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{{Short description|
{{use mdy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name =
|image =
|caption =
|office = 4th Chairman of the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]]
|term_start = May 1966
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|birth_name = Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael
|birth_date = {{birth date|1941|6|29}}
|birth_place = [[Port of Spain]], [[History of Trinidad and Tobago#British period|
|death_date = {{death date and age|1998|11|15|1941|6|29}}
|death_place = [[Conakry]], [[Guinea]]
|spouse = {{marriage|[[Miriam Makeba]]|1968|1973|end=div}}<br>Marlyatou Barry (divorced)
|children = 2
|education = [[Howard University]]
}}
{{Pan-African|right}}▼
'''Kwame Ture''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|w|ɑː|m|eɪ|_|ˈ|t|ʊər|eɪ}}; born '''Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael'''; June 29, 1941{{spaced ndash}}November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the [[civil rights movement]] in the United States and the global [[pan-African]] movement. Born in [[Trinidad and Tobago|Trinidad]], he grew up in the United States from the age of 11 and became an activist while attending the [[Bronx High School of Science]]. He was a key leader in the development of the [[Black Power movement]], first while leading the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC), then as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the [[Black Panther Party]] (BPP), and last as a leader of the [[All-African People's Revolutionary Party]] (A-APRP).<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/stokely-carmichael "Stokely Carmichael" biography], ''Freedom Riders'', ''American Experience'' website (PBS).</ref>▼
▲'''Kwame Ture''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|w|ɑː|m|eɪ|_|ˈ|t|ʊər|eɪ}}; born '''Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael'''; June 29, 1941{{spaced ndash}}November 15, 1998) was an American activist who played a
Carmichael was one of the original SNCC [[freedom riders]] of 1961 under [[Diane Nash]]'s leadership. He became a major voting rights activist in [[Mississippi]] and [[Alabama]] after being mentored by [[Ella Baker]] and [[Bob Moses (activist)|Bob Moses]]. Like most young people in the SNCC, he became disillusioned with the [[two-party system]] after the 1964 Democratic National Convention failed to recognize the [[Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party]] as official delegates from the state. Carmichael eventually decided to develop independent all-black political organizations, such as the [[Lowndes County Freedom Organization]] and, for a time, the national Black Panther Party. Inspired by [[Malcolm X]]'s example, he articulated a philosophy of [[black power]], and popularized it both by provocative speeches and more sober writings. Carmichael became one of the most popular and controversial Black leaders of the late 1960s. [[J. Edgar Hoover]], director of the FBI, secretly identified Carmichael as the man most likely to succeed Malcolm X as America's "black messiah".<ref name=Warden76/> The FBI targeted him for counterintelligence activity through its [[COINTELPRO]] program,<ref name=Warden76/> so Carmichael moved to Africa in 1968. He reestablished himself in [[Ghana]], and then [[Guinea]] by 1969.<ref>See Molefi K. Asante, Ama Mazama. ''Encyclopedia of Black Studies''. pp78-80</ref> There, he adopted the name Kwame Ture, and began campaigning internationally for [[revolutionary socialist]] pan-Africanism. Ture died of [[prostate cancer]] in 1998 at the age of 57.▼
▲Carmichael was one of the original SNCC [[freedom riders]] of 1961 under [[Diane Nash]]'s leadership. He became a major voting rights activist in [[Mississippi]] and [[Alabama]] after being mentored by [[Ella Baker]] and [[Bob Moses (activist)|Bob Moses]]. Like most young people in the SNCC, he became disillusioned with the [[two-party system]] after the 1964 Democratic National Convention failed to recognize the [[Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party]] as official delegates from the state. Carmichael eventually decided to develop independent all-black political organizations, such as the [[Lowndes County Freedom Organization]] and, for a time, the national Black Panther Party. Inspired by [[Malcolm X]]'s example, he articulated a philosophy of [[black power]], and popularized it both by provocative speeches and more sober writings.
Carmichael became one of the most popular and controversial Black leaders of the late 1960s. FBI director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] secretly identified Carmichael as the man most likely to succeed Malcolm X as America's "black messiah".<ref name=Warden76/> The FBI targeted him for counterintelligence activity through its [[COINTELPRO]] program,<ref name=Warden76/> so Carmichael moved to Africa in 1968. He reestablished himself in [[Ghana]], and then [[Guinea]] by 1969.<ref>See Asante, Molefi K.; Ama Mazama. ''Encyclopedia of Black Studies''. pp. 78–80.</ref> There, he adopted the name Kwame Ture, and began campaigning internationally for [[revolutionary socialist]] pan-Africanism. Ture died of [[prostate cancer]] in 1998 at the age of 57.
