Bronx High School of Science. During the end …show more content…

Martin Luther King Jr. With time ticking Carmichael became frustrated with the slow pace of progress and having to suffer from repeated acts of violence and humiliation at the hands of white police officers without recourse. In May 1966, he was elected national chairman of SNCC. Due to Carmichaels frustration he started to lose faith in the theory of nonviolent resistance. When he became chairman, he attempted to turn SNCC in a different direction. Carmichael made it clear that white members, were no longer welcome. A highlighted moment in Carmichael’s tenure as chairman and also his life came a couple weeks after taking over a leadership role in the organization. In the summer of 1966, James Meredith, launched the "Walk Against Fear" from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. Approximately 20 miles into Mississippi, Meredith was shot and wounded and was unable to continue. Carmichael came up with the idea to have SNCC volunteers continue on with march in his place, when reaching Greenwood, Mississippi on June 16, an enraged Carmichael gave a speech which he would always be remembered by forever. "We been saying 'freedom' for six years [...] what we are going to start saying now is 'Black Power'". This is where the phrase "Black Power" became …show more content…

This was not only popular in the United States but was used as a form of resistance to European imperialism in Africa. Carmichael released a book in 1968 named Black Power: Politics of Liberation, where he was able to explain the meaning of black power. "It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.'' Carmichael shows how he breaks away from Kings doctrine of nonviolence and the goal of racial integration. Now he associated Black Power with the doctrine of black separatism, which was something that was mainly hit by Malcolm X. "When you talk of black power, you talk of building a movement that will smash everything Western civilization has created,'' Carmichael said in one speech. Black Power became something that white Americans feared, Martin Luther King thought of it as an unfortunate choice of

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