Stokely Carmichael (29 June 1941-15 November 1998), also known as Kwame Ture, was the Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from May 1966 to June 1967, succeeding John Lewis and preceding H. Rap Brown. Carmichael was also a black power leader, and he became the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panthers.
Biography[]
Stokely Carmichael was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on 29 June 1941, and he came to the United States in 1952 to rejoin his parents, who had moved there in 1943. His family lived in Harlem, New York City, New York, and Carmichael attended the historically black Howard University in Washington DC, graduating in 1964 with a degree in philosophy after taking part in Freedom Rides. After graduation, he became a full-time SNCC volunteer in Mississippi, working with grassroots African-American organizations during the Freedom Summer and taking part in the Selma to Montgomery marches.
SNCC chairman[]
MLK and Carmichael in 1966
In 1966, Carmichael became Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and he told Martin Luther King Jr. that he should focus on promoting "Black Power", coining the term. Carmichael also popularized the chant "Hell no, we won't go!" during anti-Vietnam War protests, and he became a celebrity, angering people within the SNCC. Carmichael stepped down as SNCC chairman in 1967 to let H. Rap Brown become the new chairman, as Carmichael was moving in a different direction from the SNCC. Carmichael was targeted by COINTELPRO for his socialist views, and the FBI aimed to prevent an SNCC-Black Panthers merger by discrediting Carmichael and labelling him as a CIA agent; Carmichael was expelled from the SNCC and criticized by the Panthers as a result.
Life in Africa[]
Carmichael in Africa
In 1969, he decided to travel from Africa and distance himself from the Panthers, and he lived in Guinea under Ahmed Sekou Toure's socialist regime. Carmichael renamed himself "Kwame Ture" after Toure, and he was a political operative in Guinea until a 1984 coup toppled Toure's government. Carmichael was treated for prostate cancer in Cuba in 1996, with the Nation of Islam sending him funds to pay for his medical bills. Nevertheless, he died on 15 November 1998 in Conakry, Guinea at the age of 57, having claimed that the FBI had infected him with cancer in an assassination attempt.
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