When someone mentions "black power", there are certain people and groups that come to mind. I personally think of Malcom X, the Black Panthers, and the symbolic black fist raised into the sky. These are interesting associations to have when neither Malcom X nor the Black Panthers are responsible for the coining of "black power". Stokely Carmichael, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, is responsible for having first said it in 1966 (Levy, 481). Unlike the well-known civil rights movement, there is not as much coverage of the Black Power movement. This lack of information can lead to many misconceptions and incorrect associations regarding the movement. The best source of information about the mission of the Black Power movement comes from the creator of "black power", Stokely Carmichael. In "Black Power", a speech given at UC Berkley in October of 1966, Carmichael explains the views and goals of the Black Power movement he had formed and organized (The Carolina Reader, 247). The speech, as well as Carmichael's views, was seen as very controversial at the time and lead to doubts as to whether the movement would actually achieve any of its goals. Though the Black Power movement faced negative response from the media and the authorities due to its controversial views and rhetoric, literature covering the Black Power movement gives a new understanding of the influence it had in the late 1960's and continues to have today.

Carmichael's controversial views and rhetoric that guided the Black Power movement can be examined in his 1966 "Black Power" speech. Given at UC Berkeley, Carmichael explains his views and those of the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), a reflection of what he hoped "black power" could change (The Carolina Reader, 248). The speech blamed white society and institutions for African American oppression and asked for the removal of white involvement in the fight for racial equality (Carmichael, 248-260). It also attacked various politicians and government institutions, while taking a firm stance against the army draft and the Vietnam War. The reader can see here that Carmichael did not mean for the Black Power movement to be inclusive for everyone. He viewed African American involvement as important as Caucasian removal from positions of power in the search for racial equality and did not care about how people might feel about that idea. By examining the rhetoric that Carmichael uses to present these views, the reader further sees Carmichael does not care about how his movement or his ideas are seen. At the beginning of his speech he sarcastically says that "it's a privilege and an honor to be in the white intellectual ghetto of the West" in reference to the very university where he is giving his speech (Carmichael, 248). This sets the tone for his speech in which he attacks white intuitions and white involvement in civil rights agencies. Carmichael can say things like "white people across this country are incapable of allowing me to live" and "you need a civil rights bill, not me" (Carmichael, 248) to the predominately white audience at UC Berkley because he does not want their participation in the fight for racial equality to begin with. As a result, Carmichael's speech and views can come across as offensive and polarizing. After Carmichael gave his speech, there was a strong response from the authorities and the media.

The alarming response to Carmichael's controversial views from the media and authorities of the time reveal the disapproval that society's institutions held against Carmichael's views. In "Black Power's Powerful Legacy", a 2006 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Joseph Peniel describes the rise of the Black Power movement and how society's institutions reacted to Carmichael's views. Peniel first details the media response to the Black Power movement. He says that from Time Magazine to the Saturday Evening Post, the Black Power movement was condemned as a "racist philosophy", a "distorted cry", and worse (Peniel, 55). Peniel then describes the authorities' efforts to gather information on Carmichael, where the FBI had amassed around 20,000 pages of files on Stokely Carmichael in the hopes of prosecuting him for sedition (Peniel, 55). The Black Power movement and its leader had clearly come to be seen as a threat by the authorities and the press. With the press smearing the movement in the eyes of the public and the authorities hoping to take legal action against Carmichael, it can be seen that these institutions opposed the movement and did not want it to succeed. This institutional opposition only made it seem less likely that the Black Power movement would achieve any of its desired goals. However, literature of the time reveals that the Black Power movement was a lot more effective at achieving its goals than previously expected.

By examining literature published after the rise of the Black Power movement, the reader can see the changes in society that the movement influenced. In the September/October 1972 issue of Public Administration Review, Burton Levy wrote an article titled "Effects of 'Racism' on the Racial Bureaucracy" that discussed recent public agency changes that occurred alongside the rise of the Black Power movement (Levy, 479). Levy stated that multiple civil rights agencies had begun to appoint African American directors as opposed to the white ones that had been appointed before and also goes on to report the recent rise of African American city commissioners within various city governments (Levy, 483). This rise in African American appointments is one of Carmichael's desires for the Black Power movement, noted when he said that "black people must be seen in positions of power." (Carmichael, 253) Levy's findings are important because they show the influence the Black Power movement was able to have on the appointments of African Americans at the time. In his article Levy also discusses how organizations like the NAACP had, at the time, begun to employ less white workers. This is also something Carmichael wanted as a goal of the Black Power movement, when he claimed that they "cannot have white people working in the black community" (Carmichael, 253). These findings from Levy further confirm the influence that the Black Power movement had and the effectiveness it held in order to accomplish its goals, including the controversial ones that asked for the removal of white involvement in civil rights groups. Despite the opposition it faced, the Black Power movement had influenced significant change for African Americans in society within six years. Black Power's ability to achieve its goals at this time in the face of opposition would shape the movement's legacy and how it would be looked back upon in the future. 

The Black Power movement would become unable to influence further change in society it its later years, leaving its legacy in a questionable state. An analysis from the Civil Rights Commission highlighted challenges that civil rights agencies still faced after the rise of the Black Power movement, such as a lack of adequate staff and resources and a lack of specific civil rights goals (Levy, 484). However, Carmichael and the Black Power movement began to lose influence as the Black Panthers they had aligned themselves with broke apart, a result of factional divisions and internal drug use (Peniel, 55). Unable to respond to the "deepening urban crisis" with its leader traveling abroad for most of the time, the Black Power movement faded into obscurity (Peniel, 55). At the time of its demise, the Black Power movement served as a sad lesson warning of social justice movements smeared by angry militants like Carmichael (Peniel, 55). This ending reflected poorly on the Black Power movement, highlighting an inability to overcome later challenges rather than the change it had influenced within society. By only looking at the end of the Black Power movement, the reader receives a poor understanding of what the movement was able to do. However, Peniel explores alternative ways to look at the Black Power movement in his article. He reports that many members of the Civil Rights movement worked with the Black Power movement, with members of both movements often being supporters of both as approaches to racial equality (Peniel, 55). This report shows that members of these movements were just trying to help fix America's racial problems, finding later that there was no clear solution to them.  Having read these reports, the reader gains a new understanding of the Black Power movement. Carmichael and the members of his movement were not ineffective activists that needed to be feared, they just wanted what was best for their people, and were able to acquire some of it through their work.

Much of what is associated with the Black Power movement may be negative reactions to Carmichael's controversial beliefs and the movement's failures, but those cannot downplay the results that the movement influenced. The first work displayed the bias and distaste institutions held against the Black Power movement in response of Carmichael's controversial stances, while the second highlighted challenges that the movement still faced. Despite the reactions of the media and the authorities, the Black Power movement was found to have influenced the rise of African Americans to various positions of power both within civil rights agencies and outside of them. This was no small accomplishment to see happen only six years after Stokely Carmichael delivered his speech at UC Berkeley. Having seen these effects, it makes it easier to look upon Carmichael's ideas and beliefs as not controversial, but impactful and influential.

