Born: July 29, 1941, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad

Education: Howard University, B.A., 1964

Died: November 16, 1998, Conakry, Guinea

Carmichael emerged as one of the civil rights movement's “most fiery and visible leaders of black militancy” (Jet, 1998, p. 5). He joined the Freedom Rides (1961) and became a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) field secretary in Mississippi.

But by Freedom Summer (1964) he was frustrated, largely because of black-white division on nonviolent strategy; lack of federal protection (four people, including three volunteers, were killed); and defeat of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's challenge for seats at the Democratic’ National Convention. Elected SNCC chairman in May 1966, he pursued a black agenda. He called for Black Power in June as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and SNCC continued the march against fear when a would-be assassin shot James Meredith, its leader.

Carmichael's new slogan split the movement. Mainstream media stressed its race separatism, rejection of white liberalism, and violent connotation. Martin Luther King, Jr. considered it “an unfortunate choice of words.” It invoked “race against race,” Roy Wilkins declared. “It is a call for black people in this country to unite,” Carmichael rebutted, “to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community” (Carmichael and Hamilton, 1967, p. 44). Black Power also would prioritize voter registration and voting; economic, educational, and political empowerment; self-defense; and joining antiracist movements “to stop the exploitation of nonwhite people around the world.”