Leaders in the Black Power Movement (9) Flashcards
Stokely Carmichael was born in ____ but went to high school and university in the US.
Trinidad
What was Carmichael’s early involvement in activism? (2)
- He joined the Students Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1961
- Deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement, as a Freedom Rider and as part of the Freedom Summer Project.
When did Stokely become the leader of the SNCC?
He became the leader of the SNCC in 1966. In the same year, James Meredith (the first black student to enrol at the University of Mississippi) was shot by a sniper while he was walking alone in a ‘March against Fear’ from Memphis to Jackson, to protest against racism.
Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King and other activists decided to continue the march to honor ____.
Meredith
Meredith himself rejoined the march after recovering in _____. During the march, Carmichael and others were arrested by the police. It was the __ time that he had been arrested for taking part in Civil Rights protests.
hospital
27th
What was Carmichael’s speech about?
When he was released from jail, Carmicheal made a famous speech using the term ‘Black Power’ for the first time.
What did African Americans call for? (3)
He called on African Americans to ‘unite’ to recognize
- their heritage,
- and to build a sense of community ‘
- and to form and lead their own organizations.
Other civil rights groups such as the ____ and the ____ rejected some of Carmichael’s ideas and accused him of black racism.
NAACP
SCLC
Carmichael also adopted the slogan Black is Beautiful ‘, which promoted…
pride in being black and rejected white notions of style and fashion. As a result, his followers wore Afro hairstyles and African-style clothing.
Who was Stokeley critical of?
He became increasingly critical of other leaders, such as Martin Luther King Jr, and their willingness to work with whites. He later left the SNCC and joined the Black Panther Party and became its ‘honorary prime minister’.
What happened when Carmichael spoke out against US involvement in the Vietnam War?
When Carmichael spoke out against US involvement in the Vietnam War, the US. government confiscated his passport for ten months.
After this he moved to ____ in West Africa (with his wife, the South African singer, ____ ____, whom he later divorced), where he wrote a book linking Black Power to ____-____. He lived there until his death from cancer in ___.
Guinea
Miriam Makeba
Pan-Africanism
1998
Who was known as the leading figure in the Black Power movement?
Malcolm Little, or Malcolm X as he became known, was a leading figure in the Black Power Movement.
What happened to Malcolm X’s father?
His father was a Baptist minister who had been killed by white racists when Malcolm was young.
Malcolm X drifted into crime and spent ___ years in prison, where he obtained the education he had missed and learned about the Black Muslim Movement.
10
What did Malcolm X do in relation to his surname after he came out prison?
When he came out of prison, he rejected his original surname, which he said was a name given to his ancestors by their white owners when they were slaves, and replaced it with X.
Malcolm X became a leading member of the ____ ___ ____, a Black Muslim group.
Nation of Islam
What did Malcolm X argue was necessary to confront racism?
He argued that violence was necessary to confront white racism, and as self-defense against groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
Malcolm X was a ___ speaker who gained a large following among young urban blacks.
fiery
What was Malcolm X critical of in terms of MLK?
He was critical of King’s non-violence, which he said had held back black people.
What did Malcolm X urge blacks to be proud of? (2)
- their heritage and their African roots
- to seize their freedom ‘by any means possible’.
What did Malcolm X encouraged in terms of racial integration? (2)
- Unlike the Civil Rights Movement which encouraged racial integration, Malcolm X promoted black separation, believing that blacks needed to be self-reliant. He became the most influential leader of the Black Power Movement.
- Malcolm X was also critical of King’s willingness to cooperate with whites. For example, he spoke out against the march on Washington, saying that it was ‘watered down’ because whites were allowed to participate in it, instead of it being a rally by blacks only. He referred to it as the ‘farce on Washington’ and said that while Martin Luther King Jr was having a dream ‘the rest of us Negroes are having a nightmare’.
Why was Malcolm X suspended from the Nation of Islam and what did he form?
In 1964 Malcolm X was suspended from the Nation of Islam because of his extremist views, and he formed his own organization, the Organization of Afro- American Unity.
How did Malcolm X’s views changed after his pilgrimage to Mecca?
After a pilgrimage to Mecca, he changed his views and adopted a less extreme position. He now urged African Americans to work together with sympathetic whites to end racism.
Like King, Malcolm X also died ____. He was assassinated in 1965, by fellow members of the Nation of Islam, after an ____ ___ in the organization.
violently
internal feud
