Black history Speaks: Stokely Carmichael national chairman of SNCC

Stokely Carmichael was a U.S. civil-rights activist who in the 1960s originated the Black nationalism rallying slogan, “Black Power.” Born in Trinidad, he immigrated to New York City in 1952. While attending Howard University, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was jailed for his work with Freedom Riders. He moved away from MLK Jr’s nonviolent approach to self-defense. Did you know? Stokely Carmichael was only nineteen when he participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides; he became the youngest person imprisoned for his participation after he was arrested while attempting to integrate a “whites only“ cafeteria in Jackson, MI. In 1954, at the age of 13, Stokely Carmichael became a naturalized American citizen and his family moved to a predominantly Italian and Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx called Morris Park. Soon Carmichael became the only Black member of a street gang called the Morris Park Dukes. In 1956, he passed the admissions test to get into the prestigious Bro