Stokely Carmichael's 1966 speech on Black Power had a significant rhetorical impact and continues to influence discussions on racial equality today. In the speech, Carmichael argues that Black Power means self-determination for African Americans and critiques the "white savior complex" of liberal whites. He also highlights the non-violent stance of SNCC and uses rhetorical questions to challenge his audience. Modern groups like Black Lives Matter draw from some of Carmichael's philosophies while also distinguishing themselves. Artists like Kendrick Lamar also incorporate Black Power themes, showing Carmichael's continued relevance.

1. Carl Bligan
Stokely Carmichael’s “Black Power”: a Rhetorical Criticism
Stokely Carmichael is a name that is unfortunately not discussed nearly enough in high
school history textbooks. The names of civil rights leaders and activists like Martin Luther King,
Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks are commonplace in middle and high school curricula; and
rightfully so. They were all hugely influential figures who would change American society for
the better. However, the name Kwame Touré—or Stokely Carmichael, as he would be known
after his emigration to the United States at age 11—is often overlooked or relegated to the blurbs
in the margins. Maybe this is because suburban white society is still turned off by the notion of
Black Power and the Black Panther Party. Whatever the case may be, Stokely Carmichael is a
name that deserves to be taught to kids more frequently. His speech on Black Power beautifully
embodies why this is the case. Given at a conference sponsored by the Students for a Democratic
Society at UC Berkley, his speech beautifully articulated what Black Power stood for.
Additionally, Carmichael points the finger at white moderates who were also on the side of
equality for all and illustrating what they should do in order to better the lives of black people
and, in a way, themselves. As a piece of rhetoric, its significance lies in the fact that its main goal
was to ask rhetorical questions of the audience and, in doing so, force them to ask questions of
themselves and their motives—a highly successful form of rhetorical discourse. The speech’s
significance also lies in the fact that it would go on to become almost the antithesis of much of
the rhetoric used by the modern Black Lives Matter movement—yet also be an important
stepping stone to where we are today with the prominence of Black Lives Matter—while also
being adopted into modern pop culture by artists like Kendrick Lamar.

2. A common misconception of the term Black Power is that it signified militancy, rioting,
and violence. A poll conducted by the University of Michigan in 1967, the height of the Black
Power movement, concluded that about 60 percent of white correspondents believed that the
term signified black dominance and reverse racism (Jeffries, “Black Power” pg. 324).
(Unfortunately, this misconception continues to this very day with people protesting and
boycotting the music of Beyoncé after she dressed like members of the Black Panther Party
during her performance at this year’s Super Bowl.) This fact was not lost on Stokely Carmichael,
who made it one of the key points in his speech on the subject at UC Berkley. In section 26 of
the speech, Carmichael states, “That is not to say that one is a reverse racist […] One is
becoming an ‘antiracist racist.’ And this country can’t understand that. Maybe it’s because it’s all
caught up in racism.” Carmichael says this shortly after highlighting the importance for black
people to be able to be seen in positions of power with a sense of autonomy, and without the help
of white people. This would effectively allow black people to see themselves as equal to whites,
which had been such a difficult concept in years prior due to constant interference from—
admittedly well-intentioned—white people. One of the most poignant lines advocating for black
independence comes in section 32 of Carmichael’s speech, where he begins discussing the
common fallacy that all who work hard in America will succeed—a point that if it were true, he
says, black people would own this country “lock, stock, and barrel.” He then paints a rhetorical
picture of slaves picking cotton for American industry, quickly followed by the statement, “It is
we who are the maids in the kitchens of liberal white people.” This line is significant for two
reasons. Firstly, its rhetorical proximity with the image he presents of slaves picking cotton in
the fields highlights the fact that white people still viewed themselves as superior to black
people—even the liberal, supposedly well-meaning ones. Secondly, it highlights the point

