Kwam�
Tur� (a.k.a. Stokely Carmichael) was born on June 29,
1941 in Trinidad. He moved to New York with his parents at a young age. We must always remember Brother
Kwame�s contributions to the worldwide African Liberation
Movement.
On
the morning of November 15, 1998 it was learned that Kwam�
Tur� had made his transition into eternity in Conakry, Guinea.
Along
with Henry English of the Black United Fund of Illinois
(the administrator of the Kwame Ture Medical Fund), Saraduzayi
Sevanhu of the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party
(A-APRP), we were fortunate and honored to attend the
memorial tribute and burial of Brother Kwame on November
22nd in Conakry, Guinea where Kwame had lived, worked,
studied, taught, and struggled the past thirty years.
In
the late 1960s, Brother Kwame Ture was one of the chief
spokespersons and organizers for the All African Peoples
Revolutionary Party (A-APRP), where he had lived in the
Republic of Guinea
in West Africa. While in Guinea,
Brother Kwame studied with, and worked under the guidance
of the late President of Guinea, Ahmed Sekou Ture and
the late President of Ghana, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah.
Most
people throughout the world began to hear of Kwame (a.k.a.
Stokely Carmichael) during the Civil Rights Movement of
the 1960s where he participated in the first Freedom Rides
and many sit-ins and marches.
The
origin of Kwame�s participation in the Civil Rights Movement
began during his high school years at Bronx High School
of Science where he graduated in 1960. Kwame always had
a tendency to be active around the movement circles in
New York while in high school and
this continued when he enrolled at Howard University in 1960.
Primary
source documents reveal that, �In the Winter of 1960,
Black college students in dozens of communities across
this country conducted sit-ins to secure the desegregation
of lunch counters in drug and variety stores.� These sources
go on to explain that, �Arrest numbered in the thousands.
On every major college campus in this country, students
organized groups such as NAG (The Non Violent Action Group)
at Howard
University to continue the Sit-In
Movement.� 
Kwame
was a founding member of NAG and was one of its early
leaders.
Out
of this student activism, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) was formed at Shaw University in
April 1960. SNCC and its student base provided ground
troops for almost every major Civil Rights Demonstrations
and Campaign during the 1960s period of the Movement.
Kwame was one of the three hundred �Freedom Riders� that
were arrested �in Mississippi and
Alabama during
the Spring and Summer of 1961.� From that point on, Kwame
participated in every major campaign that emerged.
Kwame
came to the public�s attention on November 16, 1965 when
Look Magazine featured an article titled, �Freedom
Road,� that mentioned Kwame�s role as an organizer and
leader of SNCC.
Several
months later, in June of 1966, Ebony Magazine historian
and writer, Lerone Bennett, Jr. wrote an article featuring
Kwame. Brother Bennett observed in this article that (a.k.a.
Carmichael) Kwame, like �No other
young man, with the exception of Martin Luther King, Jr.
has risen so fast so quick. No other young man has sparked
such an avalanche of hope, fear, anger, and public concern.�
Bennett asked the question, �Who is this young man? What
does he want? What does he mean by Black Power?�
Again,
primary source documents explain that, �In April, 1966,
at the Kingston Spring SNCC staff meeting (a.k.a. Stokely)
was elected chairman, ushering in a new level and direction
for both the organization and the larger movement of which
it was an integral part.� These same sources indicated
that, �In June, after James Meredith was gunned down on
a highway in Mississippi, (a.k.a. Stokely) sounded the new Black mood.� This is
what Kwame said: �The only way we are gonna stop them
white men from whippin� us is to take over. We been saying
freedom for six years and we ain�t got nothing. What we
gonna start saying now is BLACK POWER!!�
Kwame
was one of the leading advocates of Pan-Africanism through
his leadership in the A-APRP. From the late 1960s until
his death, Kwame traveled throughout the world lecturing
and organizing African people to understand the need to
struggle around the idea of Pan-Africanism, �as the only
solution to our problems.�
When
people in our movement give unselfishly, and consistently,
over the years, like Kwame, we must never forget them!
BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Conrad W. Worrill,
PhD, is the National Chairman Emeritus of the National
Black United Front (NBUF).
Click here to contact Dr. Worrill.
