
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is a very powerful piece of literature that is focused on black history in the nineteenth century in the United States. Similarly, Martin Luther King’s speech “A Time To Break Silence” marked a significant expansion of the civil rights movement. Both of these supplemental sources help me understand the widely acclaimed speech, “Black Power,” orated by Stokely Carmichael in 1966. In the span of 100 years, black history was stimulated with enormous events that changed black and white Americans in the United States forever. The nineteenth century text, along with King’s speech, support Carmichael’s claims with arguments and issues that overlapped this 100-year time span to create multiple links and relations in the black community and American history. 

The Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass brings into sharp focus the impact of racism in the United States. Douglas’s autobiography vividly describes how black people were abused by white people who held authoritative social, political and economic power. The Narrative highlights how slavery corrupted America’s cultural values creating the basis of racism. These points are delivered through personalized, highly detailed stories from Douglass’ point of view. His experiences with slavery, abuse, ostracism, and neglect demonstrate in vivid, personal terms, the impact of racism in the United States. 

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass expanded my understanding of Carmichael’s “Black Power”. “Black Power” emphasizes that an individual’s belief in non-violent protests can be altered into a “psychological struggle” for black liberation. This “struggle” was put upon black people by white people who are either ignorant to the reality of racism or they fully believe that they have and should control black people. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass changed my perspective on “Black Power” because it shows how history evolved from Douglass’s time to the time when “Black Power” was delivered. Douglas’s Narrative changed my perspective of the “psychological struggle” in Carmichael’s speech by illuminating how the effects of slavery were still present in society in Carmichael’s time. Realizing society’s stagnant nature and slow pace of change in regards to racism altered my perspective on “Black Power”. There were significant events in history when each of these pieces was created. When Douglass wrote his book, slavery was in full effect in the South, with freedom beyond the reach of most blacks and could only be obtained in the North. Black people had no rights and were treated worse than second-class citizens. By the time “Black Power” was written and delivered, slavery had been outlawed but its effects were far from gone across the United States with the Civil Rights Movement a major turning point in the 1960’s. Black people were considered free, but had little political power or social and economic opportunities. As a result, they were protesting, both violently and non-violently, to become full fledge citizens with all of the rights and opportunities that white people enjoy. Another example of a point in The Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass that changed my perspective on “Black Power” is that views on violence can be changed depending on a person’s knowledge. In Douglass’s narrative, he describes that the lack of knowledge that a person has can completely change the person’s life regardless of race. For white people, ignorance and arrogance can determine someone else’s knowledge and opportunities. For black people, ignorance and arrogance determines their knowledge and opportunities. It is important to see events through the eyes of black Americans in order to understand the motivation to write The Narrative and similar books, as well as to give speeches such as “Black Power.” 

Finally, King’s “A Tine To Break The Silence” provides a more contemporary piece that supports Carmichael’s arguments. Delivered at Riverside Church in Manhattan about six months after Carmichael’s speech, King was highly criticized for his remarks because he voiced opposition to the Vietnam War. While Carmichael had been a member of King’s movement, they had separated due to Carmichael’s more aggressive tone in “Black Power”. King moved toward Carmichael’s position in the Riverside speech by declaring, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” This links to Carmichael’s claims that the US is using blacks as mercenaries in Vietnam while denying them civil, economic and political rights at home. 

King’s speech was essential in understanding Carmichael’s points in his speech. Two powerful figures addressing the same social issues to two separate audiences helped me understand how powerful this social issue was, and still is today, and why Carmichael was so blunt when delivering his speech.

Both King and Carmichael created their oratory pieces during times of unrest between blacks and whites in the United States. Both were influenced to write by the very laws that wanted to take away rights and did for a certain period of time. With having both of the pieces being created so close to each other, they have such significant overlaps in themes. This changed my perspective on both pieces because even though blacks got more rights, like voting, the same major issues are incredibly evident. This is something that both Douglass’s and King’s pieces accentuated in “Black Power”: all were written about blacks being mistreated and were described by using specific examples of discrimination. The highly detailed stories of Douglass being a slave is significant to “Black Power’s” message that all are created equally and should be treated equally. King’s message at Riverside Church shows the power of Carmichael’s “Black Power” arguments and provides a more contemporary example of Carmichael’s influence on American race relations. 
