Kwame Ture, or as many know him as Stokely Carmichael, is a U.S civil rights activist who coined the slogan “black power” in the 1960’s. In Carmichael’s early years he believed that Martin Luther King Jr’s nonviolence approach towards equality was possible and would actually be imprisoned while working with a group known as the Freedom Riders. As he grew older his plan to achieve equality changed from nonviolence to a position of self-defense and would create the saying “black power.” In 1966 he would give the speech Black Power at UC Berkley in which he explains his transformation and opinion on the way he felt black equality could be achieved. The purpose of this essay is to show how historical context influenced Stokely Carmichael’s plan and attitude in which he expresses in the speech Black Power. 

The Nation of Islam (NOI) and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) are two groups that were formed in order to get blacks the rights that they deserved. These institutions would be monumental in the fight for civil rights and they would also influence the way leaders thought, like Stokely Carmichael. While both of these had an impact on Carmichael, the Nation of Islam definitely weighed on him more. What the NOI called for was a large black culture to come together so that they could have a racial uplift. The uplift they were looking for wasn’t to be accepted into the white community, but to be accepted by the whites for being different and their own people (Corrigan 2). This idea goes along with exactly what Carmichael is saying to his audience. The main point that Carmichael tries to get across to his audience while giving his speech was the idea that blacks shouldn’t be looking towards whites to give them their freedom. 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.” This very idea is what brought Carmichael to change his opinion and create the idea of “Black Power.” During this time people like James Meredith were murdered while expressing nonviolence in their attempt to achieve fair treatment (Corrigan 3). Police would beat and imprison those for no reason, including Carmichael himself. Malcolm X, who was gunned down in the Harlem Ballroom on February 21, 1965 for sharing his beliefs on the topic, would create a gap between the way people thought equality could be achieved. This incident would help influence Carmichael’s change from peaceful protests to self-defense, separating his beliefs from those similar to him before, such as MLK Jr. What Carmichael was calling for was a radical change in the way people had dealt with civil rights; therefore he had to inspire his audience. He brings up points in his speech that people had never thought off, for example when he says, “I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people.” Therefore that explains why Carmichael is using such a drastic tone in his speech. He is desperately calling to his audience because he knows if people want change they need to start approaching it from a different direction. We can see this shown when Carmichael says, “We see this country trying to rule the world, and someone must stand up and start articulating that this country is not God, and cannot rule the world.”

During an interview with Lerone Bennett Carmichael explained that in order for “Black Power” there are 4 steps that need to happen. The first step is that Black people need to stop being ashamed of being black. We can see Carmichael trying to inspire this first step to his audience when he mentions the idea that, “We are oppressed as a group because we are black, not because we are lazy, not because were apathetic, not because were stupid, not because we smell, not because we eat watermelon and have good rhythm. We are oppressed because we are black.” Carmichael’s second step has to do with the idea that everyone understands what freedom is, saying blacks need to move into a position where they can define what freedom, a white liberal, black nationalism, and what power is. This step was crucial for Carmichael’s plan because people need a full understanding of an issue in order to successfully fight against it. This point is touched on by Carmichael in his speech when he says, “Now, then, before we move on we ought to develop the white supremacy attitudes that were either conscience or subconscious thought and how they run rampant though the society today.” Basically he is saying in order to proceed we need a full understanding of each perspective on the issue. The 3rd step in Carmichael’s plan given in his interview is the idea that Blacks move to build a power base around the question of Blackness. What he meant by this is that blacks must create power that isn’t revolved around whites. He exemplifies this when he speaks about integration, saying, “And in order to get out of that oppression one must wield the group power that one has, not the individual power which this country then sets the criteria under which a man may come into it. That is what is called in this country as integration.” Carmichaels last step is brought up when he starts to throw questions about politics and society such as, “How can we build new political institutions that will become the political expressions of people on a day-to-day basis?” His last step therefore is that blacks must move to build independent political, social, economic, and cultural institutions that they can control and use to promote a social change. Carmichael was able to inspire his audience while introducing his entire plan to bring a change within civil rights (Hills 14). 

Before Stokely Carmichael began to share his beliefs with the world, must people fighting for black civil rights followed the beliefs of people like MLK Jr., which consisted of a nonviolent approach towards change. The ideas that Carmichael would bring about in his speech was something unheard of in the fight for black and white equality and would be revolutionary in the way it tackled change. In order for this to happen Carmichael needed to inspire his audience during his speech so that they could have a full understanding of what “Black Power” is and how to achieve it. 
