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Stokely Carmichael Facts

Stokely Carmichael Facts
Stokely Carmichael was a Trinidad and Tobago born African-American civil rights activist. Carmichael was an early member and organizer of the Student Nonviolent Organizing Committee (SNCC) and is known for the steering the group in a more radical direction that advocated the policy of black nationalism. He is often credited by historians for popularizing the term "black power" and giving inspiration to organizations such as the Black Panthers, which he joined in the late 1960s. Carmichael would later move to the African nation of Guinea where he died. Stokely Carmichael was born on June 29, 1941 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago to Adolphus and Mabel Carmichael. He moved with his parents to the Harlem section of New York City in 1952, later becoming an American citizen. Carmichael was married twice and had two children.
Interesting Stokely Carmichael Facts:
Carmichael's first taste of activism came when he participated in the boycott of a White Castle restaurant in the Bronx that refused to hire blacks.
Carmichael attended Howard University, where he first became involved with the SNCC
While with the SNCC, Carmichael participated in the 1961, the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, and numerous other black voter registration campaigns across the deep south.
Carmichael became the chair of the SNCC in 1966 and stepped down in May 1967.
While participating in the "March against Fear" from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi in 1966, Carmichael was arrested, when he was released from jail he gave his famous "black power" speech.
Carmichael moved the SNCC in a more black militant/nationalist/separatist direction and when it did not go far enough in that direction, he joined the Black Panthers in 1968
He was almost as active in the anti-Vietnam War movement as he was in the Civil Rights Movement.
Carmichael's move toward black nationalism and anti-Vietnam War activities eventually earned him the attention and ire of F.B.I. direction, J. Edgar Hoover, who began actively investigating the activist.
He eventually split from the Black Panthers over doctrinal and personal differences. Carmichael believed that the Panthers should have taken a more racial separatist stance, while other Panthers, most notably Huey Newton, began saying that Carmichael was a government agent.
After moving to Guinea in 1968, Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Touré, although he was reportedly still fine with people referring to him by his birth name.
Carmichael was a life-long friend and admirer of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Later in his life, Carmichael focused his activism on Pan-Africanism, founding the All-African People's Revolutionary Party.
Carmichael was jailed for three days in 1986 by the at the time new government of Guinea for supporting the regime of Sékou Touré, who was accused of numerous human rights violations, including imprisoning and torturing his political opponents.
Carmichael died due to complications from prostate cancer on November 15, 1998 at age of fifty-seven in Conakry Guinea.
His first wife, Miriam Makeba, was a noted black South African singer, exile, and anti-Apartheid activist.


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