
Stokely Carmichael calls for black power and an evolutionary change during a time when the fight against racism was reaching its peak and steps towards desegregation where taking a few steps back. After learning this prejudice and the effect on so many people, we can understand why Stokely Carmichael calls for black power and an evolutionary change. He does this to bring awareness to the issues he and others are facing and talk about the right and only way to strive for integration, without actual integration. Along with many different civil rights activists, Carmichael doesn’t believe the way most are moving towards integration is the right way and focuses on a different way. Stokely Carmichaels speech on “black power” is crucial to help the reader understand the history of segregation and connect its relevance to today’s society.

Carmichael gave his speech “Black Power” on October 29, 1966. The movement for “black power” grew out of the civil rights movement that was at its strongest between the 1950s and 1960s. Before this movement, “black people were, for the most part, treated as objects rather than as subjects in society” (Horne). It was not popularly known as the “black power” era until Stokely Carmichael used this term in his speech and popularized it. The main issue during this time period was that even when blacks were legally given their rights, they still faced lower wages, high crime rates, and unspoken discrimination (Carmichael).  Black Power was started with the intent of helping blacks be equal in position to whites and to change the way blacks saw themselves. It influenced a time where racial pride was strong and blacks were encouraged to acknowledge their heritage. Though intended to be a peaceful movement to obtain equality, the black power movement was often associated with violent and aggressive forces. This spirit and unity didn’t just influence people to welcome equality, but influenced some to fight against the black community.Black Power “Today, the term Black Power seems almost quaint, although such was assuredly not the case in the 1960s” (Horne). The Black Power Movement was extremely effective, but the words are barely known today. Today people of color still face prejudice and discrimination with no reasoning but the color of their skin. Previous years before the Black Power Movement, blacks were being harassed and intimated for trying to vote. As this issue was still continuing, Black Power became an important term. The term Black Power had to be created to move faster towards equality, because of a majority of whites that were refusing to accept blacks. They couldn’t grasp that “Negroes are, after all, only white men with black skins, nothing more, nothing less” (Horne).

Like Stokely Carmichael, many blacks wanted to do something different than just try to integrate with whites. Stokely Carmichael maintains that every civil rights bill passed intended to slowly integrate blacks and whites was in fact not for blacks. These civil rights bills were passed for whites. These bills had to be passed to inform some of the white people that blacks were human so whites would not try to stop them from exercising their human rights. While every white person already had his or her own freedom and black people didn’t, blacks knew they were humans. Basically, African Americans were given rights they knew they were entitled to so white people would leave them alone. At first it was thought that maybe as blacks they should improve their reputation. Maybe get a job, go to school, become intelligent and make money. But blacks weren’t the ones whose views needed to change. It was everyone else that needed to start looking at them differently, because they really aren’t so different after all. 

 Among many civil rights activists threatened when voting was Fanny Lou Hamer. Fannie Lou Hamer was just an average citizen, a poor uneducated sharecropper in Mississippi. She was among the first to vote when civil rights workers came to her town encouraging African Americans (Hamlet). Voting was legal, but after attempting to register she, her husband, and her daughter lost their jobs and faced constant threats and intimidation. Her life was threatened time after time because she exercised her rights. When leaving a voter registration workshop in Charleston, South Carolina, Hamer and her friend dealt with their worst experience. They “were arrested in Winona and viciously beaten at the hands of Mississippi law enforcement officers” (Hamlet). Fannie Lou Hamer gave her testimony for the incident in front of a predominately white and educated audience. She went in to vote as a normal uneducated worker in Mississippi, and came out as one of the greatest communicators in the civil rights movement (Hamlet). Though she was at a loss, “everybody felt special about Mrs. Hamer. Everybody had that connection with her, and she obviously gave it back to you” (Hamlet). Mrs. Hamer stood out at this testimony and brought to attention the conditions and struggles blacks endured while doing what was ultimately allowed and completely acceptable.

Stokely Carmichael, Like Fannie spoke to a full white audience and spoke of their mistakes Both Carmichael and Hamer communicated their stories to people unlike them and were able to make these people understand and sympathize with them.. The incident with Fannie Lou Hamer only happened years before, so Carmichael had given this speech when oppression was still strong in many parts of the country. Carmichael and Hamer were both influential figures in the civil rights movement who fought several years as civil rights activists. They both press on the issue of racism and the importance of acknowledging it and working together to fix the issue that was present and is has rose again in society.  

Even after making so much progress, discrimination is still existent in today’s society. 

To protect and support blacks against police brutality, the “Black Lives Matter” movement recently began. The Black Lives Matter movement was created to protect blacks against police brutality and discriminatory violence. The past few years the news has been covered with police versus blacks. Unjust shootings, just shootings, unjust protests and just protests are constantly shown in the news, with contradictory stories attached. Every time a new situation or controversial issue arises, more attention is brought to this “Black Lives Matter” Movement. Because of the color of their skin, blacks are still oppressed and this is raises a lot of discussion across the country, as people agreed and disagree on the strength of racism in this country.

Stokely Carmichael’s speech on black power was given when prejudice and discrimination was still abundantly clear in the country. During this time, civil rights activists, including Fanny Lou Hamer, were harassed and intimidated for utilizing their rights. Carmichael and Hamer among activists everywhere pressed on the idea of Black Power, that something needed to change and a new approach was necessary to ensure blacks are treated fairly. It is important to remember the term and the feeling it gave people, because today is the time when it is needed again. The Black Power Movement had a strong affect in a time of need, like the Black Lives Matter Movement does during the current time of injustice. No matter skin color, gender, or ethnicity, we are all one big human race. These movements are meant to show how there really isn’t much different between everyone in this country other than the color of their skin. We are all Americans. 
