Stokely Carmichael: “Black Power”

Essential Quotes

“We were never fighting for the right to integrate, we were fighting against white supremacy.”

“Now, then, in order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom. No man can give anybody his freedom. A man is born free.”

“I knew that I could vote and that that wasn’t a privilege; it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived.”

“In order for America to really live on a basic principle of human relationships, a new society must be born. Racism must die, and the economic exploitation of this country of non-white peoples around the world must also die.”

“I maintain, as we have in SNCC, that the war in Vietnam is an illegal and immoral war. And the question is, What can we do to stop that war? … The only power we have is the power to say, ‘Hell no!’ to the draft.”

“I do not want to be a part of the American pie. The American pie means raping South Africa, beating Vietnam, beating South America, raping the Philippines, raping every country you’ve been in. I don’t want any of your blood money.”

“The only time I hear people talk about nonviolence is when black people move to defend themselves against white people.”