Black individuals have had a different experience living in the United States than white individuals. They have never been treated the same as a white person, first they were white’s property, then didn’t have the same rights a white person has, and now they are looked at and treated different. In Black Power Stokely Carmichael talks about how the US thought the Vietnam War was more important than the war on racism and how in the 1960s and 70s black individuals weren’t treated with equality because the color of their skin. Carmichael is proposing that black individuals need to react to how the US doesn’t think racism is a big issue, others believe the US should focus more on the war on racism, but not in violent ways like Carmichael wants.

During the mid-1950s there were two wars going on, the war on racism and the Vietnam War, whites treated blacks as if they weren’t even a human being even though they fought side by side in the Vietnam War. The Civil Rights movement started in the mid-1950s to try to get blacks equal rights and treated the same as whites.  During the Civil Rights movement, black people and white people lived a completely different lifestyle and it wasn’t strange. It had always been that whites were the first people that were cared for, then black people were next. During this movement, the Vietnam War was occurring with black and whites people going over to Vietnam to fight together for their country. Showing that white and black people are the same, fighting together and dying together. In the 1960s and 1970s blacks and whites were just starting to desegregate and some people believe they were being treated equally. The Civil Rights Act was established in 1964, officially desegregating whites and blacks, but to many people it was just a piece of paper. They still didn’t have to obey by it. 

With these two wars going on,  With these two wars going on Carmichael talks about how he wanted to make a change in society on how blacks were being treated and how the US breaks the promise of democracy forcing blacks to go fight with whites even though blacks have no rights. Carmichael thought how can you fight a war overseas, when there is one going on in the homeland. The Vietnam War in his mind shows the broken promise of democracy by sending black men who weren’t treated the same as white men. The US contradicts itself by breaking the promise of democracy forcing blacks, who have no rights, to fight with white people who did have rights. “Any time a black man leaves this country, gets shot in Vietnam on foreign ground, and returns home and you won’t give him a burial in his own homeland, he’s a black mercenary, a black mercenary” (Carmichael 320). This quote by Carmichael shows the anger and frustration he shows when talking about how black lives are treated completely different from white lives. The man gives his own life to his country and his country couldn’t even treat him with enough respect to give him a burial. This is how Carmichael shows the broken promises of an equal and fair life a black individual should get, but never got. They were promise to be treated the same as a white individual, but with how white people were raised, it never happened for black individuals during the Vietnam War. 

Samuel L. Woodard grew up a black orphan and became an activist in Civil Right Movement. He wanted to make a change for better treatment and rights for blacks like Carmichael, but he wanted to do this in non-violent manner. Woodard helps explain the Black Power movement, which is the three ways a black individual should response to mistreatment by a white individual. He believes that any black man who achieves above average education, income, and occupational status must exemplify Black Power.  Woodard believed this because if a black man doesn’t show these things, he will still be treated and looked at differently than if he was a white individual. Woodard then talks about how a black individual can show certain responses to dilemmas and conflicts such as racist comments and actions from white individuals. “The black individual can accept none of the values, he can accept virtually all the values, or he can accept only certain pivotal values” (Woodard 72). The first response is one where the individual doesn’t accept something from anyone, if he doesn’t like it then he won’t go by it at all. It is a rebellion type of lifestyle. The second response is for the black individuals to “whiten” (Woodard 73) himself up. “One should dress, walk, do everything like as if he was white, and not go by black, but Negro or colored” (Woodard 73). Woodard’s third response is a mixture of the first two. A black man can accept some of the values that white people propose, but also reject the ones he doesn’t like. 

 Woodard wants his audience to understand that black people can’t just sit around and wait for white people to start respecting them or treating them fairly. Black people must fight for that, Carmichael wanted the same thing. Carmichael talked mostly about the racism in the United States, while Woodard talked about racism around the world. Woodard also believes that to survive racism one must know how to response to racism. In “Black Power” Carmichael talks about how if black people wanted their status in the economy to go up, they couldn’t because they weren’t “human beings,” but Woodard said that a black person who wants to change but still believes in some of things the Black Power group believes can still be well educated and achieve at something they want to do. 

Woodard’s best response that connected with Carmichael ideas of black power, was his first one, showing that blacks got tired of being treated as if they weren’t the same as everyone else in this country. They must fight for their right to be or do whatever they want. Woodard and Carmichael both believe that a black man must stand up for his right to be a human being and not allow the white man to believe they are better than them. Another one of Woodard responses was a black man can show some values of “Black Power”, but not all of them. Woodard believes this response means that the individual is getting an education to help understand what is wrong with how black people are treated and represented. Woodard talked about how a black individual can response to some of the things Carmichael stated in his work “Black Power”. 

James H. Cone is another Civil rights activist in the 1960s and 70s. Cone wasn’t like Carmichael in how he protested, but he was more like Martin Luther King Jr. An African-American minister, he didn’t believe in angry riots, but in peaceful protest. ““Black Power” is an emotionally charged term which can evoke either angry rejection or passionate acceptance.” (Cone 1997) What Cone meant by this quote is that either some black individuals love black power and fighting for their right to be treated fairly like Carmichael believed, and other black men thought it just meant they hated white people. Carmichael wanted to blacks to take the dominant role in their relationship with whites and Cone believe some of that, but Cone wanted to do it in a completely different way than Carmichael. Instead of fighting like Carmichael and Malcom X for their rights, Cone would go through the force of God and religion. Cone and Carmichael had different ways of showing “Black Power”, but they both wanted the same thing, equality between blacks and whites. 

Stokely Carmichael wanted black individuals to fight for equality with black people, while Samuel Woodard believe there are several ways to fight for that, and James Cone believe violence isn’t the answer. Since the 1950s racism has been one of the most controversial issues, with many people having different opinions on it, and on how to react to it.  “Black Power” has risen to be been a big topic in the United States since the 1960s and it is still a big topic today. It has helped black individuals look to something on how to reaction to racism.  There will always be someone rioting and causing violence like Carmichael. There will always be someone fighting for “Black Power” like Woodard. There will be someone protesting, but in a peaceful way, like Cone, until everyone believes black individuals are finally treated the same as white individuals. 
