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Riley Aafedt
English 101
Adam Padgett
3 November 2015
Black Power
In October of 1966 Stokely Carmichael, also known as Kwame Ture, gave a speech
entitled Black Power at the University of California Berkley in front of a mostly white crowd.
This speech talked about how the white people of America created laws because of blacks and
that the black race has not been integrated into the American society. Many of the ideas and
statements stated in Carmichaels speech were influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and
other civil rights leaders during that time period.
In the early paragraphs of his speech, Stokely Carmichael explains that institutions
that function in this country [America] are clearly racist, and that theyre built upon racism.
(Carmichael 248) Indications of this statement are found all throughout American history. During
the early years of the colonies, Europeans coming to the new world would often force Native
Americans off their land and use it for themselves. According to www.njcu.edu The attitude of
the British colonists and early American settlers toward Native Americans was patronizing and
racist. They felt the Indians were uncivilized savages and were inferior to the Europeans. Thus
the settlers felt justified in forcing the Indians off their land. (NJCU 4) These historical events
would cause Carmichael to talk about how America was founded on racism and that it is still
alive and active during his time. Also, this speech is delivered in 1966 after the Civil Rights Act
of 1964, which outlawed unequal education, but before the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther

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King Jr. Therefore, it was delivered during a shaky time in the U.S., where equal education was
available, but blacks still were not treated as equal as whites were.
During another portion of Stokely Carmichaels speech he says No man can given
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. (Carmichael 249) The author is describing how America has
been built on this idea that it is completely right and just to steal a mans freedom from him in
order to further your own success. Most of this idea however, has come from the origins of
slavery in Europe. www.historyextra.com states The Portuguese had a solution. When their
sailors first established trading links with coastal West Africa, they found an existing African
slave system that could be turned to their advantage. By the mid-16th century, when sugar
plantations introduced to Brazil required a cheap source of labour, the Portuguese settlers looked
not to the native Indians but across the Atlantic to the slaves they could easily ship from Africa.
(Cossins 3) As the settlers in colonial times realized they could not do all the work themselves,
they didnt have much of an option but to turn to slavery. They attempted to enslave the Native
American people, but discovered most had been abolished by European diseases and those who
were left did not show indications of being able to perform most tasks. The European settlers
then turned to Africa as their prime source for slaves, knowing they could transport them across
the Atlantic in large quantities and fairly quickly. These historical events could be the cause
behind what Carmichael is trying to say in this portion of his speech.
Another section states Now it is clear that when this country started to move in terms of
slavery, the reason for a man being picked was one reason-because of the color of his skin. If one
was black one was automatically inferior, inhuman, and therefore fit for slavery (Carmichael
251) The fact that the white population in America could not see equality in blacks is what drove

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almost the entire black community to fight for their rights. Some cases where blacks were
purposely abused are described by the Washington Post: Black Floridians were deliberately
exposed to swarms of mosquitoes carrying yellow fever and other diseases in experiments
conducted by the Army and the CIA in the early 1950s. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, black
inmates at Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison were used as research subjects by a University of
Pennsylvania dermatologist testing pharmaceuticals and personal hygiene products; some of
these subjects report pain and disfiguration even now. During the 1960s and '70s, black boys
were subjected to sometimes paralyzing neurosurgery by a University of Mississippi researcher
who believed brain pathology to be the root of the children's supposed hyperactive behavior.
(Washington 5) These are just some of the cruel and unusual punishments the government
enforced on blacks because of how they were viewed by the whites of America.
Stokely Carmichaels speech Black Power was an inspirational and powerful one.
Many statements and regards made in it have been influenced by events that took place during
the time period and previous to that. That is how Carmichael formulated his arguments about
change that needed to take place and inspired others to fight for change.

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Works Cited

"Native Americans." Native Americans. New Jersey City University, n.d. Web. 05 Nov.

2015.
Carmichael, Stokely. "Black Power." 2015. The Carolina Reader. Plymouth, MI: Hayden-

McNeil, 2015. 248-60. Print.

Cossins, Dan. "The Origins of Slavery." History Extra. Immediate Media Company Ltd.,

24 Aug. 2011. Web. 06 Nov. 2015.

Washington, Harriet A. "Unequal Treatment." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 07
Jan. 2007. Web. 06 Nov. 2015.