Stokely Carmichael / Kwame Ture (1941-1998)

• Born: June 29, 1941, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

• Moved to the Bronx, New York, at age 11.

• Educated at the Bronx High School of Science, then Howard University, where he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

• Became active in sit-ins and Freedom Rides in the early 1960s, often arrested for challenging segregation.

• Rose as a leader in SNCC, working in the Deep South on voter registration and community organizing.

• In 1966, while leading a march in Mississippi, he popularized the slogan “Black Power,” signaling a shift from integrationist strategies toward racial pride, political self-determination, and economic independence.

• His call for Black Power electrified younger activists and influenced groups like the Black Panther Party.

• Briefly served as Prime Minister of the Black Panther Party (1967–1969), though he later split with them over strategic differences.

• Advocated global anti-imperialism, seeing the struggle of African Americans as linked to liberation movements worldwide.

• In 1969, moved to Guinea in West Africa, changing his name to Kwame Ture (honoring Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea).

• Worked closely with African independence leaders, championing Pan-Africanism and socialism.

• Spent much of his later life promoting unity between Africans and the diaspora.

• Continued speaking internationally on civil rights, anti-colonialism, and Pan-African unity.

• Diagnosed with prostate cancer in the 1990s but remained politically active.

• Died November 15, 1998, in Conakry, Guinea, at age 57.