Stokely Carmichael

Shout out to Stokely Carmichael—civil rights activist and prominent leader during the Black Power movement.

As a Freedom Rider and Howard University student, majoring in Philosophy, you joined the fight in the South in 1961. In your quest to integrate interstate commerce, you departed from New Orleans—where Homer Plessy was arrested, leading to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold “separate but equal” doctrine on May 18, 1896—and were detained in Mississippi with several others where you served 53 days in a maximum security prison for disturbing the peace.

After the shooting of James Meredith in June 1966, you gave an impassioned speech in which you popularized the phrase “Black Power” to embrace our heritage and culture through racial pride. With advocacy from allies such as revolutionary Alan McSurely, your brother, you fought for social and economic justice and against white supremacy. You deeply believed that “A man is born free.”

Following the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, you were identified as the next “Black Messiah,” along with Chairman Fred Hampton, by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Instead of being another imprisoned or assassinated victim of the FBI’s COINTELPRO that fixated on Black revolutionaries, you migrated to Ghana in 1968. On January 5, 2022, Homer Plessy was pardoned by the Governor of Louisiana. This is directly attributed to your fight and the fight for justice from others all over the world.

#BlackHistoryMonth™ #BHM #BlackPower

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