Stokely Carmichael Calls for "Black Power" in Greenwood, Mississippi
After a sniper shoots James Meredith on his solo march, SNCC's chair gives the movement's more militant wing its rallying cry
Quick facts
- Location
- Greenwood, Mississippi
- Speaker
- Stokely Carmichael, SNCC chairman
- Context
- Continuation of James Meredith's March Against Fear
What happened
James Meredith, who had integrated the University of Mississippi in 1962, began a solo March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson on June 5, 1966 to encourage Black voter registration under the newly passed Voting Rights Act. A white sniper shot and wounded him the next day. SNCC, SCLC, CORE, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party agreed to continue the march on his behalf. On the night of June 16, 1966, SNCC chairman Stokely Carmichael addressed a rally of about 1,500 people in Greenwood, Mississippi and declared, "We been saying freedom for six years and we ain't got nothin'. What we got to start saying now is Black Power!" The phrase, coined in that moment with fellow organizer Willie Ricks, marked a public break from the movement's earlier emphasis on integration through nonviolent appeals to conscience.
Why it matters
Black Power reframed the movement's goal from integration into existing institutions toward Black community control, self-defense, and pride, a shift that split SNCC internally and alarmed King and older civil rights leaders, who worried it would cost the movement white allies and public sympathy.
How we know
The Zinn Education Project documents Carmichael's Greenwood speech and the march's timeline from SNCC's own records of the event and participant accounts.
Sources
- Zinn Education Project. June 6, 1966: James Meredith and the March Against Fear · Primary source (author-declared)zinnedproject.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- BlackPast.org. Stokely Carmichael's Black Power Speech (1966) · General sourceblackpast.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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