Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture

From Social Justice Wiki

�The concept of Black Power rests on a fundamental premise: Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks�. - Stokely Carmichael

1 BACKGROUND
2 BIOGRAPHY
3 BIBLIOGRAPHY
4 RELEVANT LINKS
5 COLLEAGUES AND CONTEMPORARIES

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BACKGROUND

Stokely Carmichael was born in Trinidad in 1941 raised by his grandmother after his parents moved to the United States for greater economic opportunity. He moved to Harlem at the age of eleven. In New York, Carmichael's experience did not necessarily lead him immediately to activism, though he was childhood friends with Gene Dennis, the son of Eugene Dennis, chair of the Communist Party USA. Carmichael was a dedicated student and was selected to enroll in the "highly competitive, elite" mostly white Bronx High School of Science. He decided to forego scholarships to elite universities and would instead enroll at Howard University in 1960, with the short-lived intent of becoming a doctor. He became active in Howard's Nonviolent Action Group and joined the Freedom Riders before the end of his first year in college, marking the beginning of a long life of civil rights activism. Carmichael became chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1966, but they cut ties with him when he began to advocate "Black Power". Later his work on the �Free Huey� campaign led to him being named the Honorary Prime Minister of the Black Panthers; however he soon broke with the Panthers due to differing ideologies. He moved to Guinea, West Africa in 1969 and helped establish the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party. Once in Africa, he adopted a new name, Kwame Ture, and had his first marriage to Miriam Makeba, the South African singer. He had a second marriage to Marliatou Barre that produced a son, Boabacar Biro. Ture passed away in 1998 at the age of 57 from prostate cancer.

See timeline below for other important dates.