==Early years==
Carmichael was born in [[Port of Spain]], [[Trinidad and Tobago]]. He attended Tranquility School before moving to [[Harlem]], [[New York City]], in 1952 at the age of 11, to rejoin his parents. They had migrated to the United States when he was two, and he was raised by his grandmother and two aunts.<ref name="NYTobit">Kaufman, Michael T. [https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/us/stokely-carmichael-rights-leader-who-coined-black-power-dies-at-57.html "Stokely Carmichael, Rights Leader Who Coined 'Black Power', Dies at 57"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', November 16, 1998. Accessed March 27, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230628190628/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/us/stokely-carmichael-rights-leader-who-coined-black-power-dies-at-57.html Archived] on June 28, 2023.</ref> He had three sisters.<ref name="NYTobit"/><ref>[http://biography.yourdictionary.com/stokely-carmichael "Stokely Carmichael Facts"], YourDictionary.</ref>
His mother, Mabel R. Carmichael,<ref name="WPOST"/> was a stewardess for a [[steamship]] line. His father, Adolphus, was a carpenter who also worked as a taxi driver.<ref name="NYTobit"/> The reunited Carmichaels eventually left Harlem to live in [[Van Nest]] in the [[East Bronx]], at that time an aging neighborhood primarily of Jewish and Italian immigrants and descendants. According to a 1967 interview Carmichael gave to ''[[Life Magazine]]'', he was the only black member of the Morris Park Dukes, a youth gang involved in alcohol and petty theft.<ref name="NYTobit"/>
[[File:Stokely Carmichael HS Yearbook.jpg|thumb|Carmichael as a senior at [[The Bronx High School of Science]], 1960]]
Carmichael attended the [[Bronx High School of Science]] in New York from 1956, being selected through high achievement on its standardized entrance examination.<ref>{{cite book |title=Stokely Carmichael: the story of Black power |last=Johnson |first=Jacqueline |year=1980 |publisher=Silver Burdett Press |isbn=0382099206 |pages=16-17}}</ref> He was acquainted with fellow Bronx Science student [[Samuel R. Delany]] during his time there.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Delany |first=Samuel R. |year=2004 |title=The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village |url=https://archive.org/details/motionoflightinw0000dela |url-access=registration |edition=1st University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=0816645248 |oclc=55142525}}</ref>
After graduation in 1960, Carmichael enrolled at [[Howard University]], a [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically black]] university in [[Washington, D.C.]] His professors included the poet [[Sterling Allen Brown|Sterling Brown]],<ref name="SBrown"/><ref>Stuckey, Sterling. ''Going Through the Storm: The Influence of African American Art in History''. [[Oxford University Press]], 1994, p. 142, {{ISBN|0-19-508604-X}}, 9780195086041.</ref> [[Nathan Hare]],<ref>[[William Safire|Safire, William]], ''Safire's Political Dictionary''. [[Oxford University Press]], 2008, p. 58, {{ISBN|0-19-534334-4}}, {{ISBN|978-0-19-534334-2}}.</ref> and [[Toni Morrison]], who was later awarded the [[Nobel Prize for literature]].<ref>Haskins, Jim. ''Toni Morrison: Telling a Tale Untold''. Twenty-First Century Books, 2002, p. 44, {{ISBN|0-7613-1852-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7613-1852-1}}.</ref> Carmichael and fellow civil rights activist [[Tom Kahn]] helped to fund a five-day run of the ''[[Three Penny Opera]],'' by [[Bertolt Brecht]] and [[Kurt Weill]]:
<blockquote>Tom Kahn—very shrewdly—had captured the position of Treasurer of the Liberal Arts Student Council and the infinitely charismatic and popular Carmichael as floor whip was good at lining up the votes. Before they knew what hit them the Student Council had become a patron of the arts, having voted to buy out the remaining performances. It was a classic win/win. Members of the Council got patronage packets of tickets for distribution to friends and constituents.<ref name="SBrown">{{cite journal |title=The professor and the activists: A memoir of Sterling Brown|first=
Carmichael's Washington, D.C., apartment on Euclid Street was a gathering place for his activist classmates.<ref name="WPOST"/> He graduated in 1964 with a degree in philosophy.<ref name="NYTobit"/> Carmichael was offered a full graduate scholarship to [[Harvard University]] but turned it down.<ref>{{cite book|first=Bruce
At Howard, Carmichael joined the [[Nonviolent Action Group]] (NAG), the Howard campus affiliate of the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC).<ref name=King>[https://web.archive.org/web/20021104093038/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/carmichael_stokely.html "Stokely Carmichael"], ''King Encyclopedia'', The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University. Accessed November 20, 2006.</ref> Kahn introduced Carmichael and the other SNCC activists to [[Bayard Rustin]], an African-American leader who became an influential adviser to SNCC.<ref name="AAP">{{cite book |chapter=The Black arts movement and historically Black colleges and universities|last=Smethurst|first=James|title=African-American poets: 1950s to the present|volume=2|pages=112–113|year=2010|publisher=Chelsea House|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nwq1Pq9BRmQC&q=%22Tom+Kahn%22|isbn=9781438134369}}</ref> Inspired by the [[sit-in movement]] in the southern United States during college, Carmichael became more active in the Civil Rights Movement.
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Along with eight other riders, on June 4, 1961, Carmichael traveled by train from [[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], to [[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]], Mississippi, to integrate the formerly "white" section on the train.<ref>{{cite book |last=Carmichael|first=Stokely|title=Ready for Revolution|year=2005|publisher=Scribner|location=New York|pages=171–215}}</ref> Before getting on the train in New Orleans, they encountered white protesters blocking the way. Carmichael said, "They were shouting. Throwing cans and lit cigarettes at us. Spitting on us."<ref name="Arsenault 2006 362–363">{{cite book |last=Arsenault|first=Raymond|title=Freedom Riders|url=https://archive.org/details/freedomriders1960000arse|url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|location= New York|isbn=978-0-19-513674-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/freedomriders1960000arse/page/362 362–363]}}</ref><ref>Carmichael, ''Ready for Revolution'' (2003), p. 192.</ref> Eventually, the group was able to board the train. When the group arrived in Jackson, Carmichael and the eight other riders entered a "white" cafeteria. They were charged with disturbing the peace, arrested, and taken to jail.
