Heros in the Civil Rights - William Fremd High School

Information on Stokely Carmichael
Student Handout •
Stokely Carmichael was one of the most
outspoken leaders of the civil rights
movement during the 1960s. Carmichael
was born in 1941 and raised on the
Caribbean island of Trinidad. When he
was 11 years old, his family immigrated to
the United States and settled on the East
Coast. Stokely was an intelligent young
man, and in his teens he set out to become
a medical doctor. Though he gained
admission to prestigious Harvard
University, he chose instead to attend
Howard University, an all-black and
politically active college in Washington DC. It was there that he began his involvement in
the Civil-Rights Movement, joining sit-in demonstrations and freedom rides with the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC (pronounced "snick"). As a result of his
activism, Carmichael was beaten by whites, imprisoned in cold jail cells, and shocked with
;--- electric cattle prods.
• Where did Carmichael grow up?
• In what way did he become involved with civil rights?
Despite this harsh treatment, Carmichael was undeterred from his aim to help African
Americans achieve civil rights. Starting in 1964, he focused his efforts on organizing black
communities to gain increased political power through voter registration. Carmichael began
his campaign in Lowndes County, Alabama-perhaps the most racist and dangerous county
in the state. He founded the Lowndes County Freedom Organization to assist Mrican
Americans in passing voter registration tests. Within one year, the percentage of black voters
increased from 0 to 46 percent.
As the 1960s wore on, Carmichael became increasingly convinced that moderate civil rights
leaders were ineffective, and that they made too many compromises to achieve civil rights
advances. He began to advocate increased militancy (vigorous support for a cause) from
Mrican Americans, pointing out that southern politicians did little to prosecute racists
involved in lynching and bombings. Carmichael's persistence and anger at injustice were an
inspiration to many blacks who had been terrorized by white police brutality and the Ku
Klux Klan. Under Carmichael's leadership, some blacks armed themselves for self-defense
and guarded their churches against nighttime mob attacks. They agreed with Carmichael that
the freedom struggle needed to move beyond a strictly nonviolent stance and consider selfdefense
an appropriate response to racist attacks.
© Teachers' Curriculum Institute USH-12-S, Activity 2.3, Page 9