In the African American community you can occasionally see people holding up their fist, wearing a button that has the Black fist on it, or saying "Black Power" when there is some type of event that might be discussing Black issues.
But does everyone who uses "Black Power" understand where it came from. Allow me to take you back in history for a moment towards the end of the Civil Rights Movement. This was the point when the movement went from non-violent to the urban riots. Let's see how the chairman of SNCC, Stokely Carmichael, a former Howard University student, changed history.
On the night of June 17, in the Mississippi Delta town of Greenwood, Stokely Carmichael stood before a crowd of marchers, journalists, and local Blacks shortly after he was arrested and released by local police. "Every courthouse in Mississippi ought to be burned down to get rid of the dirt," he said.
"This is the twenty-seventh time I have been arrested," he added. "I ain't going to jail no more. The only way we gonna stop them white men from whupping us is to take over. We been saying, 'Freedom Now' for six years and we ain't got nothin'. What we gonna start saying now is Black Power."
Willie Ricks, a SNCC staffer who styled himself a Black nationalist and had been using the term "Black Power" for months, stepped onto the platform
and shouted to the crowd, "What do you want?"
"Black Power," the crowd shouted back. Carmichael also issued a challenge, of sorts, to reporters in front of him. "I don't think the newsmen can interpret me," he said, "because they aren't black."
There was acceptance and criticism of this term.
John Lewis, the former SNCC chairman, thought that "Black Power" could divide the races and the movement.
Martin Luther King felt that the term, at best, was an unfortunate choice of words.
Roy Wilkins of the NAACP was outraged. He called Black Power, "the father of hatred and the mother of violence".
But many Blacks felt that it helped them come together more, appreciate their race, and get the attention of White America.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Wednesday, September 22nd 2010 at 8:18AM
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