Stokely Carmichael relayed a speech at the University of California, Berkley campus in 1966. Carmichael's speech was given on behalf of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. During his speech Carmichael is given credit for coining the phrase "black power". While some organizations and people supported the ideas of the black power movement, others believed it would not help the advancement of African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. 

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was created to uphold the ideas and values of Civil Rights leaders like that of Martin Luther King, Jr. The idea of peaceful protest was strongly adopted by Dr. King. As the Civil Rights Movement progressed, students who were members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee started to become restless with how slow the movement was progressing. Carmichael at first agreed with the idea to keep the protest nonviolent, but in May of 1966 when he became chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he changed the ideas of the committee and made it more radical (History.com 2009). This idea of black power was explained by Carmichael as "calling 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." (History.com 2009) The goal of the black power movement was to end segregation, but to stop going about this idea of peaceful protest to end segregation. Carmichael believed that peaceful protest was no longer working, and African-Americans must take the matter into their hands and make integration happen. Carmichael once said, "When you talk of black power, you talk of building a movement that will smash everything Western civilization has created." (History.com 2009)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also known as the NAACP, was very prominent during the Civil Rights Movement in making sure that strides were taken to provide African-Americans amongst other races, religions, and backgrounds with equal rights. Following Carmichael's speech prominent members of the NAACP released statements regarding the idea of black power, and taking a stance that it was in fact not a movement they supported when it came to receiving civil rights and equality. The executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Roy Wilkins, made a statement following Stokely Carmichael's speech on July 5, 1966. Wilkins state "[black power] is reverse Mississippi, a reverse Hitler, a reverse Ku Klux Klan." (Hall, page 50) This idea given by the executive director of the NAACP suggested that the black power movement was very radical and would not be supported by members of the NAACP. Another organization that promoted Civil Rights was the National Urban League. The National Urban League, also did not support the ideas of the new and radical black power movement. They believed that the ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well were the right was about receiving civil justice (Hall, page 50).

While some African-American organizations did not think the Black Power movement was going to help progress the Civil Rights movement forward there were organizations that stood behind black power and based their ideas off of Carmichael's movement. The Black Panthers were created in 1966, the same year Stokely Carmichael gave a speech on the importance of using force when necessary to achieve the goal of desegregation. The founders of the Black Panthers were Huey Percy Newton and Bobby Seale. The two created the Black Panthers organization on the west coast in California to promote the idea of using violence if necessary to achieve their four main goals of: equality in education, housing, employment, and civil rights. (The Black Panthers, TheHistoryLearningSite.com). 

Through research it is now understood why Carmichael wanted to make a shift from a nonviolent protest originally endorsed by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to a movement of violence as a means when necessary to achieve the goal of removing institutionalized racism, which was caused by institutionalized segregation. During a time of nonviolent protest, although strides were made and eventually would have achieved desegregation in the end, Carmichael believed that violence when necessary would have sped up the process and made the progress of the Civil Rights Movement move quicker. When trying to understand Stokely Carmichael's speech it is necessary to understand why he is trying to persuade these students at a predominantly white university of The University of California Berkeley to help with his movement. Carmichael believed that progression was being made, but if it kept being made at a slow and peaceful pace then institutional racism would never fully go away. During the speech Carmichael addresses how white organizations stopped supporting the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, because they thought it was becoming too radical. At the University of California Berkley, Carmichael wanted the students that he was addressing to understand why the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee decided being more radical wasn't to cause problems but a means needed to reach an end. Carmichael in his speech makes note of one of the main points of the Black Panthers when talking about housing. He related how whites did not want to move to the ghettos of African-American neighborhoods and how without a willingness to move to those different neighborhoods by both groups of people then equality would never be obtained. 

Although older African-Americans did not believe that the black power movement was necessary to achieve civil rights, Stokely Carmichael's idea of black power was a force to be reckoned with. Many young African-Americans followed his movement and deemed it necessary to receive the equality they sought after. The Black Power Movement was known world wide, and still to this day is a staple in the Civil Rights Movement. 