Eventually, Carmichael was transferred to the infamous [[Parchman Penitentiary]] in [[Sunflower County, Mississippi|Sunflower County]], Mississippi, along with other Freedom Riders.<ref name="NYTobit"/><ref>Carmichael, Stokely, and Ekwueme Michael Thelwell. ''Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)''. [[Simon & Schuster]], 2003. [https://books.google.com/books?id=LpW9QV0MKC4C&dq=%22Stokely+Carmichael%22+Parchman&pg=PA201 p. 201]. Retrieved from [[Google Books]] July 23, 2010. {{ISBN|0-684-85003-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-684-85003-0}}.</ref> He gained notoriety as a witty and hard-nosed leader among the prisoners.<ref name="
He served 49 days with other activists at Parchman. At 19, Carmichael was the youngest detainee in the summer of 1961. He spent 53 days at Parchman in a six-by-nine cell. He and his colleagues were allowed to shower only twice a week, were not allowed books or any other personal effects, and were at times placed in maximum security to isolate them.<ref name=FreedomRides&WhiteBacklash>{{cite web|title=Freedom Rides and White Backlash|url=http://stokely-carmichael.com/stokely-carmichael-part-6-freedom-rides-and-white-backlash/|access-date=April 8, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110508085731/http://stokely-carmichael.com/stokely-carmichael-part-6-freedom-rides-and-white-backlash/|archive-date=May 8, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
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Carmichael said of the Parchman Farm sheriff:
<blockquote>The sheriff acted like he was scared of black folks and he came up with some beautiful things. One night he opened up all the windows, put on ten big fans and an air conditioner, and dropped the temperature to 38 degrees [Fahrenheit; 3 °C]. All we had on was T-shirts and shorts.<ref name=FreedomRides&WhiteBacklash/></blockquote>
While being hurt on one
Carmichael kept the group's morale up in prison, often telling jokes with Steve Green and the other Freedom Riders, and making light of their situation. He knew their situation was serious:
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==1964–67: SNCC==
===Mississippi and Cambridge, Maryland===
{{external media
| float = right
| video1 = [https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_151-7659c6sr1g “Interview with Stokely Carmichael"] conducted in 1986 for the [[Eyes on the Prize]] documentary in which he discusses the [[Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee]], [[Freedom Summer]], the [[Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party]], Lowndes County Freedom Organization and Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]}}
In 1964, Carmichael became a full-time field organizer for SNCC in Mississippi. He worked on the [[Greenwood, Mississippi|Greenwood]] voting rights project under [[Bob Moses (activist)|Bob Moses]].<ref>[https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/carmichael-stokely "Stokely Carmichael"], King Encyclopedia, Martin Luther King Jr.
He also worked closely with [[Gloria Richardson]], who led the SNCC chapter in [[Cambridge, Maryland]].<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Faith S. |editor-last=Holsaert
He soon became project director for [[Mississippi's 2nd congressional district]], made up largely of the counties of the Mississippi Delta. At that time, most blacks in Mississippi had been disfranchised since the passage of a new constitution in 1890. The summer project was to prepare them to register to vote and conduct a parallel registration movement to demonstrate how much people wanted to vote. Grassroots activists organized the [[Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party]] (MFDP), as the regular Democratic Party did not represent African Americans in the state. At the end of Freedom Summer, Carmichael went to the [[1964 Democratic Convention]] in support of the MFDP, which sought to have its delegation seated.<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/tim64b.htm#1964fsfs "Mississippi Summer Project"], Civil Rights Movement Archive website.</ref> But the MFDP delegates were refused voting rights by the [[Democratic National Committee]], which chose to seat the regular white [[Jim Crow]] delegation. Carmichael, along with many SNCC staff members, left the convention with a profound sense of disillusionment in the American political system, and what he later called "totalitarian liberal opinion".<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/tim64b.htm#1964b-fsmfdpfallout "MFDP Challenge to the Democratic Convention"], Civil Rights Movement Archive website.</ref> He said, "what the liberal really wants is to bring about change which will not in any way endanger his position".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQ7nBAAAQBAJ&q=What+a+liberal+really+wants+is+to+bring+about+change+that+will+not+in+any+way+endanger+his+position&pg=PT96|title = Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News|isbn = 9781596981485|last1 = Goldberg|first1 = Bernard|date = 25 February 2001| publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>
===Selma to Montgomery marches===
Having developed an aversion to working with the Democratic Party after the 1964 convention, Carmichael decided to leave the MFDP. Instead, he began exploring SNCC projects in Alabama in 1965. During the period of the [[Selma to Montgomery marches]], [[James Forman]] recruited him to participate in a "second front" to stage protests at the Alabama State Capitol in March 1965. Carmichael became disillusioned with the growing struggles between SNCC and the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC), which opposed Forman's strategy. He thought SCLC was working with affiliated black churches to undercut it.<ref>Kwame Ture, ''Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael'' (Simon & Schuster, 2003), p. 441–446</ref> He was also frustrated to be drawn again into nonviolent confrontations with police, which he no longer found empowering. After seeing protesters brutally beaten again, he collapsed from stress, and his colleagues urged him to leave the city.<ref>{{cite book|first=Taylor
Within a week, Carmichael returned to protesting, this time in Selma, to participate in the final march along Route 80 to the state capital. But on March 23, 1965, Carmichael and some in SNCC who were participating in the Selma to Montgomery march declined to complete the march,<ref name=lcfogenesis>{{cite web|url=https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/selma-montgomery-march/#:~:text=On%20March%2023%2C%201965%2C%20the,County%20Freedom%20Party%20(LCFP).|title=March 23, 1965: Selma to Montgomery March Continues|publisher=Zinn Education|access-date=August 2, 2020}}</ref> instead initiating a grassroots project in [[Lowndes County, Alabama|"Bloody Lowndes" County]], along the march route,<ref>
===Lowndes County Freedom Organization===
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===Chairman of SNCC and Black Power===
[[File:Kwame Ture at a 1966 Mississippi press conference.jpg|thumb|
Carmichael became chairman of SNCC in 1966, taking over from [[John Lewis]], an activist who later was elected to Congress. [[James Meredith]] had initiated a solitary [[March Against Fear]] in early June of that year from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi. He did not want the big civil rights organizations or leaders involved but was willing to have individual black men join him. On his second day out, Meredith was shot and wounded by a sniper and had to be hospitalized. Civil rights leaders vowed to finish the march in his name.
