Stokely Carmichael: Contribution to Civil Rights - Research Paper Example

Stokely Carmichael: Contribution to Civil Rights. Stokely Carmichael, the civil rights leader and the inventor of the ‘Black Power’ slogan, was born on 29 June, 1941 in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He was brought up by his grandmother until the age of eleven, when he joined his parents, Adolphous and Mabel Carmichael, in the USA. Mabel worked for a steamship line as a stewardess, while Adolphous was a carpenter by day and a taxi driver by night. Stokely Carmichael later perceived his father’s life of toil to be an example of “racist economic oppression” (History.com). In 1954, the family moved to Morris Park in the Bronx, a predominantly Italian and Jewish neighborhood. Carmichael joined an all-white street gang, called the Morris Park Dukes. In 1956, he entered the prestigious Bronx High School, where he was a popular and academically gifted student. He gradually became aware of “the racial differences which divided him from his classmates” (History.com). Turning down several scholarships, Carmichael chose to attend the historically black Howard University, where he studied Philosophy and graduated with honors in 1964. A study of Stokely Carmichael’s career as a civil-rights activist demonstrates his unique contribution to the Civil Rights Movement in America. Carmichael’s interest in civil rights had its roots in 1964, in his senior year at High School, when he was exposed to the ‘Sit-in’ movement for desegregation in the South. Blacks and whites protested segregated lunch counters by ‘sitting in’ at these counters. Carmichael later said, “one night when I saw those young kids on TV, getting back up on the lunch counter stools after being knocked off them, sugar in their eyes, ketchup in their hair -- well, something happened to me. Suddenly I was burning” (Kaufman). Inspired by this movement, Carmichael joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and picketed Woolworth’s stores in New York, which maintained segregated food counters in the South. He also participated in sit-ins in Virginia and South Carolina. In 1961, as a freshman, he joined the Freedom Rides organized by CORE. These “integrated bus tours through the South to challenge the segregation of interstate travel” were hazardous and the riders often encountered violence (History.com). Carmichael and eight other riders travelled by train from New Orleans to Jackson on 4 June, 1961. He was arrested for the first time in his career at Jackson for entering a ‘Whites Only’ bus waiting room. Carmichael was given a harsh, 49 day sentence at the Parchman Penitentiary in Mississippi, which proved to be “a crucible and training ground” for him (PBS.org). Carmichael resolutely continued his activism, and joined a Freedom Ride in Maryland, a demonstration in Maryland and a hospital strike in New York (History.com). He was a member of the University’s Nonviolent Action Group, affiliated with the Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) .He also participated in the Albany Movement which mobilized massive protests in Albany, Georgia against racial discrimination and segregation (King Center). In 1964, Carmichael joined the SNCC as a full-time staff member. This was “a critical moment in the history of the civil rights movement” in America (History.com). SNCC engaged in an aggressive campaign, dubbed ‘Mississippi Freedom Summer,’ in which hundreds of black and white volunteers travelled through the South to teach, establish clinics and register disenfranchised black voters. Carmichael’s eloquent communication skills and inherent leadership soon made him SNNC’s field organizer for Lowndes County, Alabama. Here, African Americans were in the majority, but remained excluded from government. Carmichael’s registration drive witnessed the increase of black voters from 70 to 2,600. This exceeded the number of registered white voters by 300 (Kaufman). Carmichael was disillusioned with the lukewarm response of the major political parties to his successful drive. He therefore founded the all-black Lowndes County Freedom Organization. In order to satisfy mandatory requirements, Carmichael adopted the Black Panther as the logo of the party. This logo provided the inspiration for the Black Panther Party. Carmichael’s experience as an activist in the segregated South was instrumental in weaning him away from the non-violence propounded by King. He witnessed at firsthand how “nonviolent black demonstrators were beaten and shocked with cattle prods by the police” (Kaufman). Carmichael later confessed that police brutality made him so “Horrified that he screamed and could not stop” (Kaufman). He was arrested on numerous occasions and soon stopped keeping a tally of his detentions. As Carmichael endured repeated acts of violence from police offices in the face of non-violent protest by blacks, he lost faith in Martin Luther King’s tactic of passive resistance. An increasing segment of activists supported Carmichael’s view that non-violent protest would gain nothing within the existing political structure. Carmichael advocated “nonviolence as a tactic, rather than a guiding principle” (King Center). On his election as Chairman of the SNCC, Carmichael turned the organization in a “sharply radical direction,” and discouraged white membership (History.com). Carmichael’s emphasis shifted from non-violence and integration to black militancy and separatism. Carmichael moved to the center stage of the Civil Rights Movement in June 1966. James Meredith, an activist and the first black student at the University of Mississippi, undertook a ‘Walk Against Fear’ from Memphis to Jackson. He was severely wounded by sniper fire. SNCC, CORE and King jointly organized volunteers to continue Meredith’s Walk. Carmichael was arrested and released at Greenwood, Mississippi. At the subsequent mammoth rally of 3,000, Carmichael gave the oration which secured his place in the pantheon of Civil Rights greats. Voicing the end of his tolerance of “racist politicians and hostile policemen pointing water hoses and unleashing snarling dogs” on peaceful protestors, Carmichael declared, “We been saying 'Freedom' for six years. What we are going to start saying now is ‘Black Power!’” (Kaufman). This powerful phrase became the rallying call which galvanized black youth. Carmichael defined it as “a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations” (Kaufman). However, the violent connotations of the phrase, coupled with Carmichael’s own increasingly belligerent speeches, and the resulting increase in black militancy, provoked a split with other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, including King. He lost his membership in the SNCC in 1967. Carmichael lectured at several universities in America and abroad. He went on to serve as the honorary prime minister of the militant Black Panthers. He then broke away from the party and moved to West Africa, in 1969, saying, “America does not belong to the blacks,” and calling on all black Americans to follow his example (Kaufman). After little more than a decade of passionate involvement in the Civil Rights Movement in the USA, Carmichael left to take up permanent residence in Conakry, Guinea. He spent the remainder of his life advocating the cause of pan-Africanism and the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party as “the only true path to liberation for black people worldwide” (History.com). He changed his name to Kwame Toure, in honor of Kwame Nkrumah, the President of Ghana, and Sekou Toure, the President of Guinea. When he was diagnosed with prostrate cancer in 1985, he rather ambiguously said that it “was given to me by forces of American imperialism and others who conspired with them” (History.com). By the time of his death on 15 November, 1988, Carmichael was no longer a significant player on the stage of civil rights, either in America or Africa. However, nothing can detract from the very real contribution Stokely Carmichael made to the cause of Civil Rights in America. His slogan continues to resonate as the cry for freedom for all African Americans. Works Cited. “Carmichael, Stokely (1941 – 1998).” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change. n.d. Web. 8 May 2013. http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_stokely_carmichael_1941_1998/ Kaufman, Michael T. “Stokely Carmichael, Rights Leader Who Coined 'Black Power,' Dies at 57.” The New York Times. 16 Nov. 1998. Web. 8 May 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/us/stokely-carmichael-rights-leader-who-coined-black-power-dies-at-57.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm “Stokely Carmichael.” History.com. 2013. Web. 8 May 2013. http://www.history.com/topics/stokely-carmichael “Stokely Carmichael: Freedom Rider. Bronx, NY.” PBS.org. 2010. Web. 8 May 2013. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/stokely-carmichael Read More