Black Power:
While the Black Civil Rights movement did achieve some things like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, but there wasn't any improvement in terms of economics and social life. Many black people saw the barriers in the these Acts, and were inspired by Malcolm X, a former liberationist, to take the law into their own hands.
March Against Fear:
The 'March Against Fear' was a major march in the south during the civil rights movement. Activist James Meredith launched the event on June 6 1966. He planned to do a 220 mile march to counter racism in Mississippi the two years before people was able to register. He invited only black men to join because he didn’t want it to be a big media event. On the second day of the walk he was shot by a white gunman. People say he was shot because he has made public challenges towards the segregationist Mississippi. The SNNC, SCLC, MFDP, CORE and the MCHR took part with the deacons for defence and justice for protection. At the end of the march there was about 15,000 people that entered the capital of Jackson on June 26th. This made it the largest civil rights march in history.
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Above: Protesters marching through rural Mississippi
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Stokely Carmichael:
Stokely Carmichael was the controversial leader of the SNCC in the 1960's. He was born in Trinidad and Tobago on June 29th, 19412. He worked with many different people to stage protests, like Martin Luther King Jr. But by the time he had moved up the ranks to chairman of the SNCC, he had become tired of this non-violence as he thought no progress was being made. A new, young, and more radical revolution started called "Black Power", and Stokely thought that could actually do some damage to the white racists instead of no violence. He changed the SNCC completely, like barring whites from entering anymore. The term Black Power now struck fear into the hearts of the whites, which was what they wanted, as they put the term "Black Power" into the category of separatist. After joining the Black Panthers for a while (see below), Stokely retired to Guinea for the rest of his life. He died on November 15th, 1998 at age 57.
Black Panthers:
The Black Panthers were a group of black people that were willing to use violence to get what they needed. They sounded like they used violence all the time, but in reality, for the right reasons, they helped out. They created a program that gave free food to the poor, medical clinics that provided basic healthcare for free, and much more.
FACTS: - The Black Panthers monitored the police activity in black communities - The Party grew extremely fast and gained lots of members - They used the media to their advantage - They sold a newspaper of themselves |
Above: The Black Panther Party.
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