DATE=11/16/98
TYPE=ENGLISH PROGRAMS FEATURES
NUMBER=7-30886
TITLE=OBIT: STOKELY CARMICHAEL/KWAME TURE, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST
BYLINE=DAN NOBLE
TELEPHONE=619-1014
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=SWANEY
CONTENT=
(ACTUALITIES AVAILABLE FROM AUDIO SERVICES)
INTRO: KWAME TURE, WHO AS STOKELY CARMICHAEL WAS A LEADING
AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST IN THE 1960S, DIED OF
PROSTATE CANCER IN THE WEST AFRICAN COUNTRY OF GUINEA.
HE WAS 57 YEARS OLD. DAN NOBLE HAS DETAILS.
TEXT: STOKELY CARMICHAEL WAS BORN ON JUNE 29, 1941, IN
TRINIDAD. WHEN HE WAS 11, THE FAMILY MOVED TO THE
UNITED STATES WHERE THEY LIVED IN THE HARLEM SECTION OF
NEW YORK CITY. YOUNG STOKELY WON ADMISSION TO THE
PRESTIGIOUS BRONX HIGH SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, AND LATER WENT
TO HOWARD UNIVERSITY, IN WASHINGTON DC, WHERE HE BECAME
AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF CORE, THE CONGRESS OF RACIAL
EQUALITY. WHEN HE GRADUATED IN 1964, HE DECLINED
SCHOLARSHIPS TO CONTINUE HIS STUDIES. INSTEAD, STOKELY
CARMICHAEL WENT TO THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE UNITED
STATES TO JOIN SNCC (PRON.: SNICK), THE STUDENT
NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE, A GROUP INVOLVED IN
REGISTERING AND EDUCATING BLACK VOTERS. HE BECAME
SNCC'S CHAIRMAN. AT A MASS RALLY IN JACKSON,
MISSISSIPPI, IN THE SUMMER OF 1966, HE DELIVERED A
SPEECH THAT CHANGED THE TONE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT.
TAPE: CUT ONE -- CARMICHAEL/TURE + EFX (0:25)
"THERE ARE THREE TERMS THAT BLACK PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY
SHOULD LEARN AT BIRTH: ONE IS WHITE SUPREMACY. ONE IS
NEOCOLONIALISM. AND, ONE IS BLACK POWER." (APPLAUSE
AND CROWD CHANTS OF "BLACK POWER," "BLACK POWER)
TEXT: THE PHRASE "BLACK POWER" CAUGHT ON, AND FOR MANY IT
REPLACED THE PREVIOUS RALLYING CRY OF "FREEDOM NOW."
STOKELY CARMICHAEL USED THE BLACK POWER SLOGAN AT MANY
OTHER RALLIES, WITH SIMILAR EFFECT, INCLUDING ONE AT
GREENWOOD, MISSISSIPPI.
TAPE: CUT TWO -- CARMICHAEL/TURE (0:48)
"WE DON'T HAVE TO BE ASHAMED OF IT. WE HAVE STAYED
HERE, AND WE BEGGED THE PRESIDENT, WE BEGGED THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT. THAT'S ALL WE'VE BEEN DOING, BEGGING,
BEGGING. IT'S TIME WE STAND UP AND TAKE OVER, TAKE
OVER. WE HAVE TO DO WHAT EVERY GROUP IN THIS COUNTRY
DID. WE'VE GOT TO TAKE OVER THE COMMUNITIES WHERE WE
OUTNUMBER PEOPLE SO WE CAN HAVE DECENT JOBS, SO WE CAN
HAVE DECENT HOUSES, SO WE CAN HAVE DECENT ROADS, SO WE
CAN HAVE DECENT SCHOOLS, SO WE CAN HAVE DECENT JUSTICE.
EVERY COURTHOUSE IN MISSISSIPPI OUGHT TO BE BURNED DOWN
TOMORROW, TO GET RID OF THE DIRT IN HERE, AND THE FILTH.
NOW FROM NOW ON WHEN THEY ASK YOU WHAT YOU WANT, YOU
KNOW WHAT TO TELL THEM. WHAT DO YOU WANT? CROWD: BLACK
POWER! ... WHAT DO YOU WANT? BLACK POWER! ...