3. Carmichael was making earlier in the speech that white liberal “help” is in fact harming the black
community. Carmichael’s imagery in this portion of his speech really helps paint the picture and
explain why the “white savior complex” was such a caustic element in 1960s America.
Another important point Carmichael illustrates in his speech is the fact that SNCC was
vehemently against the Vietnam War. Carmichael uses this political stance as a rhetorical means
to instruct well-meaning liberal white people on how they can best help the African American
community, as well as the country at large. Carmichael highlights the immorality of President
Lyndon Baines Johnson and all of his henchmen responsible for getting the United States
involved in the quagmire that was the Vietnam War. This point is crucial to his argument, as it
establishes common ground between himself and white liberals in the audience who would have
been thinking something very similar. By doing so, he bridges the gap between the two
interested parties in the room and gives himself a leg up on getting the white liberal side to agree
with his points. Carmichael is quick to use SNCC’s anti-Vietnam War stance as a rhetorical
means of disproving the misconception that the Black Power movement was one of violence and
militancy. In section 28 of his speech, he declares, “There isn’t one organization that has begun
to meet our stance on the war in Vietnam, ’cause we not only say we are against the war in
Vietnam; we are against the draft!” Carmichael essentially points the finger at the people
hypocritically claiming that SNCC was a violent group and that Black Power was a violent
philosophy. He uses this point to illustrate the fact that the message of going against the draft has
to expand not only into black neighborhoods, but beyond that into white neighborhoods. The
only way for the United States to become a true force for peace, according to Carmichael, was
for all those eligible for the draft to stand up and say “Hell no”. This is an incredibly poignant
point, and one that helps disprove the violent view of Black Power held by many in the U.S.

4. Quite possibly the most important aspect of Carmichael’s speech is actually a result of his
personal speaking style. Nearly every new paragraph or phrase begins with either a rhetorical
question or with Carmichael illustrating a new problem to be discussed. This idea of constantly
questioning the audience is, first and foremost, akin to him questioning the American people at
large and challenging them to change their ways for the betterment of society. By doing this, he
also implores for more and more people to get involved with the causes he sets forth. For
instance, at the beginning of section 27, he says, “Now then, the question is, how can we move to
begin to change what’s going on in this country?” Shortly after this, he goes on to detail his call
for people to start resisting the draft in order to put an end to what he sees as an “illegal and
immoral war”. This speech mechanism of a call and response between the speaker and himself is
a useful rhetorical tool because it helps answer any critiques listeners may have had of his ideas.
The irony of Carmichael using this rhetorical method, however, is that it was also frequently
used by President Lyndon Baines Johnson—a man whom Carmichael would call an immoral,
lying buffoon in the same speech. President Johnson used it to achieve similar effects when he
gave his Address on Vietnam before the National Legislative Conference in 1967. Johnson asks,
“First, are the Vietnamese […] really making any progress? Is there a forward movement?” to
which he answers himself, “The reports I see make it clear that there is.” Johnson uses this
rhetorical device as a means of answering his critics without them actually being present.
Carmichael’s usage of this rhetorical tool could easily have been coincidental; after all, it is a
highly effective rhetorical device. However, it could also have been a tongue-in-cheek way of
either attacking the president or portraying himself as the antithesis to Johnson and the other
white liberals in the Democratic Party. In any case, Carmichael uses it to similar effect in order
to evoke an emotional response from his audience, as well as to create a call to arms for political

5. and societal revolution. Carmichael’s use of this rhetorical device helped solidify his points and
really got Americans thinking about their own places in the fight for Civil Rights, which is
undoubtedly one of the main goals of Carmichael’s speech.
Carmichael’s speech still has relevance in today’s society for a number of reasons.
Firstly, the rhetoric used by the Black Power movement in the 1960s has come to be shunned by
several key entities involved with the fight for racial equality in today’s society. For example, the
Black Lives Matter movement—probably the most well-known and divisive groups in the fight
for racial equality—takes great issue with some of the key aspects of the Black Power
movement. The main issue resides in the fact that the Black Power movement was seen by many
as overly masculine in nature and wound up shutting out many women from the movement. On
the position of women in SNCC, Carmichael infamously joked that, “The position of women in
SNCC is prone!” (King, “SNCC: Born of the Sit-Ins”). While this was meant to be an off-the-
cuff joke shared between friends, many feminists were understandably upset by it and felt
isolated by the movement. This sentiment continues to be felt to this day, as evidenced by the
fact that, in the “about” section on its website, the Black Lives Matter movement highlights their
issue with the idea of “narrow Black Nationalism” that effectively keeps “straight cis Black men
in the front of the movement while our sisters, queer and trans and disabled folk take up roles in
the background or not at all.” They also use the term “Herstory” for the section on the Black
Lives Matter website on the history of the Black Lives Matter movement, further diverging from
what its leaders see as the largely masculine, cisgendered approach taken up by many in the
Black Power movement of the 1960s. While it’s important to note this large disparity between
the two movements, it’s also important to note their similarities. Again, if one looks at the
“about” section on Black Lives Matter’s website, they’ll find this affirmation: “We have put our

