Carmichael, Stokely

Carmichael, Stokely, 1941–98, African-American social activist, b. Trinidad. He lived in New York City after 1952 and graduated from Howard Univ. in 1964. Carmichael participated in the Congress of Racial Equality's "freedom rides" in 1961, and by 1964 was a field organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Alabama. As SNCC chair in 1966, he ejected more moderate leaders and set off a storm of controversy by calling for "black power," a concept he elaborated in a 1967 book (with C. Hamilton). His increasingly separatist politics isolated him from most of the civil-rights movement, and he emigrated to Conakry, Guinea, in 1969. There he spent the rest of his life, calling himself a pan-African revolutionary but largely relegated to the political fringe. He changed his name to Kwame Ture, and was briefly married to the singer Miriam Makeba. His memoir Ready for Revolution was posthumously published in 2003.

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Carmichael, Stokely (1941–  ) radical activist; born in Trinidad. A carpenter's son, he emigrated to America (1952) and was shocked by the racism he encountered. Involved in civil rights while attending Howard University (1960–64), he was elected leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and changed the group's focus from integration to "black liberation." Gifted, handsome, and articulate, he popularized the phrase "black power" and as a Black Panther came to symbolize black violence to many whites. He came to favor forging alliances with radical whites and resigned from the Panthers over this approach (1968). He and his wife, South African singer Miriam Makeba, moved to Guinea (1969), where he supported Pan-Africanism. He eventually returned to the U.S.A., but he dropped out of all civil rights activities.