EVERYBODY, WHAT DO YOU WANT? BLACK POWER! ... THAT'S
WHAT WE'RE GOING TO GET."
TEXT: STOKELY CARMICHAEL'S CALL FOR BLACK POWER WAS REJECTED
BY THE REVEREND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., WHO SAID
THAT "BLACK SUPREMACY WOULD BE EQUALLY AS EVIL AS WHITE
SUPREMACY." IN 1967, CARMICHAEL RESIGNED AS CHARIMAN OF
SNCC, AND WAS LATER EXPELLED FROM THE ORGANIZATION. THE
NEXT YEAR HE TRAVELED AROUND THE WORLD, MAKING VISITS TO
SEVERAL COMMUNIST NATIONS, AND TO GHANA, IN AFRICA,
WHERE HE WAS INTRODUCED TO THE PAN-AFRICAN MOVEMENT.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL RETURNED TO THE UNITED STATES WHERE
HE JOINED THE MILITANT BLACK PANTHER PARTY. IN 1969, HE
LEFT THE PANTHERS AND MOVED TO GUINEA, WHERE HE HAD BEEN
OFFERED POLITICAL ASYLUM.
IN 1978, STOKELY CARMICHAEL CHANGED HIS NAME TO KWAME
TURE, TO HONOR THE TWO AFRICAN LEADERS WHO HE SAID MOST
INFLUENCED HIS PAN-AFRICAN BELIEFS -- SEKOU TOURE, OF
GUINEA, AND KWAME NKRUMAH, OF GHANA. BY THE 1980S, HE
WAS CHAIRMAN OF THE ALL-AFRICAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY
PARTY, AND CALLED HIMSELF A FULL-TIME REVOLUTIONARY.
TAPE: CUT THREE -- CARMICHAEL/TURE (0:21)
"THE JOB OF A REVOLUTIONARY IS, OF COURSE, TO OVERTHROW
UNJUST SYSTEMS AND REPLACE THEM WITH JUST SYSTEMS
BECAUSE A REVOLUTIONARY UNDERSTANDS THIS CAN ONLY BE
DONE BY THE MASSES OF THE PEOPLE. SO, THE TASK OF THE
REVOLUTIONARY IS TO ORGANIZE THE MASSES OF THE PEOPLE,
GIVEN THE CONDITIONS OF THE AFRICANS AROUND THE WORLD
WHO ARE DISORGANIZED, CONSEQUENTLY ALL MY EFFORTS ARE
GOING TO ORGANIZING PEOPLE."
TEXT: THE FORMER STOKELY CARMICHAEL TOOK HIS MESSAGE TO BLACKS
EVERYWHERE.
TAPE: CUT FOUR -- CARMICHAEL/TURE (0:13)
"I ORGANIZE FOR THE ALL-AFRICAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY
PARTY. WE HAVE CHAPTERS IN AFRICA. WE HAVE CHAPTERS IN
THE CARIBBEAN. WE HAVE CHAPTERS IN LATIN AMERICA. WE
HAVE CHAPTERS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WE HAVE
CHAPTERS IN EUROPE. WHEREVER THERE ARE AFRICANS, WE
HAVE CHAPTERS."
TEXT: (BEGIN OPT) MARY KING, A POLITICAL SCIENTIST AT AMERICAN
UNIVERSITY IN WASHINGTON, DC, REMEMBERS THE CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT OF THE 1960S. OF THE MAN WE KNEW AS STOKELY
CARMICHAEL, PROFESSOR KING RECALLS: "HE STILL BELIEVES
IN USING WORDS AND PERSUASION AS HIS PRIMARY MEANS OF
GETTING THINGS CHANGED. EVEN THOUGH THE WORDS ARE
LOADED, HE STILL BELIEVES IN WORDS." (END OPT)
STOKELY CARMICHAEL, LATER KNOWN AS KWAME TURE, DEAD AT
THE AGE OF 57.
(ACTUALITIES FROM CBS)
16-Nov-98 12:33 PM EST (1733 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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