Civil rights have always been a problem within our country since its birth, and even up to today. Although many groups have been oppressed by the United States, it is the African-Americans that have struggled against white supremacy since the beginning. The essay “The Bogalusa Movement: Self-Defense and Black Power in the Civil Rights Struggle,” written by Ricky Hill as well as the review of “The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms” by Marcus Cox, both help to examine how historical and cultural contexts of the black power movement have shaped Stokely Carmichael’s speech “Black Power.”

Stokely Carmichael’s speech scrutinizes the oppression of black people in the United States. Carmichael rightfully accuses white supremacy of being the oppressive force against racial equality, whereas it is often seen in white America as black people who oppress themselves. He states, “I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people” (Carmichael 315). The white politicians must pass bills to let white citizens know it is okay for black people to go certain places or to vote, but black people had these freedoms since they were born. These freedoms weren’t taken away from black people when they were born, white people just misunderstood that their laws applied to all citizens. This failure of understanding the rights of others by white Americans extends to countries beyond the United States borders: in Latin America, the Philippines, South America, and Vietnam. The United States decides it must take over command when dealing with political affairs that originally do not affect the United States in any way, causing the United States to be yet another oppressive force foreign peoples must have the burden of dealing with. This can be related back to the black power movement as the United States government is forcing its citizens to give their lives for a cause that isn’t negatively affecting United States citizens in any way in a country on the other side of the Earth. Carmichael’s final remark in his speech is to encourage change in our country. He urges his majority white audience to make change in white society, seeing how it is impossible for black people to do so. White institutions need to be put in charge by white people who have the mindset to achieve equality and to enact real change so that black people and people of all other races can one day fill seats of authority with equal perspective.

Ricky Hill’s essay “The Bogalusa Movement: Self-Defense and Black Power in the Civil Rights Struggle,” helps to shape the context of Carmichael’s speech. In Hill’s essay, he discusses the dramatic organization of people against the misbelief of white supremacy in a small town in Louisiana by the name of Bogalusa. A dual civil rights movement was performed; organizing and mobilizing black people against racial segregation and voter registration, as well as organizing to demote racial segregation among the Crown Zellerbach corporation, which was one of the largest paper mills in the country (located in Bogalusa). These protests occurred after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had been passed, yet black people were still met with violence and segregation when trying to perform their civic and human rights. To protect themselves from the violence of the K.K.K. and the all-white police, the Bogalusa Civic and Voters League organized a self-defense unit, the Deacons for Defense and Justice. The leadership of these two joint organizations would go on to inspire the creation of the Black Panther Party.

Carmichael encourages the black community to destroy the institutions and build new ones that focus on the problems facing the people rather than those of the institutions bickering with each other (Carmichael 318). Hill’s essay helps to show perspective of what the black community did to advance the Civil Rights movement in Bogalusa, Louisiana. They took it upon themselves to hold strikes against a major corporation in the United States (Hill 43). This action is what Carmichael encouraged. It is fighting to be “leaders today” and not “leaders of tomorrow.” What is the point of taking stand for the future when you should be taking stand for the present? Hill’s essay also discusses the slow integration of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in Bogalusa. This integration was slow not because of communication, but because of the concept of white supremacy that the black community had to be burdened with. Carmichael discusses in his speech how civil right laws are not for black people, but are for white people. He says, “I knew that I could vote and that that wasn’t a privilege; it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived” (Carmichael 315). The people of Bogalusa have the right to vote, but the white authorities are trying to deny them this right. So, they go on strike. Rickey Hill believes the events and groups involved in Bogalusa helped to bring together the makings of the Black Panther Party because of the national attention Bogalusa was getting from the riots (Hill 43). The funny thing is, the Black Panther Party was not intentionally called the Black Panther Party, but was orginally known as the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, and had a black panther as their emblem (Carmichael 325). The press referred to this organization as the Black Panther Party, presumably to make them seem more like a militant group as well as to try to persuade the public that they should be feared more than respected. However, it did show in Hill’s essay that an organization known as the Deacons for Defense and Justice was formed to defend against violence on the protestors, but they in no way enacted violence first (Hill 54). Ricky Hill’s essay helps to show how the historical concepts of the Black Power Movement helped to shape Carmichael’s speech.

Marcus Cox’s review of “The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms,” illuminates the unfair action of throwing minorities and poor whites against an enemy that isn’t even their own. The unequal selective service system caused the “disproportionate casualty rate among African Americans in Vietnam, “(Cox). Not only was there a racial battle on domestic grounds, there was also a racial battle on the actual battlefield. African-Americans also had to deal with discrimination and violence amongst American ranks when they weren’t being forced to take the lives of Viet Cong. 

The review by Marcus Cox gives full support to Carmichael’s claim of inequality amongst all institutions, including those involving the Vietnam War. When discussing the war in Vietnam Carmichael states, “Any time a black man leaves a country where he can’t vote to supposedly deliver the vote for somebody else, he’s a black mercenary,” (Carmichael 320). Black men were forced to go fight for the white men who could stay back because they could afford to attend college. Black men had to go deliver democracy to the people of Vietnam when they themselves were treated unfairly by a democratic system. Black men had to give their lives for rights they themselves didn’t have. The Vietnam War did however bring together African Americans and White Americans in a small, but powerful way. Cox writes, “America’s longest war became a working-class conflict that succeeded in channeling poor whites and minorities to Southeast Asia and for the very first time bring them together in intimate and personal ways,” (Cox). This became a mode of inspiration on the home front as whites and blacks came together to protest the Vietnam war. This was a hopeful move to finally get white Americans to understand that the color of their skin doesn’t make them better than those minorities who’s rights they have so begrudgingly taken away. Marcus Cox expands upon the African-American role in the military through the 1980s, when young African American men would often choose to join the military as a viable career path (Cox). This expands upon the cultural aspect of white supremacy as mostly White Americans could afford to attend college, so African Americans had to mandated to put their lives on the live as a viable living.  

The writings of Ricky Hill and Marcus Cox support the claims made by Stokely Carmichael in his “Black Power” speech by using details on the historical/cultural context of the black power movement and of African American involvement in the Vietnam War. The Black Power movement was a movement to overcome white supremacy and give the rights back to those who had been stripped from them upon birth. In Vietnam, African Americans were still treated unfairly even when staring death in the eye, and were fighting to give democracy to those who would probably be better off without it. Stokely Carmichael wished for his audience to be the change of today, to ensure a better tomorrow.
