Stokely Carmichael - HISTORY

Stokely Carmichael, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, spoke to a crowd in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1964.

FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

RELATED CONTENT

H. Rap Brown, the 1960s leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), speaks about the state of the African-American community as a whole.

On April 5, 1968, in a press conference held the day after the slaying of Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael predicts the outbreak of more violence across the nation in retaliation for "white America's biggest mistake."

In 1954, Medgar Evers became the first state field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi. As a civil rights leader, he fought to end the racial injustice he experienced growing up in the South.

On September 29, 1962, as measures are taken to safely transport James Meredith to the University of Mississippi where he will enroll in accordance with a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding desegregation of the institution, President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy make a series of phone calls to Gov. Ross Barnett who has openly defied the Court's ruling. In one secretly recorded call that day, Attorney General Kennedy gets exasperated when the governor shoots down his idea for crowd control.

On January 25, 1977, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing to confirm Andrew Young as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. During the hearing, Young, who had come to national prominence as a leader in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, makes clear his intention to use the democratic process to ensure world peace. He later became the first African-American to occupy this position.

Gov. George Wallace holds a press conference to argue against integration of the state's public schools. Almost 10 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to desegregate schools, Alabama had still not complied. On June 11, 1963, Wallace made national news when he stood in the doorway at the University of Alabama to block African-American students from entering.