Black Power Poem

The day after Stokely Carmichael introduced the Black Power slogan to the March, and consequently brought it to national attention, King returned to the March from an engagement and began trying to explain away any of the slogan’s connotations King feared while simultaneously allaying the media and the larger public. He considered the slogan to have unfortunate, negative connotations that would be counterproductive to the larger black liberation movement’s goals. As much as “King distanced himself from the slogan,” he “refused to censure the meaning behind the message” as he claimed that black political and economic power had already been goals of the civil rights movement. Bob Green, the SCLC Education Director, went so far as to declare
He denounced the ‘struggle’ between King and him as “utter, utter nonsense” and that their relationship actually deepened during the March. Carmichael acknowledged that although they differed in tactics, they never differed in goals or values. This sentiment was echoed by King in his book, Where Do We Go From Here?, where he talked about the similar values held by both the Black Power movement and the Civil Rights movement. Similarly, King also insinuated that the press was sensationalizing the “drama” and tension between him and Carmichael. A point must be made for the media’s unpredictable dramatization and the feelings of friendship rather than rivalry mentioned by Carmichael in his
These tensions led to massive divisions within the different civil rights organizations which created a stagnancy in the movement’s overall progress after the March. Most notably, however, the March marked an important turning point in the entire movement. At this march, the black liberation movement as a whole split and formed into the traditional civil rights movement and the new black power movement. Entire civil rights organizations drifted to complete polar ends of the spectrum and essentially declared war on each other. With King representing the face of the civil rights movement and Carmichael the voice of Black Power, the friction between their competing strategies was most visible when in direct contrast to one another; at the Meredith March. However, both King and Carmichael ultimately had the same goal of black freedom and empowerment. Carmichael’s point in Ready for Revolution of the camaraderie between them is simultaneously important and forgettable in the face of the larger movement. What made the image of their linked arms so vivid was the visual affirmation that they were of the same people. Whichever group supported Black Power or Civil Rights was irrelevant because they were ultimately composed of the same people with the same