Revolution in Babylon: Stokely Carmichael and America in the 1960s¹

This essay is based on a larger, two-volume, in-progress biography of Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture. I would like to thank Manning Marable, Vanessa Agard-Jones, the Souls Editorial Working Group, Femi Vaughan, Daryl Toler, Larry Hughes, and Catarina A. da Silva for their thoughts and comments on this essay.

Abstract

Stokely Carmichael fundamentally transformed American race relations in the 1960s as a local organizer, national political mobilizer, and international icon. In doing so Carmichael both scandalized and helped to reshape American democracy, first as a local organizer in Washington, D.C.; the Mississippi Delta; and Lowndes County, Alabama and then as SNCC chairman and a Black Power advocate. This essay argues that the boundaries between the civil rights and Black Power eras have been too sharply drawn at the expense of a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of both periods. Civil rights and Black Power are rooted in distinct, yet overlapping origins that share a common history. Carmichael's evolution from a civil rights militant to Black Power revolutionary uncovers buried intimacies between the two eras while providing eye-opening new details about radical efforts to transform American democracy in the 1960s.

Keywords:

• Black Power
• black radicalism
• democracy
• internationalism
• Pan-Africanism
• Stokely Carmichael

Notes

This essay is based on a larger, two-volume, in-progress biography of Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture. I would like to thank Manning Marable, Vanessa Agard-Jones, the Souls Editorial Working Group, Femi Vaughan, Daryl Toler, Larry Hughes, and Catarina A. da Silva for their thoughts and comments on this essay.

For a comprehensive examination of the movement see Peniel E. Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America (New York: Henry Holt, 2006). See also Peniel E. Joseph, ed., The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era (New York: Routledge, 2006); Timothy B. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999); Charles Jones, ed., The Black Panther Party [Reconsidered] (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1998); Komozi Woodard, A Nation Within a Nation: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) & Black Power Politics (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999); Matthew Countryman, Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005); William L. Van Deburg, New Day in Babylon: Black Power and American Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); James Edward Smethurst, The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005); Curtis J. Austin, Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2006); Jama Lazerow and Yohuru Williams, eds., In Search of the Black Panther Party: New Perspective on a Revolutionary Movement (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006); Rod Bush, We Are Not What We Seem: Black Nationalism and Class Struggle in the American Century (New York: New York University Press, 1999); Manning Marable, Black American Politics: From the Washington Marches to Jesse Jackson (London: Verso, 1985); Mike Marqusee, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the 1960s (London: Verso, 1999); Nikhil Pal Singh, Black Is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004); Kathleen Cleaver, and George Katsiaficas, eds., Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party (New York: Routledge, 2001); Yohuru Williams, Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Black Panthers in New Haven (New York: Brandywine Press, 2000).

I use this term to describe the years between 1954's Brown Supreme Court decision and the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. This time frame encapsulates the master narrative of civil rights—from the Montgomery Bus Boycott to Emmet Till's Lynching; from the Little Rock Crisis to the sit-in movement; James Meredith's efforts to enroll at Ole Miss to the March on Washington and the passages of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Of course a plethora of new scholarship, including my own work, has illustrated the shortcomings of this periodization (some which is cited in the endnotes of this essay). In a fashion, this period represents America's modern day Iliad, with Martin Luther King starring as the tragic hero. The cataclysmic events of the period, with its marches, demonstrations, political assassinations, and interracial cast of powerbrokers, lends the era a cinematic flavor that has made for powerful narratives (both media driven and scholarly) but in the process ossify the movement's contemporary legacy, downplay its ideological diversity, ignore its radicalism, and demonize Black Power as its ruthlessly destructive twin. However, I use the term purposefully to show how historians can transform its meaning by expansively redefining the era's main actors, organizations, geography, and contemporary legacy. See Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour and The Black Power Movement.

Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, pp. 132–204; Stokely Carmichael with Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, Ready For Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (New York: Scribner, 2003).

See the special issues I edited on “Black Power Studies” in The Black Scholar 31(3–4) (Fall/Winter 2001) and 32(1) (Spring 2002); Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour and The Black Power Movement; Carmichael, Ready For Revolution.

Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, p. 192.

Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963 (New York: Touchstone, 1988), p. 483.

Carmichael was initially placed in the Hinds County Jail before being moved to Parchman Penitentiary. Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, pp. 198–201, 210–211; FBIKT 100-446080-1166, “Stokely Carmichael: Correlation Summary,” February 29, 1968, p. 2.

Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, p. 194.

Gordon Parks, “Whip of Black Power,” Life, May 19, 1967, p. 79; Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, pp. 247; Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, pp. 124–127.

Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, p. 277.

For Carmichael's relationship with local people in the south see Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981); Charles Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), p. 335; Carmichael, Ready For Revolution; Taylor Branch, At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–1968 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006); Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour. See also Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton, Black Power (New York: Random House, 1967) and Stokely Carmichael, Stokely Speaks (New York: Random House, 1971).

Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, pp. 149–161; Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, pp. 520–563.

Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, p. 124. For Black struggles in Mississippi during the civil rights era see Carson, In Struggle; Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom; John Dittmer, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995); Chana Kai Lee, For Freedom's Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999); Wesley C. Hogan, Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007). Branch, Parting the Waters, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–1965 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), and At Canaan's Edge; Adam Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King Jr. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001); David Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (New York: Harper Perennial, 1999).

Stokely Carmichael to Lorna D. Smith, January 15, 1966, pp. 1–4. Stokely Carmichael Lorna D. Smith Papers, Green Library, Stanford University. Hereafter cited as SCLDS.

Stokely Carmichael, “Who Is Qualified?,” The New Republic, January 8, 1966, p. 22.

Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, p. 130; Branch, At Canaan's Edge, pp. 462–465.

Branch, At Canaan's Edge, p. 465.

Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, pp. 132–147; Carson, In Struggle, pp. 209–211.

Lerone Bennett, Hr., “Stokely Carmichael: Architect of Black Power,” July 1966, Ebony. SNCC reprint of Ebony article, p. 1.

Ibid., p. 4.

Bernard Weinraub, “The Brilliancy of Black,” Esquire, January 1967, pp. 130, 132–134.

Branch, At Canaan's Edge, p. 593.

Ibid., p. 603.

King had come out against the war as early as 1965 but was quickly pressured into silence. SNCC subsequently became one of the war's leading critics and from June 1966–April 1967, Carmichael emerged as the Black freedom struggle's most vocal anti-war critic. See Branch, At Canaan's Edge, pp. 254–255, 308–309, 591–597; Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, pp. 179–183.

Parks, “Whip of Black Power,” p. 78.

Ibid.

Ibid., pp. 78, 80, 82. See also, Joseph, Waiting'Til the Midnight Hour; “King Near to Stokely?” Berkeley Barb, May 19–25, 1967.

Parks, “Whip of Black Power,” p. 82.

FBIKT 100-446080-NR, “Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: Stokely Carmichael,” May 17, 1967, p. 2. FBIKT 100-446080-197, “Stokely Carmichael,” p. 2. FBIKT 100-446080-230, Chicago Defender, May 15, 1967. For Carmichael's plans to resume organizing see Stokely Carmichael to Lorna D. Smith, February 4, 1967, p. 1. SCLDS.

FBIKT 100–446080–240, Memorandum, “Stokely Carmichael: Director's Testimony Before House Appropriations Subcommittee February 16, 1967,” May 17, 1967, p.1; FBIKT 100–446080–240X, “Proposed Appearance of Stokely Carmichael, Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 17, 1967,” p. 1; FBIKT 100-446080-205, “SNCC: Stokely Carmichael,” May 17, 1967, p. 2. Bureau files reported Carmichael asserting that Hoover was in his “dotage and should retire.” One angry citizen wrote the FBI director pledging support and alleging that, according to news accounts, Carmichael had referred to the director as “J. Edgar Notetaker.” See FBIKT 100-446080-214 Teletype, May 17, 1967, p. 1; FBIKT 100-446080-215, Correspondence to FBI director, May 18, 1967, p. 1. In Grand Rapids, Cleve Sellers gave a brief speech before Carmichael, discussing his decision to resist the draft. See FBIKT 100-446080-486, “Stokely Carmichael,” July 24, 1967, pp. 1–4.

FBIKT 100–446080–288, Airtel, “Stokely Carmichael,” June 8, 1967, p. 6.

FBIKT 100-446080-277, Memorandum, Assistant Attorney General Fred M. Vinson, Jr. to Director Hoover, “Stokely Carmichael,” June 13, 1967, p. 1; FBIKT 100-446080-454, Airgram, “Stokely Carmichael—Sedition,” August 8, 1967, pp. 1–2; FBIKT 100-446080-455, Teletype, “Stokely Carmichael—Sedition,” August 8, 1967, pp. 1–4; FBIKT 100-446080-464, Airmail, From Seattle SAC to Director Hoover, “Stokely Carmichael—Sedition,” August 8, 1967, pp. 1–2 (plus eight interviews).

FBIKT 100-446080-238, Airtel, Director Hoover to Atlanta SAC, “Stokely Carmichael,” May 25, 1967, pp. 1–2.

Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, pp. 182–183.

The Movement, July 1967. SCLDS.

Sol Stern, “The Call Of the Panthers,” New York Times Magazine, August 6, 1967.

Ibid.

Time, December 15, 1967, p. 28.

FBIKT 100-446080, The Observer Review, July 23, 1967.

Ibid.

Carmichael with Thelwell, Ready For Revolution, pp. 573–577.

Carmichael, Stokely Speaks, p. 86.

Ibid., pp. 88–89.

FBIKT 100-446080-521, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Special Memorandum, “Reportage and Comments on Stokely Carmichael's Activities and Statements Abroad,” p. 24.

Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, pp. 191–193; Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, pp. 572–582; Carson, In Struggle, p. 273.

