Stokely Carmichael

Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998) was born in Trinidad and immigrated to New York in 1952. At Howard University, Carmichael's involvement in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Nonviolent Action Group afforded him the opportunity to travel around the country as a freedom rider. In 1964 he helped to establish in Alabama the Lowndes County Freedom Organization—an organization that used an illustration of the black panther as a symbol of defiance prior to the Black Panther Party's use of the image—and in 1966 he became chairman of the SNCC. In June 1966 Carmichael introduced the term "Black Power" during a speech. The phrase later evolved to represent a movement that embraced self-determination, the right to bear arms, and racial pride.