When Stokely gave his speech "Black Power", he was able to create a certain mood with the way he worded his main points. Stokely had the ability to make the listener really think about a topic from a direction that would have never have crossed the listener's minds. When he spoke at Berkley University, he created the meaning of black power for the students simply by showing a different way to look at a situation. What the listeners did not know was that Stokely thought about the audience he was going to speak to, and with that information, he changed the wording and the tone of his speech to match the audience he was delivering it to. When the speech was given in 1966, Stokely's new view on nonviolence protests had also already taken hold and created a new meaning behind his carefully crafted words. With his new feelings on nonviolence protests, Stokely gives his "Black Power" speech in a different way because of the audience he was speaking to which changed what the reader took away from his speech.   

In 1966, Stokely was the national chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Stokely was like Martin Luther King Jr. in his views of how to get African American's fundamental rights without resorting to violence, which was how he became the national chairman. The SNCC was an organization, founded in 1960, that was dedicated to the civil rights movement and anti-racism through nonviolent methods of protesting. But by 1966, he had changed his view from nonviolent protests, to being able to used violence for self-defense reasons. . He was able to change SNCC's slogan from "We Shall Overcome" to "Black Power". This change caused the organization to be more about the African American's ability to get their rights by force instead of trying to find a peaceful way of getting the rights they deserved. Stokely started to blame all white people and changed the SNCC so that white people were no longer welcomed into the organization. This changed the whole organization to a movement of "Black People for Black People" instead of a nonviolent organization that just wanted equal rights. 

Because of this view Stokely now held, he had to be careful in the way he presented his speech. He knew that if he was going to give a speech that placed the blame entirely on the white people to a predominantly white college campus, he was going to have to present a speech in a way that the students would identify with, or with a completely unique outlook on the topic that no one had thought of yet This would cause all the people listening to the speech stop and really think about what Stokely was saying because it was a brand new look on a topic that was already thought to be understood. With as much press the civil rights movement got, Stokely's "Black Power" was a new opinion that makes logical sense would cause the listener to feel more open to agree with the opinion than not. This allowed Stokely to create his own meaning of black power that would spread throughout the United States and would make his view on nonviolent protesting the view that other people would share when using the black power slogan.

When Stokely gave his speech about black power, he wanted to create a brand new way to get the listeners attention and to get them to agree with what he was saying. To get the kind of response that he desired, Stokely knew that he had to create a special meaning of his words with the audience. To do this, he carefully chose his words, and even the speech he was going to present to those college students. With the campus being predominantly white, he knew that his tone would need to be able to convey his message that said white people were the main problem without actually blaming the ones that were listening to him speak. He made the speech "Black Power" specifically for that crowd of students, with all those factors in mind. "His ability to tailor his speeches to different audiences was one of his greatest talents" ( Churcher). Stokely was very talented at making his listeners share his views on things because he made speeches specifically for the listener that would make them think more about the issue than they would otherwise. If the audience of "Black Power" was not a predominantly white college campus, the speech would be worded in a different way, or maybe not even read at all. Stokely always made sure that the speech that he gave would be one that resonates in the audience the most and not just a speech that could be read to anyone. This means that he had to create a speech that would show his views to the college students that would stay with them for a long time. This speech would have to share Stokely's views, yet also mean something to the white college students that would not make them feel like they were being targeted, but make them feel that they would be able to help the problem. He did this by making "Black Power" a phrase as well as a speech. He made it a phrase by making it the basis of his speech, with the undertones that the white people are what really need to be fixed.

The way that Stokely both created his speeches and the way that he changed from nonviolent protests to something more radical affect the way that the speech is read. Without the knowledge of his changed views, the speech could be taken as something to make the audience go out and change the way that people are acting towards the African Americans. But with the information about his resentment towards white people, the speech seems to try to make the audience rebel against all white people. Stokely was able to get the students at Berkley to view the civil rights problem the same way he was able to change the SNCC's views on nonviolent protesting. This caused a big change in the way the audience would interoperate his messages in the speech, from what the students actually took away from it. The speech itself now has a more violent nature which made "black power" a "rallying cry of a younger, more radical generation of civil rights activists" (Biography). The way Stokely worded his speech is now more apparent with the knowledge that he chose these specific words for those specific college students. This shows that Stokely was able to, indirectly manipulate the audience into having the same thought process as he does. This makes Stokely seem more like a politician that is willing to say what he wants but in way that will make people think that he is right in his opinions than a national chairman for a nonviolent organization. Stokely was a very intelligent writer, shown by his way to make his audience feel the same way has he does without them feeling like he made them think the same way he does. He was able to accomplish that when he changed his speech specifically for the students as Berkley. He made the speech so that it would connect with the students, so that they would believe that what he said was the correct opinion and then they would think along the same lines.

With the information about how Stokely considered his audience and his change of views, it becomes apparent that he was a very strategic person when it came to what he wanted his audience to hear. His wording and phrases become more important than they appeared to be at first glance. Stokely gave his audience only what he thought that group of people should hear, so that they take from the speech exactly what he wanted them to. He was able to create a tone in his speech that would make his audience feel that they know exactly how Stokely feels on the topic, and that the listener feels the same way. He used his resentment for white people to make the topic of "Black Power" that the blame for all the civil rights issues should fall on the white people.