6. sweat equity and love for Black people into creating a political project–taking the hashtag off of
social media and into the streets.” The rhetoric in this statement is highly similar to that used by
Carmichael in his Black Power speech. Carmichael’s call for real action—rather than merely
letting white liberals “run into the black community”, which he saw as detrimental to how black
people saw themselves as equal to white people—as well as political and societal revolution, is
very reminiscent of Black Lives Matter’s philosophy. Their status as a grassroots movement with
chapters all across the country, connected through social media (in the form of hashtags), and
committed to peaceful protests and demonstrations is almost certainly a modern incantation of
what SNCC was trying to do in the 1960s. In addition to the similarities in some aspects of the
rhetoric used by both Stokely Carmichael and the Black Lives Matter movement, one can also
see the continuance of the use of Black Power-inspired imagery and rhetoric used by several of
today’s key musical artists. One of the most prominent musicians who embodies this continued
philosophy is Kendrick Lamar, whose album To Pimp a Butterfly shows why Black Power is
still such an important idea in today’s society. This Black Power-inspired lyricism really shines
through on the track “The Blacker the Berry”—one of the most hard-hitting songs on the album,
both lyrically and musically. In his speech, Carmichael decries the action of sending young black
men to fight overseas in Vietnam by saying that they’re being made into “black mercenaries” in
the process. This, according to Carmichael, was being done by the white man in order to reap the
profits of war. Similarly, Kendrick alludes to the Zulu and Xhosa parties in South Africa who
were violently against each other during the era of Apartheid: “It’s funny how Zulu and Xhosa
might go to war, two tribal armies that want to build and destroy. Remind me of these Compton
Crip gangs that live next door…” Tensions between Zulus and Xhosas were, according to
journalist Scott Kraft in an article published in the LA Times, artificially generated by “political

7. and economic differences under white rule.” Lamar alludes to these warring ideals and how they
were ultimately used by the white man to generate profit from an abused people. This line is
highly reminiscent of the rhetoric used throughout Carmichael’s Black Power speech, and shows
why Carmichael’s influence continues to reverberate in today’s society, and why his philosophy
should be more openly taught in schools across the country.
Carmichael’s speech on Black Power remains, to this day, an extremely important piece
of historical rhetoric. His usage of rhetorical questions to force the audience—and America at
large—to re-evaluate itself shows why he was so effective as a speaker and as a rhetorician. His
speech shows how the Black Power movement was a logical stepping stone to the movements
we have going on today, like Black Lives Matter (which, to the chagrin that Carmichael would
be feeling were he still alive, is still definitely a necessary movement in today’s society). The
influence his philosophy continues to have on modern art and political movements is profound,
and is something that should not be overlooked or marginalized by high school textbooks.

8. Works Cited
"Black Lives Matter Freedom & Justice for All Black Lives." Black Lives Matter RSS2. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.
Cheryl Lynn Greenberg, "SNCC: Born of the Sit-Ins, Dedicated to Action-Remembrances of
Mary Elizabeth King", Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement website.
Jeffries, Judson L. "Black Power." Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. Ed. Patrick L. Mason. 2nd
ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2013. 284-289. Gale Virtual Reference
Library. Web. 26 Mar. 2016.
Kraft, Scott. "Myths Blur Rivalries of South Africa." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 04
Sept. 1990. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.
Lamar, Kendrick, George Clinton, Thundercat, Bilal, Anna Wise, Snoop Dogg, James
Fauntleroy, and Ronald Isley. To Pimp a Butterfly. Kendrick Lamar. 2015. CD.
Lyndon B. Johnson: "Address on Vietnam Before the National Legislative Conference, San
Antonio, Texas.," September 29, 1967. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T.
Woolley, The American Presidency Project.