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{{quote|It is 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.}}
According to historian [[David J. Garrow]], a few days after Carmichael spoke about Black Power at the rally during "Meredith March Against Fear", he told King: "Martin, I deliberately decided to raise this issue on the march in order to give it a national forum and force you to take a stand for Black Power." King responded, "I have been used before. One more time won't hurt."<ref>Garrow, David J.
While Black Power was not a new concept, Carmichael's speech brought it into the spotlight. It became a rallying cry for young African Americans across the country who were frustrated by slow progress in civil rights, even after federal legislation had been passed to strengthen the effort. Everywhere that Black Power spread, if accepted, Carmichael got credit. If it was condemned, he was held responsible and blamed.<ref>{{cite news |last=
During the controversial [[Atlanta Project]] in 1966, SNCC, under the local leadership of Bill Ware, engaged in a voter drive to promote the candidacy of [[Julian Bond]] from an Atlanta district for a seat in the [[Georgia State Legislature]]. Ware excluded Northern white SNCC members from working on this drive. Carmichael initially opposed this decision but changed his mind.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atlantahighered.org/civilrights/essay_detail.asp?phase=4 |title=Quest for Black Power (1966-1970) |publisher=Atlanta in the Civil Rights Movement |access-date=April 15, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140616083304/http://www.atlantahighered.org/civilrights/essay_detail.asp?phase=4 |archive-date=June 16, 2014 }}</ref> At the urging of the Atlanta Project, the issue of white members in SNCC came up for a vote. Carmichael ultimately sided with those calling for the expulsion of whites. He said that whites should organize poor white southern communities, of which there were plenty, while SNCC focused on promoting African American self-reliance through Black Power.<ref name=forman>
Carmichael considered nonviolence a tactic, not a fundamental principle, which separated him from civil rights leaders such as King. He criticized civil rights leaders who called for the integration of African Americans into existing institutions of the [[middle-class]] mainstream.
<blockquote>Now, several people have been upset because we've said that integration was irrelevant when initiated by blacks, and that in fact it was a subterfuge, an insidious subterfuge, for the maintenance of [[white supremacy]]. Now we maintain that in the past six years or so, this country has been feeding us a "[[thalidomide]] drug of integration", and that some Negroes have been walking down a dream street talking about sitting next to white people; and that that does not begin to solve the problem; that when we went to Mississippi we did not go to sit next to [[Ross Barnett]]; we did not go to sit next to [[Jim Clark (sheriff)|Jim Clark]]; we went to get them out of our way; and that people ought to understand that; that we were never fighting for the right to integrate, we were fighting against white supremacy. Now, then, in order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom. No man can give anybody his freedom. A man is born free. You may enslave a man after he is born free, and that is in fact what this country does. It enslaves black people after they're born, so that the only acts that white people can do is to stop denying black people their freedom; that is, they must stop ''denying'' freedom. They never give it to anyone.<ref name=Speech>
Carmichael wrote that "in order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IHk2DwAAQBAJ&q=in+order+for+non-violence+to+work%2C+your+opponent+must+have+a+conscience.+the+united+states+has+none&pg=PA178|title = Citizenship, Democracies, and Media Engagement among Emerging Economies and Marginalized Communities|isbn = 9783319562155|last1 = Ngwainmbi|first1 = Emmanuel K.|date = 18 September 2017| publisher=Springer }}</ref>▼
▲The United States has none."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IHk2DwAAQBAJ&q=in+order+for+non-violence+to+work%2C+your+opponent+must+have+a+conscience.+the+united+states+has+none&pg=PA178|title = Citizenship, Democracies, and Media Engagement among Emerging Economies and Marginalized Communities|isbn = 9783319562155|last1 = Ngwainmbi|first1 = Emmanuel K.|date = 18 September 2017| publisher=Springer }}</ref>
During Carmichael's leadership, SNCC continued to maintain a coalition with several white radical organizations, most notably [[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS). It encouraged the SDS to focus on militant [[Draft resistance|anti-draft]] resistance. At an SDS-organized conference at [[UC Berkeley]] in October 1966, Carmichael challenged the white left to escalate their resistance to the military draft in a manner similar to the black movement.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Joshua |first1=Bloom |last2=Martin |first2=Waldo |title=Black Against Empire: The History And Politics Of The Black Panther Party| title-link = Black Against Empire |date=2016 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=29, 41–42, 102–103, 128–130}}</ref> For a time in 1967, he considered an alliance with [[Saul Alinsky]]'s [[Industrial Areas Foundation]], and generally supported IAF's work in Rochester's and Buffalo's black communities.<ref>
===Vietnam===
SNCC conducted its first actions against the military draft and the [[Vietnam War]] under Carmichael's leadership.<ref>
Carmichael encouraged King to demand unconditional withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam, even as some King advisers cautioned him that such opposition might have an adverse effect on financial contributions to the SCLC. King preached one of his earliest speeches calling for unconditional withdrawal with Carmichael in the front row at his invitation.<ref>[http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/about_king/encyclopedia/carmichael_stokely.html "Stokely Carmichael"], ''King Encyclopedia'', Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223180202/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/about_king/encyclopedia/carmichael_stokely.html |date=December 23, 2014 }}.</ref> Carmichael privately took credit for pushing King toward [[anti-imperialism]], and historians such as [[Peniel Joseph]] and [[Michael Eric Dyson]] agree.<ref name="pbs.org">[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/peniel-e-joseph/ "African-American History Scholar Dr. Peniel Joseph"], Tavis Smiley Show, March 10, 2014</ref><ref>Michael Eric Dyson, '' 'I May Not Get There With You:' The True Martin Luther King Jr.'', (Simon & Schuster, 2000), pp. 66–67.</ref>