Correspondence from Stokely Carmichael to SNCC, undated (probably Fall 1967). SNCC Papers, Reel 51, frame 14.

Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, pp. 616–618, 622–632; Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, pp. 195–197; Carson, In Struggle, pp. 276–277.

FBIKT 100-446080-1306, “Ndugu Stokely: From Africa,” pp. 1–8.

FBIKT 100-446080-1038, United States Information Agency, “Stokely Carmichael,” January 23, 1968, pp. 1–5; FBIKT 100-446080-1038, “Stokely Carmichael: Talk at Kivukoni College, November 6, 1967,” January 23, 1968, pp. 1–8; Carmichael with Thelwell, Ready For Revolution, pp. 635–638; “Stokely Irks African Rebel Leaders,” New York Post, November 20, 1967.

For King and the Poor People's March see Garrow, Bearing the Cross; Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America; Branch, At Canaan's Edge; Michael K. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007); and Thomas F. Jackson, From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Struggle for Economic Justice (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).

Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, pp. 648–650; FBIKT 100446080, “Stokely Carmichael,” pp. 77–78; Muhammad Speaks, February 23, 1968, p. 22.

FBIKT 100-446080-NR, “Washington Spring Project: Racial Matters,” February 9, 1968, pp. 1–3.

Carmichael's trip was unexpected and a surprise to even his closest advisors. FBIKT 100-446080-1173, “Stokely Carmichael,” February 26, 1968, pp. 1–12.

London Observer, March 24, 1968. SCLDS; Baltimore Afro-American, May 11, 1968, p. 21; Muhammad Speaks, May 24, 1968, p. 9; Carmichael with Thelwell, Ready For Revolution, pp. 652–656.

Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, pp. 656–659.

Jules Milne, Kwame Nkrumah: The Conakry Years: His Life and Letters (London: Panaf Books, 1990), p. 261.

FBIKT 100-446080-1915, Rocky Mountain News, August 22, 1968, p. 70; Airtel, Denver SAC to FBI Director, August 22, 1968, pp. 1–3.

Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, p. 240.

The State Department had returned his passport months earlier after he agreed to stay out of banned countries so he could honeymoon overseas. See San Francisco Chronicle, July 26, 1968 and The Oregonian, August 7, 1968. SCLDS.

For these speaking tours and the controversy that they elicited see Greensboro Daily Times, December 10, 1968; Greensboro Record, January 1, 1969; Greensboro Record, January 3, 1969; San Jose Mercury, January 3, 1969. SCLDS. Baltimore Afro-American, December 28, 1968.

Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour, pp. 246–247.

The Sunday Times (London), November 3, 1969, pp. 28–29, 31.

Ethel Minor, “Black Activist's Activities in Africa,” Muhammad Speaks, October 10, 1969, pp. 35, 37–38.

The Baltimore-Washington Afro-American, October 14, 1969.

Carmichael, Ready For Revolution, p. 712.

New York Times, April 14, 1996, p. E9.

Kwame Ture and Charles Hamilton, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation (New York: Vintage, 1992), pp. 187–199.

Charlie Cobb, “Revolution: From Stokely Carmichael to Kwame Ture,” The Black Scholar, 27(3–4) (Fall 1997), pp. 32–38.

Carmichael with Thelwell, Ready For Revolution, pp. 764–767.

The new scholarship on the postwar freedom era is dense. Important works include Robin Kelley, Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class (New York: The Free Press, 1994); Robert Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003); Martha Biondi, To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003); Rhonda Y. Williams, The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women's Struggle Against Urban Inequality (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Scot Brown, Fighting For Us: Maulana Karenga, the US Organization, and Black Cultural Nationalism (New York: New York University Press, 2003); Smethurst, The Black Arts Movement; Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard, eds., Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940–1980 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003); Sundiata Cha-Jua and Clarence Lang, “Strategies for Black Liberation in the Era of Globalization: Retronouveau Civil Rights, Militant black Conservatism, and Radicalism,” The Black Scholar, 29 (Fall 1999), pp. 25–47; Williams, Black Politics/White Power; Jones, The Black Panther Party Reconsidered; Lazerow and Williams, In Search of the Black Panther Party; and Joseph, Waiting Til the Midnight Hour. Some key works that specifically address the way in which history is written and the need for scholars to expansively rethink master narratives of the postwar era include Peniel E. Joseph, “Black Liberation Without Apology: Rethinking the Black Power Movement,” The Black Scholar, 31(3–4) (Fall/Winter 2001), p. 217 and “Preface” and “Introduction: Toward a Historiography of the Black Power Movement,” in Joseph, The Black Power Movement, pp. xi–xii, 1–25. Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom, pp. 413–441; Jeanne Theoharis, “Black Freedom Studies: Re-imagining and Redefining the Fundamentals,” History Compass, 4 (2006), pp. 1–20; Hogan, Many Minds, One Heart, pp. 1–10, 235–244.