The Civil Rights Movement was a significant event in not only America’s history but the rest of the world as well because it was one of the few first steps that helped minorities achieve equality in modern society. One text that examines this movement is the speech given by Stokely Carmichael at the University of California Berkeley in which he discusses how the Civil Rights Movement is only going to become successful if the white community actively tries to break down the social barriers their community had created. This was a very important speech because it helped encourage people from other cultures and backgrounds to try and achieve equality for all, so that there would no longer be any social barriers based on race. This speech given by Carmichael helped shape the Civil Rights Movement because it helped encourage the white community to push for change within their community and it also helped influence the future of the United States by delivering it to students. 

The speech given by Stokely Carmichael was so powerful and meaningful not just because he made good points on why equality was necessary, but he was delivering this speech to a group of college students and graduates, and these individuals would be the ones who would have the opportunity to shape the United States in the future. Carmichael preached the importance of achieving equality for the black and minority communities, but also stated how it would only be possible if the white community shared a similar desire in achieving equality for all. During his speech Carmichael states, “How is the white community going to begin to allow for that organizing, because once they start to do that, they will also allow for the organizing that they want to do inside their community” (Carmichael 325). It is clear that Carmichael understands that the change he is looking for might not be attainable unless white people take action within their community, as he knows how much influence they have in the American political, economic, and social institutions. By calling for the white community to take action against itself he felt that this would help create the push the black and minority communities needed to reach racial equality. This was clearly an idea that proved itself to be accurate as Krissah Thompson examined in her article that by having white people ignore the criticism they received from their peers for participating in the March on Washington, it helped start breaking down the social barriers they had established in the United States. 

In the article “In March on Washington, White Activists were Largely Overlooked but Strategically Essential” by Krissah Thompson, Thompson delves into how the famous March on Washington was so successful. This event was significant because it helped give the Civil Rights Movement a significant push towards their goals of racial equality, and the participants in the march were not only blacks and minorities, but also members from the white community. This was extremely important to the Civil Rights Movement because without support from the white community, the March might not have been as successful because the high-ranking officials in Washington D.C. may not have viewed the movement as groundbreaking or important. This is why members of the white community understood that they needed to support the movement as it would help Washington realize that this movement was not only important to minorities, but to white people as well. Thompson wrote about how it was not easy for white people to take part in the March as other white folk were actually condemning them. For example, Thompson wrote about how a white activist, Eric Kulberg, asked his boss for the day off from work in order to participate in the March, and his boss responded with, “What are you, a n----- lover or something?” (Thompson). This made the movement that much more important as the white community was willing to divide against itself in order to create the change they believed was necessary. This is what Carmichael was preaching in his speech, as he wanted to the white community to start to break down the social barriers they had created so that change could finally be achieved. This article proves that the white community did actually do what Carmichael wanted as they began to take action against fellow whites in order to achieve what they knew was right, and also to give minorities the opportunity to achieve equality.

Carmichael’s speech emphasized the importance of whites breaking down the social barriers they had created, because they held all the power in American society at the time. He firmly believed that whites were the reason that minorities did not have the same rights they had, and supported this in his speech by stating, “it is incapability of whites to deal with their own problems inside their own communities. That is the problem of the failure of the civil rights bill” (Carmichael 315). This made any action by the white community that either supported the Civil Rights Movement or criticized fellow whites that were against racial equality vital to the entire movement’s success. One white man who divided against racist whites and helped promote social equality was James Marshall. Marshall was a participant in the Freedom Summer movement in Mississippi, which allowed for blacks to be allowed to register to vote in the state. Marshall had a similar way of think as Carmichael did as he stated “were it not for white Northern college students such as he, ‘nothing else would have brought about the change that took place in Mississippi and the nation during Freedom Summer’” (View). The reason he thought that they were vital to the movement is because blacks being attacked, killed, and harassed by white racists does not cause the same amount of anger across the country as when the same incidents happen to white college students. Marshall actually made sure to tell as many media outlets as possible about what was happening to white people in Mississippi because he knew it would create a stir across the country. It also could potentially cause more whites to support the Civil Rights Movement after discovering what southern racists were doing to fellow white people. It’s also possible that people did not get as upset when blacks were targeted by southern racists, but when the same horrific actions were happening to white people, the white community began to understand that blacks are just as human as white people are. The actions and contributions made by Marshall during the Civil Rights Movement were extremely important to the movement as a whole, and also followed closely with what Carmichael was preaching in his speech. For Marshall to be unafraid to go against his fellow white peers allowed for the social barriers that were in place at the time to finally start being broken down within the white community, and this went hand in hand with the message that Carmichael was preaching in his speech.

The Civil Rights Movement was an extremely pivotal time in American history, as it ushered in a new era of equality in the United States while simultaneously dividing up the country. However, the end result would help bring true equality for all peoples, no matter what color their skin was. For Stokely Carmichael to emphasize the importance of the white community to start to break down the racial barriers they had created, this helped cause whites to start looking past someone’s skin color and implement the necessary changes that created true equality for all. Krissah Thompson also helped emphasize this ideology in her article, as she discussed that by having white support at the March on Washington, it helped the US government realize that this was a movement that everyone, not just minorities, felt was important and should be addressed. James Marshall understood this ideology as well and that it is why he firmly believes that the contributions from the white community were vital to achieving equality for African Americans. Overall, for members of the white community to be unafraid to go against itself as Carmichael was preaching in his speech, this allowed for the Civil Rights Movement to be successful and helped shape the United States of America into the modern and inclusive society it is today.
