"Black Power" Speech

"Black Power" Speech. . , Front , On June 16, 1966, SNCC chairman Stokely Carmichael, released from jail after defying City of Greenwood orders by putting up tents to house participants of the James Meredith “March Against Fear,” made his famous “Black Power” speech here to an agitated crowd of about 600. As Carmichael shouted five times, “We want black power!” the crowd became more and more enthusiastic. The popular slogan revealed a growing difference between the nationalist philosophy of SNCC and the more moderate stances of the NAACP and the SCLC., Rear , Black Power speech: On June 5, 1966 James Meredith began his solitary March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson, to protest racism. Soon after starting his march, he was shot by a sniper. On hearing that news, other civil rights campaigners, including Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SCNC) chairman Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998), decided to continue the march in Meredith's name., In Greenwood, Carmichael defied city orders by putting up tents to house Meredith March participants and was arrested, for the twenty-seventh time. He had just been released from the Greenwood jail when he made the Black Power speech on June 16. SNCC members had been earlier discussing the possible use of the phrase, and originator Willie Ricks had used it in previous speeches. When Carmichael shouted it that day, however, the phrase catapulted him into the national spotlight and gave SNCC new visibility, more than it had garnered even with the 1964 Summer Project. Carmichael himself was surprised at the emphatic response the slogan received. The rhetoric was a major shift from the more understated style of the previous SNCC chairman, Bob Moses., The slogan, as it grew in popularity, revealed a growing difference between philosophies of the more nationalistic SNCC and other more moderate organizations. Some leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), led by Roy Wilkins, and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), let by Martin Luther King Jr., were quick to criticize the phrase. King's criticism was more restrained, however, as he had longstanding relationships with SNCC members., The fundamental question raised by the concept of Black Power was "Can American institutions work for black Americans?" Carmichael's call for "black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, and to build a sense of community" implied militance to many. The slogan also underlined questions of white participation in SNCC during Carmichael's tenure as chairman. The following year Carmichael joined with Charles V. Hamilton to write the book Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America (1967).