Context: This informational text discusses how the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s emerged as a major political force following the Civil Rights Movement. While the Civil Rights Movement helped end legal segregation in America, the Black Power movement sought to end the economic and social inequality that African Americans continued to face. As you read, pay attention to how the Black Power Movement was formed.
On June 5, 1966, the Civil Rights Movement’s James Meredith was shot in an ambush as he attempted to complete a peaceful solo “March Against Fear” from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. Meredith had already made national headlines in 1962 by becoming the first African American to enroll at the University of Mississippi.
Civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Floyd McKissick of CORE,
and Stokely Carmichael of SNCC rushed to Meredith's hospital bed. They determined that his march must be completed. As Carmichael and McKissick walked through Mississippi, they observed that when it came to race relations, little had changed despite federal legislation. Local townspeople harassed the marchers while the police turned a blind eye or arrested the activists as troublemakers.
At a mass rally, Carmichael uttered the simple statement: “What we need is black power.” Crowds chanted the phrase as a slogan, and a movement began to flower.
What prompted Carmichael to say “black power” was needed following the “March Against Fear”?