Stokely Carmichael: The Life and Legacy of the Civil Rights Activist Who Led the Black Power Movement

Summary

“Our grandfathers had to run, run, run. My generation's out of breath. We ain't running no more.” – Stokely Carmichael

In the late 1960s, Stokely Carmichael would become one of the most influential and controversial figures in America, founding and leading new organizations while being meticulously shadowed by the country’s national security apparatus, particularly J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. The attention would ultimately compel him to move to Africa, where he changed his name to Kwame Ture and became one of the world’s most famous Pan-African leaders until his death in Guinea in 1998.

Since then, he has remained a subject of both praise and criticism, from contemporaries and historians alike. SNCC Chairman Phil Hutchings, despite being the one who pushed Carmichael out of the organization, aptly summed up the dichotomy: "Even though we kidded and called him 'Starmichael', he could sublimate his ego to get done what was needed to be done....He would say what he thought, and you could disagree with it but you wouldn't cease being a human being and someone with whom he wanted to be in relationship."