
Throughout history there has been many events which have influenced how writers decide to structure their works. The Assassination of Malcolm X and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee shaped the ideas of how Stokely Carmichael decided to compose his “Black Power” speech.  The Black Power Movement (BPM) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) are significant to this text because they contextualize the content of Carmichael’s “Black Power” speech.  With the texts “New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture” and “The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: Rise and Fall of a Redemptive Organization” they show how exactly Carmichael was thinking, like what created his attitude and tone towards the audience while he was delivering his speech.

Stokely Carmichael was someone who sparked the Black Power Movement and was also a chairman in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.  Carmichael’s ideas of the Black Power Movement began shortly after Malcolm X was assassinated and it changed his views.  He believed that he should step away from the idea of Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent approach and focus more so on self-defense.  In 1967 Carmichael became the Honorary Prime Minister of the Black Power Movement.  In Stokely Carmichaels “Black Power” speech which was delivered at UC Berkley in October of 1966 included the idea that people in the American institutions should be replaced.  Carmichael wanted to end the oppression in the political systems in American. In his speech, he says that the people that have the power of these American institutions are “sick”.  In “A New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and The American Culture” describes how the Black Power Movement was to embrace the African American culture and to encourage the empowerment of African Americans.  In Carmichael’s “Black Power” speech in the first paragraph he says “In 1968 I’m going to run for President of the United States.  I just can’t make it, ‘cause I wasn’t born in the United States” (Carmichael 313). With this quote, it shows how he was interested in making a change and trying to provide an example of empowerment to African Americans.  Carmichael believed that African American involvement in the American institutions would cause integration and slowly begin to fix the occurring problems.

Carmichael shows support of his claim by already going ahead and stating that America is racist by saying, “Seems to me that the institutions that function in this country are clearly racist, and that they're built upon racism” (Carmichael 314).  This is another example of why he believes that the people in control of the institutions in America should be replaced.  Then after this quote Carmichael releases a series of questions that suggest ways to get rid of the racism in the country.  In Deburg’s writing he displays an example of some of the opportunities that African Americans began to gain in America when telling how John A. Williams set out to travel America to do a survey of the country.  He tells how he surprisingly only denied lodging once throughout his fifteen thousand miles of travel and the jobs in Atlanta and Kentucky.  But then he quickly switches and says, “Upon entering the South, Williams was warned to ‘watch your step, keep your tongue in your head, and remember where you are” (Deburg30).  This shows how racism was still very strong in America and was still a problem.  This is another reason why Carmichael wants to exchange the corrupted individuals controlling American institutions with new people to slowly fix the issues that are America. 

Even though SNCC was a Civil Rights organization, problems existed with other Civil Rights organizations which was not positive for the movement.  However, not only did the organization have its problems with the other organizations, it also contained problems within the organization.  Carmichael could have helped avoid the problems of the organization be he was a chairman in the group.  This group differed from the other because of their audiences where not primarily African Americans. Carmichaels main goal with the organization was to potentially exterminate racism in the locations that it existed.

Carmichaels claim was supported by the Chapter in “A New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture” and “The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Rise and Fall a Redemptive Organization”.  In these two writings, the ideas of black empowerment were displayed.  The Black Power Movement (BPM) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) are significant to this text because they contextualize the content of Carmichael’s “Black Power” speech.  Therefore, these text support Carmichaels “Black Power” by providing examples of the problems within America.
