Stokely Carmichael’s “Black Power” speech, was a major contributor in the african american civil rights movement.  Many other events were also influential to Carmichael’s speech. This speech helped to set in motion many of the protests in California. In his speech, Carmichael talks to the students at the university about a variety of different topics from racism to the institution of war and politics in  America. Throughout his speech Carmichael also institutes a number of references to the african american culture and stereotype. These stereo types helped to make his speech have more power to his listeners. Helped by a numerous amounts of other speeches of the time and later works of literature like  Garrett Felber’s “Harlem is the Black World,” Carmichael’s speech was able to spark social change in America.

The influence of Brian Goldstein’s “The Search for New Forms” can be seen through Carmichael's use of  loaded words such as “ghetto” and “black.” “The Search for New Forms,”discusses the structural changes happening in  cities at this time. Cities were being re organized by income. By organizing in such a way, areas of low-income were created, many of these areas were concentrated on an ethnicity. These areas were often in very poor condition to begin with. However, some Civil Rights leaders noticed the potential for change in these areas, and the power that they had to potentially  become more self-reliant areas. From those areas the Black Power movement gained a massive amount of support. It is possible that without these “ghettos” the Black Power movement may not have succeeded. 

In Garrett Felber’s “Harlem Is The Black World” an African American Grassroots organization is discussed. The group discussed was called “The Organization of Afro-American Unity,” this organization was formed after the Harlem riots. The Harlem riots, were a result of the unfair treatment of the lower classes.  In fact the Harlem Riots were a consequence of the reorganization of cities, as Brian Goldstein discussed in “The Search for New Forms.” Goldstein’s illustration of the low-income areas,  tells us that unrest was already present in these areas at the time, in fact many of these areas became well known, such as Harlem and Chicago. This state of unrest , soon turned into activism, and then into rioting. The Organization of Afro-American Unity, was created to Address problems in the community. It was also round this time that Malcolm X was helping to fix the communities problems to. Malcolm X was also an African American Civil rights leader, His Influence was almost the opposite of Carmichael, seeing as he promoted protest but did not encourage peacefulness.

These sources’ influence are shown through Stokley Carmichael’s word choice. By using the term “ghetto,” Carmichael adds an ironic twist to the word’s inferred meaning, by doing this Carmichael makes a sociopolitical statement against the  structure or society at the time. Carmichael’s willingness to go against the social construct is what some believed played a major role in sparking the political movements at UC Berkeley.

In Conclusion, had Stokely Carmichael not used loaded words like “ghetto” in his speech, the speech would not have had the same effect on the students at the University. Perhaps there would be no protests in California. By using  words like “ghetto,” Carmichael is able to communicate to the students at Berkeley, a brief story of African Americans in American society at this time. Carmichael is able to not only get a message across, to the students, but also to tell a story. Carmichael tells the students about him being there at the university.  This is important because he uses words like “black” instead of  “African American,” in doing so, Carmichael creates a different atmosphere for his speech. He talks about how by using “black” scares the white man. This was a reference to the racial tension present in society at the time between white people and African Americans. Stokley Carmichael’s speech was a major factor in the Civil rights movement of the 1960’s. His speech helped to spark social movement in America, and had he not used the vocabulary that he did, perhaps everything would be different.