Carmichael joined King in New York on April 15, 1967, to share his views with protesters on race related to the Vietnam War:
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==1967–68: Transition out of SNCC==
▲{{Pan-African|right}}
===Stepping down as chair===
In May 1967, Carmichael stepped down as chairman of SNCC and was replaced by [[H. Rap Brown]]. SNCC was a collective,
===Targeted by FBI COINTELPRO===
During this period, Carmichael was targeted by a section of [[J. Edgar Hoover]]'s [[COINTELPRO]] (counter-intelligence program) that focused on black activists; the program promoted slander and violence against targets Hoover considered enemies of the US government. It attempted to discredit them and worse.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iD6rL_e8VZMC&q=cointelpro%2C+racism&pg=PA276|title=Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, Surveillance, and Secrecy in Modern America|last=Feldman|first=Jay|date=2012|publisher=Anchor Books|isbn=9780307388230|language=en}}</ref> Carmichael accepted the position of Honorary Prime Minister in the Black Panther Party, but also remained on the SNCC staff.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19670819&id=Bo4gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8WYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2725,5283290 "SNCC Says Carmichael Now En route to Hanoi"], Associated Press, ''Lewiston Daily Sun'', August 19, 1967</ref><ref>[http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wp587sj#page-11 Seidman, Sarah. "Tricontinental Routes of Solidarity: Stokely Carmichael in Cuba"], ''Journal of Transnational American Studies'', 2012, pg. 8-11</ref><ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19680822&id=nxcfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=N5sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7039,4096385 "Stokely Carmichael Expelled by SNCC"], ''Washington Post'' news service (''Tuscaloosa News''), August 22, 1968</ref> He tried to forge a merger between the two organizations. A March 4, 1968, memo from Hoover states his fear of the rise of a Black Nationalist "messiah" and that Carmichael alone had the "necessary charisma to be a real threat in this way".<ref name=Warden76>{{cite news |last=Warden|first=Rob|title=Hoover rated Carmichael as 'black messiah'|url=http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/F%20Disk/FBI/FBI%20Hampton%20Case%20ONeil%20William%20Jr/Item%2005.pdf|access-date=July 20, 2012|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=February 10, 1976}}</ref> In July 1968, Hoover stepped up his efforts to divide the black power movement. Declassified documents show he launched a plan to undermine the SNCC-Panther merger, as well as to "[[bad-jacketing|bad-jacket]]" Carmichael as a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) agent. Both efforts were largely successful: Carmichael was expelled from SNCC that year, and the Panthers began to denounce him, putting him at grave personal risk.<ref>[[Kathleen Cleaver]] and George Katsiaficas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_tNQAwAAQBAJ&dq=carmichael%2C+sncc%2C+expulsion%2C+cia&pg=PA89 ''Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party''] (Routledge, 2014 edition), pp. 89-9.</ref><ref>Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, ''Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party'' (University of California Press, 2013), pp. 122-23.</ref>
===International activism===
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{{quote|The death of Che Guevara places a responsibility on all revolutionaries of the World to redouble their decision to fight on to the final defeat of Imperialism. That is why in essence Che Guevara is not dead, his ideas are with us.<ref name="VivaCheSinclair">[[Andrew Sinclair]], ''Viva Che!: The Strange Death and Life of Che Guevara'', 1968/rereleased in 2006, Sutton Publishing, {{ISBN|0-7509-4310-6}}, p. 67.</ref>}}
Carmichael visited the [[United Kingdom]] in July 1967 to attend the [[Dialectics of Liberation]] conference. After recordings of his speeches were released by the organizers, the [[Institute of Phenomenological Studies]], he was banned from reentering
===1968 D.C. riots===
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==1969–98: Travel to Africa==
In 1968, he married [[Miriam Makeba]], a noted singer from [[South Africa]]. They left the US for [[Guinea]] the next year. Carmichael became an aide to Guinean president [[Ahmed Sékou Touré]], and a student of the exiled [[
===Break with the Black Panthers===▼
▲In 1968, he married [[Miriam Makeba]], a noted singer from [[South Africa]]. They left the US for [[Guinea]] the next year. Carmichael became an aide to Guinean president [[Ahmed Sékou Touré]], and a student of the exiled [[Ghanaian]] president [[Kwame Nkrumah]].<ref name=Review>Robert Weisbrot, [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E6DD1438F930A15752C1A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all "Stokely Speaks" (review of ''Ready for Revolution'')], ''New York Times'', November 23, 2003. Accessed March 17, 2007.</ref> Makeba was appointed Guinea's delegate to the [[United Nations]].<ref>[http://www.allsands.com/history/people/miriammakeba_zmj_gn.htm "Miriam Makeba Biography"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090711171006/http://www.allsands.com/history/people/miriammakeba_zmj_gn.htm |date=July 11, 2009 }}, AllSands.</ref>
▲===Break with Black Panthers===
Three months after his arrival in Guinea, in July 1969 Carmichael published a formal rejection of the Black Panthers, condemning them for not being [[Black separatism|separatist]] enough and for their "dogmatic party line favoring alliances with white radicals".<ref name="NYTobit"/> The Panthers believed that white activists could help the movement, while Carmichael had come to agree with [[Malcolm X]] that white activists should organize their own communities before trying to lead black people.
