via Wikimedia
A fire was lit beneath Stokely Carmichael one fateful evening in 1960. As he watched footage of a sit-in on his television - of young kids getting knocked off their stools but always getting up - an enraged Carmichael made a commitment to the fight for Black liberation.
While attending Howard University, Carmichael frequently traveled the South, participating in demonstrations during the Civil Rights Movement.
After graduating, he became a central figure in SNCC - he was elected the organization’s national chairman by 1966.
In his early activism, Carmichael had no qualms subscribing to MLK’s nonviolent ideology… but that shifted when, in 1966, James Meredith was shot during his solo “March Against Fear” from Memphis to Jackson, MS.
Carmichael roused SNCC volunteers to march in Meredith’s honor. And upon arriving in Greenwood, MS, he made the iconic statement that changed Black America forever.
“We been saying ‘freedom’ for six years… What we are going to start saying now is ‘Black Power.’”
Black Power resonated with the world - it became an international rallying slogan against oppression and represented a potent transformation within Carmichael.
Relinquishing the goal of racial integration, Carmichael adopted and cultivated the principles of Black nationalism, promoting its doctrines and Pan-African unity for the rest of his life.
Thanks to Stokely Carmichael, the world was introduced to “Black Power,” igniting Black Power within us all.