
Ever since there has been civilization and groups of humans working together to survive and better themselves, there has been conflict.  Racism has and will continue to be a problem for civilizations and cultures relating with each other.  As the total population on earth grows and as humans keep progressing with technology the interaction of different types of people all over the world is inevitable.  Today many businesses interact with each other all around the world and there are always conflict with people not being treated fairly.  In many countries people are treated differently and there are problems with the structure of the government and how fair it is.   In the 1960’s the conflict of equality erupted and people on both sides were fighting for what they wanted.  African Americans living and working in that time were not given equal treatment by the white community and thus they turned to violence to stop the unfair treatment.  One of the groups that pushed for equal treatment between races was the Black Panthers.  The Black Panthers was founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland California.  They pushed for equality between the races and were not afraid to get violent.  They would have and marches that usually took violent turns.  The presence of the Black Panthers and the effort put forth by most of the black community caused a change in the way we do things with equality in education and opportunity.  

Stokely Carmichael was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and later became the Honorary Prime Minister of the Black Panther party.  He was a very active person when it came to fighting for equality between races.  Carmichael wrote Black Power and read it to a mostly white audience at UC Berkley in 1966.   In his speech, he talks about how the black community are humans and they know the rights they are given.  He says that the white community had to make a bill to tell themselves that black people are humans and need to have these certain rights and should be treated equally.  “I knew that I could vote and that that wasn’t a privilege; it was my right.  Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived.  So somebody had to write a bill for white people to tell them “When a black man comes to vote, don’t bother him.” That bill, again, was for white people, not for black people” (Carmichael 315).  Carmichael talks about the history of the relationship between the white and black race and how it has never been an equal two-way street.  He talks about the power in this country being used mainly for the white population and not equally distributed to all citizens.  Equality in higher education along with many other things were big problems in the 1960’s between blacks and whites.  At that time the black community was suffering; they were poor, uneducated, and unemployed.  Education was the backbone for the war on poverty and the white community was not allowing blacks the same opportunity, keeping them in poverty and unable to succeed as that of a white man.  In Bethanie L. Rodgers “Teaching and Social Reform in the 1960’s: Lessons from National Teacher Corps Oral Histories,” she talks about the teachers that were at work while the schooling system was undergoing changes.  “As widely perceived at the time, existing teachers were not up to the task of successfully educating "disadvantaged" students” (Rodgers 44).  The National Teacher Corps would be the solution to this problem by finding more teachers that are capable of teaching students that have a low income and are minorities.  The NTC was looking for teachers with no experience or education training, people who normally wouldn’t be teachers people with liberal arts degrees that could teach these unequipped kids.  In hopes of upgrading the image of teaching as low-wage, women's work or work pursued by those who had few other options, the NTC meant to attract empowered young people who had earned liberal arts degrees from elite colleges and universities and who could have chosen any number of prestigious careers, unlike the typical teacher candidate who had graduated from a teachers college or with an education major” (Rodgers 44).  This process of hiring new types of teachers so that all kinds of students born in the U. S. can be taught properly is a small start but a very important accomplishment that will further the movement to equality in education and opportunity between the races.

Carmichael being a part of the Black Panthers was very influential on the methods used to get people aware of the unfairness and inequality that is going on in the country.  He brings up many cases of the white community mistreating blacks and keeping them inferior so that they can always have power over them.  “This country is a nation of thieves.  It has stole everything it has, beginning with black people, beginning with black people” (Carmichael 320).  To change this, they had to fight to make a change in the way they felt necessary, which was through violence in order to receive the equality they deserved.  Members of the Black Panthers were used to do multiple tasks to help the black community grow without the interference of the white community.  Food programs, child care and education, health services, and other programs quickly came about after the Black Panthers grew.  One of the key components to the success of the Black Panthers movement came from the media exposing the activities that members of the Black Panthers took part in.  They go so far as to creating their own newspaper called the Black Panther newspaper which was seen nationwide.  “The Black Panther newspaper performed multiple functions, serving both as an internal organ and as the party’s public vehicle. It reached from the Panthers’ headquarters in Oakland to the national news media, to the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and to Congress” (Rhodes).  The main purpose of the Black Panthers organization was to get attention.  In any situation where someone wants a change that person will only be recognized if he gets the attention of the country.  The members of the Black Panthers were trained to be able to get the attention of the media by press releases, staged events, news conferences, and journalists.  The Panthers would practice their rights around and if someone tried to stop them they were not afraid to get violent.  By doing this it gets the attention of the media and makes the harasser look bad.

Inequalities have been present throughout history and will continue to be present in the future.  As a community, we have progressed and will continue to overcome difficulties and issues that come in our way.  There are still many problems not just with equality among blacks and whites but now between men and women, immigrants and non-immigrants, and the poor.  Being humans we are naturally born to overcome difficulty, as long as we exist and time still goes on we will face problems.  The true way people can succeed and be able to move on past the problem is if people work together.  It is a serious problem when you have discrimination and inequality of opportunity just because of the color of someone’s skin.  Eventually people will come together and stop fighting each other and fight the bigger problem.