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Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Ture in 1978 to honor Nkrumah and Touré, who had become his patrons.<ref name="NYTobit"/> At the end of his life, friends called him by both names, "and he doesn't seem to mind".<ref name="WPOST"/>
In 1986, two years after Sékou Touré's death, the [[Lansana Conté#The Conté Presidency#1984 coup and military rule|military regime]] that took his place arrested Carmichael for his association with Touré, and jailed him for three days on suspicion of attempting to overthrow the government. Although Touré was known for jailing and torturing his opponents (some 50,000 people are believed to have been killed under his regime) Carmichael had never publicly criticized the man he named himself after.<ref name="NYTobit"/> From the late 1970s till his death, he answered his phone by announcing
=== American and British government interference ===
Carmichael's suspicions about CIA surveillance were confirmed in 2007 by declassified documents revealing that the agency had tracked him from 1968 as part of their surveillance of Black activists abroad. The surveillance continued for years.<ref name=CIA>[http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-06-26-cia-misconduct-glance_N.htm Associated Press, "Some Examples of CIA Misconduct"], ''[[USA Today]]'', June 27, 2007. Accessed January 9, 2014.</ref>
Documents declassified in 2022 revealed that the [[Information Research Department]] (IRD) of the British [[
===All-African People's Revolutionary Party===
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For the final 30 years of his life, Kwame Ture was devoted to the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP). His mentor Nkrumah had many ideas for unifying the African continent, and Ture extended the scope of these ideas to the entire African diaspora. He was a Central Committee member during his association with the A-APRP and made many speeches on the party's behalf.<ref>[http://socialjustice.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/index.php/All-African_People's_Revolutionary_Party "Social Justice Movements: All-African People's Revolutionary Party"], Columbia University website</ref>
Ture did not simply study with
Ture was convinced that the A-APRP was needed as a permanent mass-based organization in all countries where people of African descent lived. For the last decades of his life, a period often ignored by popular media, Ture worked full-time as an organizer of the party. He spoke on its behalf on several continents, at college campuses, community centers, and other venues. He was instrumental in strengthening ties between the African/Black liberation movement and several revolutionary or progressive organizations, both African and non-African. Notable among them were the [[American Indian Movement]] (AIM) of the United States, [[New Jewel Movement]] ([[Grenada]]), [[National Joint Action Committee]] (NJAC) of Trinidad and Tobago, [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO), the [[Pan Africanist Congress]] (South Africa) and the [[Irish Republican Socialist Party]].{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}
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====Lecturing in the Caribbean and the United States====
While making his home in Guinea, Ture traveled frequently. In the last quarter of the 20th century, he became the world's most active and prominent exponent of pan-Africanism, defined by Nkrumah and the A-APRP as "The Liberation and Unification of Africa Under Scientific Socialism".
Ture often returned to speak to audiences of thousands (including students and townspeople) at his alma mater, Howard University, and other campuses. The Party worked to recruit students and other youth, and Ture hoped to attract them with his speeches. He also worked to raise the political consciousness of African/Black people in general. He formed the A-APRP with the initial goal of putting "Africa" on the lips of Black people throughout the [[African Diaspora|diaspora]], knowing that many did not consciously or positively relate to their ancestral homeland. Ture was convinced that the party significantly raised international black "consciousness" of Pan-Africanism.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} The [[Politics of Trinidad and Tobago|government of Trinidad and Tobago]] barred him from lecturing in the country for fear that he would cause disturbances among black Trinidadians.
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==Illness and death==
After his diagnosis of [[prostate cancer]] in 1996, Ture was treated for a period in Cuba, while receiving some support from the [[Nation of Islam]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Schaefer|first=Richard T.|title=Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Society|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediarace00scha|url-access=limited|year=2008|publisher=SAGE Publications|location=Thousand Oaks California|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediarace00scha/page/n575 523]|isbn=9781412926942}}</ref> [[Benefit concert]]s for Ture were held in Denver, New York, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.,<ref name="WPOST"/> to help defray his medical expenses. The government of [[Trinidad and Tobago]], where he was born, awarded him a grant of $1,000 a month for the same purpose.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Matthew C. |editor-last=Whitaker
In a final interview given in April 1998 to ''[[The Washington Post]]'', Ture criticized the limited economic and electoral progress made by African Americans in the U.S. during the previous 30 years. He acknowledged that Black people had won election to the mayor's office in major cities, but said that, as the mayors' power had generally diminished over earlier decades, such progress was essentially meaningless.<ref name="WPOST"/>
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==Carmichael's marriages and divorces==
Ture married singer [[Miriam Makeba]] from South Africa in the U.S. in 1968. They divorced in Guinea after separating in 1973.
