
The historical piece I read was a speech Black Power by Stokely Carmichael. An Honorary Prime Minister of The Black Panther Party who wrote this speech addressing white intellectual liberals who were looking to hear the ideas of the party. But to dig deeper into why this piece was written the way it was I looked at two other historical books. One was the novel The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered) which was written by Dr. Charles E. Jones in 1988. The book brings together insight on The Black Panther Party’s achievements and downfalls brought to you through reference of other scholars and former Party participants. By reading the introduction it really gave nice insight on what it meant to be a part of the Black Panther Party and what were the risings and struggles that went along with it. And the second novel I looked at is Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) written by Stokely Carmichael and Michael Thelwell. This novel gave me the perspective of Carmichael’s early life to significant events he went through with the Black Panther Party. Mostly just crucial events that brought him to be who he was. By looking at these two historical novels it reinforced the way I looked at the text because they talked about what made him the way he is and how his values came to be the same as The Black Panther Party and this is clearly shown in Black Power by how he chooses to address the audience. 

It was important to look at what values made up the Black Panther Party because you had to believe in those values and tactics to be a part of the group. According to the reading The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered) you had to be strong minded, willing to be self-armed, and do whatever it takes to protect their “own kind” mentality. Which was not necessarily a bad thing because it brought food, shelter, and medical help to hundreds of people at its best. So, the fact that Stokely Carmichael was an Honorary Prime Minister of this party proves he held true to these values. These values come out in the speech as he more or less tells the whites that to help the Black Panther Party they need to stop being the problem. He blatantly blames them to their face and says they need to work on themselves first and he will worry about “his people”.  One example of this in his speech in when he says, “Now then, in order to understand white supremacy, we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom. No man can give anybody his freedom. A man is born free.” (314) He more or less says the issue is whites in this country. And this makes sense because it was his duty to be a leader and take care of his people so it made sense for him to blame whites. (Not saying it wasn’t our fault though back in the day because it most definitely was).  Also according to The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered) it was never the goal to integrate blacks and whites but more just bring equality so it made sense he was asking the audience to fix themselves and he would worry about the African American population. 

The next piece I looked at that gave insight into the way Black Power was written was the intro and the reading of Chapter 5 of the novel Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) written by Stokely Carmichael himself and Michael Thelwell another Black Panther Party member.  This book specifically talks about the life struggles of Carmichael and starting from childhood to how he became a part of the Black Panther Party. That is why I specifically read the intro and chapter 5 which is called “Bronx Science: Young Manhood”.  Where this chapter gives specific insight into Carmichael’s education and social school life which reinforced how he got to his position in the Black Panther Party. By the time he was in high school Carmichael was already studying science with a specialty in political science, and outside of that on his own time he was taking Latin. Making himself fluent in 3 languages: French from growing up in Africa, Latin, and then of course English. With having that skill set of grammar vocabulary, and multiple languages I could see how he was the one to be giving a speech being able to reach out to so many people. Just his educational background in general played a role that he started studying political science so young.  How he was going to this all white high school where he was an outsider which made him believe there was a problem with racism in America; land of the “free”. The chapter ends with his decent to college. All of this played a role into the speech he gave. His education and hunger for change was set in motion in these early years. This all makes sense as to why he was the one to give this speech.  

There is never any direct place in the speech where Stokely Carmichael says what kind of education he has or why his speech is so great, he’s just kind of there doing his thing.  By reading about his young adulthood I get something the speech cannot tell me and it just makes him all the more qualified to be up there. 

By reading these two other parts of these historical books it really has backed up my interpretation of Carmichael’s literary text. When reading Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture I got insight on how qualified Stokely was to be up there giving a speech between his education of language and political science, he was driven at an early age. Then from reading The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered) introduction I really got an inside look into the values of The Black Panther Party specifically how they liked to use more force in order to stop oppression. This then makes sense as to how Stokely Carmichael put together his speech addressing white liberals. He was not very cordial in writing his speech. But this makes sense based on the information I read because as Stokely Carmichael was the Honorary Prime Minister of The Black Panther Party and to be a Black Panther he had to hold their values of blunt force to get things done. Even in his speech he directly blames whites for oppression and instead of saying how they should help blacks they should help other whites to understand they are people too. The Black Panther Party (reconsidered) I could definitely see the applied values the founder brought upon the party, how violence was a prominent part of their movement and how it affected the whole party, and to why Stokely Carmichael would have this opinion of whites based on his Party’s experiences with whites. Knowing the background of The Black Panther Party is so crucial in reading this piece as you get to know why the speaker chooses to say the things he does, what values he gets from the party, his perspective on whites (even liberal ones), and knowing the background just helps everything make all the more sense. 
