Stokley Carmichael, a prominent figure within the Civil Rights movement, states through the above quote that when a man or woman is newly freed, he or she must decide what they are going to do with their life through defining “their own terms”. This is exactly what Stokley Carmichael is doing through his speech called “Black Power”, given at the University of California, Berkeley on October 29th, 1966. “Black Power” is a speech that confronts the issues of racism at the current time; Carmichael channels his anger with his passion for his people into the speech, which is what makes it so extraordinary. It is important that literary pieces such “Black Power” are perceived within a cultured and aware mindset, for if the reader does not understand the context of the text then he or she will not understand the full measures of the given work. The location where the speech was given and the audience it was given to plays a substantial role in the context of this piece, as well as understanding the harm and racially improper events that occur before the speech as well as the ones that would occur in the future.

The fact that this speech was given at the University of California, Berkeley is significant because the audience is made up of predominately white college students, which obviously plays a part in the elements of this speech. As a conscious response to the demographics of the audience, it is likely that they are unable to relate to the topics of his speech, since they are whites who did not face the discrimination that the black people were facing at the time; so, Carmichael uses his language to provide a common ground of understanding. This speech utilizes a both a formal and informal style; it is obvious that Carmichael uses a formal style in order to force the audience to respect him and make them understand that though he was once a slave, he is now an educated and respectable man – he is doing what he claimed through the previously stated quote. Carmichael also uses an informal tone in order to allow the students to relate to him. For example he calls the questions of Black Power an “intellectual masturbation”; from this, one can infer that he did so in order to catch the audience off guard, grab their attention, and maybe even make them laugh. The articles cited and explained in the following paragraphs offer both a cultural and historical context as they provide background into the Civil Rights movement; a time that played a major role in Carmichael’s life, which shaped him into the man he was at the time he gave his speech. In looking at the two articles about the history of the Civil Rights Movement with the understanding of Carmichael’s purpose of behind his speech, light will be brought to the many other issues of the time, the many leaders who fought for this same causes, and the idea that the fight is not over – at this point in time, it seems to be an infinite fight. 

An article written in 2015 called “Civil Rights Movement and Desegregation” focuses on the leaders of the Civil Rights movement and the people who lived through it. It explains that the Civil Rights Movement was fought through the lives of young people - activists for a cause that they were most passionate about. The ways young activists went about this fight that are similar to the ways that previous activists fought as well. Young people led the majority of the Civil Rights Movement at the time, most likely because they were the ones who would have to endure the trials of discrimination. The essays within this source are written by: “scholars and activists who describe and critically assess trends in the scholarship on the struggle for black liberation in the United States since the end of the Civil War.” It persuades the audience to think of activism for Civil Rights as a long process, not focusing too much on the years where it was most prevalent. This source is unique because it looks at all angles of the movement, not just the years of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, or just actions that occurred in the South; it looks at the Civil Rights Movement through a lens of reality, meaning that the people and the events that happened are looked at in light of present situations and issues. 

An article written in 2005 titled “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past” is significant because it does a great job remembering the past of the Civil Rights Movement, it references everything from the cases that were noteworthy within this time period, to the individuals that shaped the movement, to the effects it had on the people of the time. It references other emerging issues such as militarism and feminism as they apply to this movement. The article speaks about how confining this movement to the South causes the widespread struggle and emotion that followed to be devalued and desensitized. This article uses “racial narratives and dilemmas” as the main element in its argument that gender, class, and race all play roles in the Civil Rights Movement and times of desegregation. The author of this piece explains that she desires to both comprehend and bring honor to the movement as a whole; by her intelligent tone throughout the piece, she is definitely able to do that. This massive article is broken up into nine different sections, all of which explain and analyze a different aspect of the Civil Rights Movement. These sections all have different topics which range from a discussion of politics within this time period, to the effect of the Movement on following times, to the South’s way of dealing with the issues, to the extent of the movement, and to the Cold War and its effect on Civil Rights. As a whole, the author of this scholarly article perfectly examines every feature of the world before the Civil Rights Movement, during it, and after it. 

The first article spoken upon is significant in analyzing Stokley Carmichael’s “Black Power” speech because it makes his arguments feel more realistic, for, as a white person, it is sometimes difficult to view the events of the Civil Rights Movement in a lifelike way; so this article eases the tension of that struggle. Also, the fact that it is a scholarly article gives the audience more respect for Carmichael because not only will he/she hear of the terrible times from a man who endured it himself, but also from people who have studied these times tremendously and devoted such an extended amount of work to the research of this time period. The second article explained is such a valuable source in regards to analyzing Stokley Carmichael’s “Black Power” speech because it gives more background information to the subject and provides a different perspective of it. It forces the reader to view the timeline of the Civil Rights Movement as longer than the average person may expect it to be, it extends the struggles of the Movement to way before the Brown v. Board of Education case and past the desegregation of cities. 

Stokley Carmichael’s speech “Black Power” is a noteworthy speech in the timeline of the Civil Rights Movement because it willfully set a tone for what was to follow in the coming years. Not only did it preface what the future was holding for the Movement, but also explained the weight of the occurrences from the past nine years. Carmichael, being heavily involved in the lives of enslaved blacks, provides a distinct perspective into the happenings of the time – one that is very experienced and honest. Both articles provide background knowledge and credibility to the things Carmichael references in his speech, as well as a different perspective of the issues, which allows the audience to understand the Civil Rights Movement in a different light. When one views Carmichael’s speech “Black Power” with a cultured and understanding outlook, he/she will gain a more compassionate and accepting view of what the slaves and African-Americans as a whole, even in “desegregated” America, endured in the past times; this is why it is significant to read a work in context of the time period, for it is likely that the reader will have a more valuable experience reading the pieces. American religious leader and author, Gordon B. Hinckley, once said, “I do not fear truth. I welcome it. But I wish all of my facts to be in their proper context”.
