The Civil Rights movement in America has always had its roots in the economic disenfranchisement of black Americans.  When the slaves were freed, the new citizens of The United States had no financial foundation to begin building their lives upon.  They received nothing more than empty promises from the government about "40 acres and a mule".  From the beginning of reconstruction, the question of how newly freed slaves would economically assimilate into American society was crucial.   Later in the twentieth century, when Communism began to gain popularity in the United States it would catch the eye of civil rights reformers looking for an answer to the economic inequality between blacks and whites.  The Civil Rights movement would gradually become more accepting of socialism in America.  Several prominent civil rights leaders would become supporters of communism in America.  When asked about socialism, Malcom X said that it would be beneficial to black people in the US.  Many other leaders would begin to indirectly advocate for its implementation in American society. In Stokely Carmichaels 1966 speech "Black Power" he advocates for white America to share their economic prosperity with blacks, or create a new economic system that would help to lessen the inequality. Both these options are socialism put into more digestible terms.  This speech was a product of a civil rights movement that had gradually become more communist throughout the mid twentieth century, and the growing realization that economic equality in America was an incredibly difficult goal.

After emancipation, the sentiment of the American government regarding the integration of these new citizens was largely capitalistic.  Any promises of financial support to black Americans was never delivered upon.  Early leaders of civil rights like Booker T Washington believed that "the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing." (Washington, 1895).  His school of thought was that blacks had the opportunity to start at the bottom.  They could then work up to the level of economic prosperity that was enjoyed by whites.  There equality would not come from any government handouts or welfare.  This is the capitalist ideal that has driven all of Americas history, that if you work hard and never give up, you will be successful.  The problem with this ideology in regards to civil rights, is that there are dozens of other institutionalized barriers that could potentially keep African Americans from succeeding.

Communism in black communities had been around long before Stokely Carmichael gave his speech.  In the early twentieth century, when a majority of black southerners made a meager living off of sharecropping, the communist party saw an opportunity to take hold.  Communism is generally most attractive to the people at the bottom of the socio-economic barrel, so when the communist party came through rural poverty stricken places in Alabama and Mississippi, they were able to put down roots.  They shared an easily digestible message for the sharecroppers: the government owes you something, and we will help you get it from them.  In 1931, when nine African American boys were accused of raping two white women in Scottsboro, Alabama, the communist party saw it as an opportunity.  The party used their legal wing, The International Labor Defense to defend the boys.  The party knew that these boys themselves were victims of a broken class system.  The party also knew that this could become a landmark case regarding inter racial justice in the deep south, and could use it to gain traction in the black community.  The communist party in poverty stricken Alabama would positively influence many future civil rights leaders, including a young Rosa Parks who attended several meetings and did some of her first advocacy work around the Scottsboro case (Kelley, 2010).  It was through this grassroots canvasing and organizing that the communist philosophy gained recognition within the black community.  

Communist ideals were the perfect escape for civil rights leadership from the perils of economic issues.  It provided a clean break from said issues through government assistance.  The civil rights movement had been no stranger to these ideas, W.E.B. DuBois had been an outspoken supporter of communist measures.  When he finally took the plunge and formally joined the communist party in 1961 he said that "capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction" and that "Communism -- the effort to give all men what they need and to ask of each the best they can contribute -- this is the only way of human life." (Kihss, 1961). The teachings of DuBois had a profound effect on many younger civil rights leaders, and this was no exception.  Many civil rights figures grew increasingly more sympathetic to socialism as time went on. When Stokely Carmichael that delivered "Black Power" in 1966, it was another step in his march towards communism.  

In Black Power Carmichael never outright gives his stamp of approval on socialism on communism.  Rather, he brings up systems and ideas that have their direct roots in the teachings of communism and socialism.  He makes several remarks that toe the party line regarding capitalism.  "The assumptions of this country is that if someone is poor; they are poor because of their own individual blight, or they weren't born on the right side of town; they had too many children; they went in the army too early; or their father was a drunk, or they didn't care about school, or they made a mistake.  That's a lot of nonsense."  Carmichael, based on this, believes that poverty in the black community is no fault of the people in poverty.  It is because of a systematic failure of the American capitalistic system.  He is saying that at its very core, capitalism in America hurts black people, because it only provides the illusion of social mobility rather than the actual means of accomplishing it.  

Carmichael believes that the current political system in America cannot serve black Americans.  It is too far removed from what it would need to do in order to serve the largely impoverished African American community.  He puts it plainly, white (liberals) Americans are economically secure, black Americans are not.  "Are the liberals willing to share their salaries with the economically secure black people they love so much?"  Both in 1964 and 2015 the answer to this question is a fairly resounding "No."  If the answer to this question was indeed a yes, then it would be pretty clear redistribution of wealth.  Carmichael then believed that if this was not possible then we must "...start building new institutions that will provide economic security for black people." (Carmichael, 255) These institutions that he describes are welfare states in which the government is financially responsible for its citizens.  This is a not so clear avocation of communism in The United States.  Carmichael would later go on to be the head of the Black Panther Party, a group with significant support for the American communist movement.  He would travel through the communist world; North Vietnam, Cuba, Guinea, and Russia.  He would praise the Marxist teachings of Che Guevara, and would publically mourn his death in 1967 saying that "The death of Che Guevara places a responsibility on all revolutionaries of the World to redouble their decision to fight on to the final defeat of Imperialism." (Sinclair, 67).  "Black Power" was an introduction to the communist life of Stokely Carmichael, and the culmination of decades of communist sympathies from the civil rights movement.

From early in the twentieth century, communism seeped into the teachings of civil rights leaders across America.  W.E.B. DuBois, even though he never officially joined the party until his nineties, preached the importance of dismantling capitalism and instating government assistance to impoverished blacks.  His teachings would go on to influence countless other figures in the movement.  The 1931 Scottsboro case helped the communist party gain footing in the black community.  Had communism in America taken a stronger hold, African Americans would surely have played a larger role.  "Black Power" can easily be viewed as communism taking hold in America.  Carmichael never directly advocates the ideology, but he suggests the benefits that tenants of it could have.  His speech in 1966 was the product of the communism movement in America that was successful in bleeding into the civil rights movement.  

