The time is the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. An era where protests are around every corner. There were protests about the war in Vietnam, arguments about feminism, and most importantly, the rise of a new movement, the Black Power movement. At this point in history, despite the passing of federal legislation to restore balance and equality at the polls and the workplace, racism still occurs. For the Black Power movement, they see integration in schools and civil rights equality bills as not enough. To the movement, that is a bandage on the wound of hundreds of years of slavery, oppression, and theft of land. Furthermore, that will not change the minds of racist people from continuing the oppression. For them, a worldwide revolution is needed to accomplish their goals of real race equality and elimination of racism provided in those civil rights bills. The Black Power movement is active both domestic and worldwide, shown by the concepts in Carmichael’s speech: protests, revolutions, and the reactions to such in the United States, the Caribbean and South America. 

While federal legislation passed, the minds of some people did not change. Carmichael mentions an incident of guilt by association and a racist mind when he says, “even after rebellion, when a black [person protests] by throwing bricks, ten thousand have to pay the [cost, because to white people] we all look alike” (322). For the Black Power movement, many white people still have not learned real equality. Some also have a racist mindset of all African-Americans looking the same and being considered an inferior race. In one case, Carmichael mentioned a time where a black man jumped and was shot by a white man (325). While it may be equality on paper, to the Black Power movement, the nation still has a long way to go to achieve equality. Even worse, in some ways, the movement is helping schools, but this is ignored by people outside the movement and the public. Peniel E. Joseph, professor at Tufts University, states a case where the movement, “served free breakfast to [schools …] in Oakland, [California] and Winston-Salem, [North Carolina]” (709). However, despite Black Power helping in the schools, people still go with the racist stereotype of “all black is bad” (Carmichael 324). Even when the movement is giving a helping hand, African-Americans were still treated to a lower standard. The lingering inequality in America had led to the failure of a multicultural democracy. 

The goal of the Black Power movement in the United States was to achieve true racial equality, not just racial equality on paper. While federal legislation passed in the few years prior to the start of the movement ensured equality at the schools and at the polls, progress toward this goal was slow at best. As Stokely Carmichael stated in his 1966 speech, “We have [ninety-four] percent who still live in shacks” (317). To the Black Power movement, this is not equality and is rather an example of too little, too late. The federal bills added nothing to equality of wealth or socio-economic status. For the movement, a change in the minds of people is needed. Racist thoughts and actions must be discouraged and forbidden. Another reason for the protests would be the failure of multicultural, fair democracy in the United States. Prior to 2008, an African-American president had never been elected, and by that point, many leaders of the movement, including Carmichael, had died. There was some progress in the early 1970’s with a Black Congress, but the movement agrees that it was not enough to change the minds of the American government (Joseph 708). This is even after many racist acts, such as colonialism were considered taboo.

Another example of failure of democracy would be American colonialism. The opinion of Black Power is that colonialism and expansion of democracy had never worked and had resulted in theft of the land. The native people in that land would not be treated as equals. They also consider the invasions of Vietnam, South America, and the Philippines, metaphorical beatings and rapes (Carmichael 322). Another instance of land stealing would be when European and American missionaries arrived in Africa. To Carmichael, this was a devious swap as the Africans would start with the land and would be forced to trade that land for the Bible (316). The movement agrees that this is an unfair trade and is theft of the land. Replacing owned land with a religion is not a fair trade as tradition was undermined. To the Black Power movement, federal legislation, such as the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act is a bandage on the wound of oppression and the theft of land by invasions and wars suffered by nearly all African-Americans in a free country. Taking a century to pass these bills is not acceptable as the bills provided no help to lands still under colonial rule. The Black Power movement spread very quickly out of the United States.

The Black Power movement was not exclusive to the United States. Many African-Americans in the Caribbean and parts of Central America were also engaging in a protest due to inequality and theft of land. In a 1966 speech, Stokely Carmichael infamously exclaimed, “in South America, our neighbors down below the border have [a revolution every day]” (321). Even though there were protests before and after his time, his words would sound prophetic, since just a couple of years after the speech, revolutions and protests for racial equality were occurring in many Caribbean and South American nations. The movement had its first large protest outside America at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City. In this protest, two American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos rose fists in support of the movement (Joseph 712). This was considered a major shock to the world for two reasons. For one, it was during the Olympics, a peaceful time not known for protests and rebellion, and second, it showed the international shockwaves of Black Power as the movement was no longer restricted to the United States, even if the athletes were American. The shockwaves would travel fast across the continent and into the Caribbean. Just a few months after the Olympic protest, a riot occurred in Jamaica for a similar cause, which was oppression and theft of land. However, this would end differently to the Mexico City protest, as two people were killed in Jamaica, while no one died in Mexico City (Lux 213). This led to a domino effect across the Caribbean and into South America. Carmichael prophesized this in his speech when he said that “if black people in South America were to shoot the hell out of all the white people there, as they should, […] Standard Oil would crumble tomorrow” (323). While no major businesses fell apart, there were still protests that would change race relations. In fact, during these protests, Lux cited a case where a businessman in the British Virgin Islands said, “if the radicals take over the islands, I [am] moving to America or England” (217). By 1971, more major protests occurred. In the country of Trinidad and Tobago, Carmichael’s birthplace, “prime minister Eric Williams had to [call] a state of emergency after half [the army] mutinied” (Lux 213). With protests in Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica, the Black Power movement was not limited to just America. The result of the protest is the reason that Black Power kept spreading.   

The reactions to the protests is what kept the Black Power fire going. If the protest ended in a loss or there was no change, there would still be no excuse to not protest again. On the other hand, if the protest resulted in change, it would be a model and a rallying call to the rest of the world to start future protests. The Olympic protest resulted in the expulsion of athletes from the Olympic Village (Joseph 716). Due to this ejection and a lack of change, it resulted in another, more violent protest a few months later in Jamaica. After that Jamaican protest was not enough to induce equality, African-Americans would boycott the 1971 election in Trinidad and Tobago, with two-thirds of the population not voting (Lux 214). Finally, there was some change, and to many, land being taken back from the thieves. After Black Power grew in the Bahamas, there were calls for independence, which was granted quickly (Lux 217). This call for independence was the model used for future rallies. The independence was one of the goals of the movement met: the taking back of land from colonialism. The real power in the Black Power movement was in perseverance; there was never a reason to give up until true equality of rights and taking back of land were met.

To many, the late 1960’s and early 1970’s was a time of protest and rebellion. However, to the Black Power movement, this was a time of an opportunity and change, in addition to the protests and rebellions. While equality was guaranteed, some people did not have that mindset, despite the United States being a free, democratic country. There was still guilt by association and a majority living in poverty, even when the movement had given a helping hand. Furthermore, the land of many countries was illegally and wrongfully taken. To the Black Power movement, started by Stokely Carmichael, this was the wake-up call for racial equality to be fully applied, rather than being just on paper through federal legislation.     