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==Legacy==
Ture, along with [[Charles V. Hamilton]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bhavnani |first1=Reena |last2=Mirza |first2=Heidi Safia |last3=Meetoo |first3=Veena |title=Tackling the Roots of Racism: Lessons for Success |date=2005 |publisher=Policy Press |isbn=978-1-86134-774-9 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KVbRVVHoKkQC&pg=PA28 }}</ref> is credited with coining the phrase "[[institutional racism]]", defined as racism that occurs through institutions such as public bodies and corporations, including universities. In the late 1960s Ture defined "institutional racism" as "the collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their color, culture or ethnic origin".<ref>{{cite web |first1=Richard W. |last1=Race |url=https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.71426!/file/race_article.pdf |title=Analyzing ethnic education policy-making in England and Wales |access-date=July 20, 2020 |archive-date=July 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720203958/https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.71426!/file/race_article.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{self-published inline|date=July 2020}}</ref>
In his book on King, [[David J. Garrow]] criticizes Ture's handling of the Black Power movement as "more destructive than constructive".<ref name="WPOST"/> Garrow describes the period in 1966 when Ture and other SNCC members managed to register 2,600 African American voters in Lowndes County as the most consequential period in Ture's life "in terms of real, positive, tangible influence on people's lives".<ref name="WPOST"/> Evaluations by Ture's associates are also mixed, with most praising his efforts and others criticizing him for failing to find constructive ways to achieve his objectives.<ref name=
Joseph credits Ture with expanding the parameters of the civil rights movement, asserting that his black power strategy "didn't disrupt the civil rights movement. It spoke truth to power to what so many millions of young people were feeling. It actually cast a light on people who were in prisons, people who were welfare rights activists, tenants' rights activists, and also in the international arena." [[Tavis Smiley]] calls Ture "one of the most underappreciated, misunderstood, undervalued personalities this country's ever produced".<ref name="pbs.org"/>
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In 2002, the American-born scholar [[Molefi Kete Asante]] listed Ture as one of his [[100 Greatest African Americans]].<ref>Asante, Molefi Kete (2002), ''10 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia''. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. {{ISBN|1-57392-963-8}}.{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref>
Ture<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jeffries |first1=Hasan Kwame |last2=Carmichael |first2=Stokely |last3=Thelwell |first3=Ekwueme Michael |title=Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) |journal=The Journal of Negro Education |date=2004 |volume=73 |issue=4 |pages=459 |doi=10.2307/4129630 |jstor=4129630 |s2cid=143806831 |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c97b/79701ae6a629ad3bc4e6916ecadab9630983.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219085910/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c97b/79701ae6a629ad3bc4e6916ecadab9630983.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2020-02-19 }}</ref> is also remembered for his actions in James Meredith's March Against Fear in June 1966, when he issued the call for Black Power. When Meredith got shot, Carmichael came up with the phrase and gathered a crowd to chant it in Greenwood, Mississippi. Already, earlier that day, he had been arrested for the 27th time; he spoke to over 3,000 people that day in the park. Ture was angry that day because black people had been "chanting" freedom for almost six years with no results, so he wanted to change the chant.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cobb |first1=Charlie |title=Revolution: From Stokely Carmichael To Kwame Ture |journal=The Black Scholar |date=14 April 2015 |volume=27 |issue=3–4 |pages=32–38 |doi=10.1080/00064246.1997.11430870 }}</ref> He also participated in and contributed to the Black Freedom Struggle. Many people have overlooked his involvement in the movement.<ref>{{Citation|last=Sullivan|first=Kenneth R.|title=
==Controversies==
===Views on Adolf Hitler===
Although he stated in his posthumously published memoirs that he had never been anti-semitic, in 1970 Carmichael proclaimed: "I have never admired a white man, but the greatest of them, to my mind, was Hitler."<ref name="Sundquist2009">{{cite book|author=Eric J Sundquist|title=Strangers in the Land: Blacks, Jews, Post-Holocaust America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dI8cUKQplgC&pg=PA316|date=June 30, 2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-04414-2|pages=315–317}}</ref> However, Carmichael in the same speech condemned Hitler on moral grounds, Carmichael himself stating:▼
▲Although he stated in his posthumously published memoirs that he had never been anti-semitic, in 1970 Carmichael proclaimed: "I have never admired a white man, but the greatest of them, to my mind, was [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]."<ref name="Sundquist2009">{{cite book|
<blockquote>Adolph Hitler—I'm not putting a judgment on what he did—if you asked me for my judgment morally, I would say it was bad, what he did was wrong, was evil, etc. But I would say he was a genius, nevertheless ... You say he's not a genius because he committed bad acts. That's not the question. The question is, he does have genius. Now when we condemn him morally or ethically, we will say, well, he was absolutely wrong, he should be killed, he should be murdered, etc., etc. ... But if we're judging his genius objectively, we have to admit that the man was a genius. He forced the entire world to fight him. He was fighting America, France, Britain, Russia, Italy once— then they switched sides—all of them at the same time, and whipping them. That's a genius, you cannot deny that.<ref>Ferreti, Fred [https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/14/archives/carmichael-in-objective-view-sees-hitler-as-greatest-white.html "Carmichael, in 'Objective' View, Sees Hitler as 'Greatest White'"], "The New York Times", April 14, 1970. Retrieved March 9, 2017</ref></blockquote>▼
▲<blockquote>Adolph Hitler—I'm not putting a judgment on what he did—if you asked me for my judgment morally, I would say it was bad, what he did was wrong, was evil, etc. But I would say he was a genius, nevertheless ... You say he's not a genius because he committed bad acts. That's not the question. The question is, he does have genius. Now when we condemn him morally or ethically, we will say, well, he was absolutely wrong, he should be killed, he should be murdered, etc., etc. ... But if we're judging his genius objectively, we have to admit that the man was a genius. He forced the entire world to fight him. He was fighting America, France, Britain, Russia, Italy once— then they switched sides—all of them at the same time, and whipping them. That's a genius, you cannot deny that.<ref>{{cite news|last=Ferreti
===Views on women===
In November 1964 Carmichael made a joking remark in response to a SNCC [[position paper]] written by his friends [[Casey Hayden]] and Mary E. King on the position of women in the movement. In the course of an irreverent comedy monologue he performed at a party after SNCC's Waveland conference, Carmichael said, "The position of women in the movement is prone."<ref>Greenberg, Cheryl Lynn
<blockquote>While the remark was made in jest during a 1964 conference, Carmichael and black-power activists did embrace an aggressive vision of
Carmichael's colleague, [[John Lewis]], stated in his autobiography, ''[[March (comics)|March]]'', that the comment was a joke, uttered as Carmichael and other SNCC officials were "blowing off steam" following the adjournment of a meeting at a staff retreat in [[Waveland, Mississippi]].<ref>[[John Lewis|Lewis, John]] (2016). ''[[March (comics)|March: Book Three]]'', [[Top Shelf Productions]] ([[Marietta, Georgia]]), p. 140.</ref> When asked about the comment, former SNCC field secretary Casey Hayden stated: "Our paper on the position of women came up, and Stokely in his hipster rap comedic way joked that 'the proper position of women in SNCC is prone'. I laughed, he laughed, we all laughed. Stokely was a friend of mine."<ref name=
Carmichael appointed several women to posts as project directors during his tenure as chairman of SNCC; by the latter half of the 1960s (considered to be the "Black Power era"), more women were in charge of SNCC projects than during the first half.<ref>{{cite book|first=Barbara |last=Ransby
==In popular culture==
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=== Music ===
* Carmichael's speeches have been sampled by composer and DJ [[Hideki Naganuma]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20231015200555/https://www.whosampled.com/sample/255819/Hideki-Naganuma-The-Concept-of-Love-Stokely-Carmichael-Free-Huey/
=== Stage ===
* Nambi E. Kelley's play ''Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution'' premiered at the [[Court Theatre (Chicago)|Court Theatre]] in Chicago in May 2024. Anthony Irons portrayed Carmichael.<ref>{{cite news|last=Jones|first= Chris|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/06/03/review-stokely-at-court-theatre-is-an-unfinished-story-of-a-uncompromising-radical/|title=Review: ‘Stokely’ at Court Theatre is an unfinished story of a uncompromising radical|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=June 3, 2024|access-date= June 5, 2024}}</ref>
==Works==
* ''
* ''
* ''Black Power'' (1968), Liberation Records DL-6▼
*''Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)'' (2005) {{ISBN|978-0684850047}}▼
* ''Free Huey!'' (1970), Black Forum/Motown Records BF-452 (reissued in 2022 as Black Forum/Motown/UMe/Universal 456 139)▼
▲*''Black Power'' (1968), Liberation Records DL-6
▲* ''Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)'' (2005), {{ISBN|978-0684850047}}
▲*''Free Huey!'' (1970), Black Forum/Motown Records BF-452 (reissued in 2022 as Black Forum/Motown/UMe/Universal 456 139)
==See also==
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==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |last1=Carmichael |first1=Stokely |title=Toward Black Liberation |journal=The Massachusetts Review |date=1966 |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=639–651 |jstor=25087498 }}
* Carmichael, Stokely (and [[Ekwueme Michael Thelwell]]), ''Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)''. New York: Scribner, 2005.
* Carmichael, Stokely (and [[Charles V. Hamilton]]), ''Black Power: The Politics of Liberation''. Vintage; reissued 1992.
* Carmichael, Stokely, ''Stokely Speaks: Black Power Back to Pan-Africanism''. Random House, 1971, 292 pages.
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{{commons category}}
{{Wikiquote|Stokely Carmichael}}
* [https://snccdigital.org/people/stokely-carmichael/ SNCC Digital Gateway: Stokely Carmichael]
*{{IMDb name|id=0138460}}
*{{Curlie|Society/Politics/Nationalism/Black/Black_Panther_Party/Carmichael,_Stokely/}}
* [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/USAcarmichael.htm Stokely Carmichael] at Spartacus Educational.
* [http://courses.washington.edu/spcmu/carmichael/ Stokely Carmichael page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207163757/http://courses.washington.edu/spcmu/carmichael/ |date=December 7, 2010 }}.
* [http://vault.fbi.gov/Stokely%20Carmichael Stokely Carmichael FBI Records] - Stokely Carmichael records at FBI's The Vault Project.
* [http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0002vc0p Image of Stokely Carmichael, speaking with a crowd of more than 6500 at Will Rogers Park in Los Angeles, California, 1966.] [[Los Angeles Times]] Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, [[Charles E. Young Research Library]], [[University of California, Los Angeles]].
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===Videos===
* Montgomey Interview video at The Jack Rabin Collection of Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists [https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/jack-rabin-collection-alabama-civil-rights-and-southern-activists/southern-1 Stokely Carmichael]
*[http://www.panafricanperspective.com/zionism.html Kwame Ture on Zionism]
*[https://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/people/people_carmichael.html February 17, 1968] on [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]].org
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[[Category:American pan-Africanists]]
[[Category:American socialists]]
[[Category:Anti-
[[Category:Black Power]]
[[Category:COINTELPRO targets]]
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