Stokely Carmichael Quotes

“This country is a nation of thieves. It stole everything it has, beginning with black people. The U.S. cannot justify its existence as the policeman of the world any longer. I do not want to be a part of the American pie. The American pie means raping South Africa, beating Vietnam, beating South America, raping the Philippines, raping every country you've been in. I don't want any of your blood money. I don't want to be part of that system. We must question whether or not we want this country to continue being the wealthiest country in the world at the price of raping everybody else.”

— Stokely Carmichael

Dr. King's policy was that nonviolence would achieve the gains for black people in the United States. His major assumption was that if you are nonviolent, if you suffer, your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That's very good. He only made one fallacious assumption: In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.

— Stokely Carmichael

“There is a higher law than the law of government. That's the law of conscience.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“You see that honky McNamara on television? He says, "Yes, we are going to draft thirty percent of the Negroes in the Army. This is where they can have equal opportunity. Yeah. Yes ... it's true that they are only ten percent of the population, but this is a better chance for them." When that honky talk about drafting thirty percent black people, he's talking about black urban removal-nothing else.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“We had no more courage than Harriet Tubman or Marcus Garvey had in their times. We just had a more vulnerable enemy.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“The secret of life is to have no fear; it's the only way to function.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“Integration is a man's ability to want to move in there by himself. If someone wants to live in a white neighborhood and he is black, that is his choice. It should be his rights. It is not because white people will not allow him.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“Leaders in Africa are so corrupt that we are certain if we put dogs in uniforms and put guns on their shoulders, we'd be hard put to distinguish them.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“There has been only a civil rights movement, whose tone of voice was adapted to an audience of liberal whites.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“No man can given anybody his freedom.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“We were aware of the fact that death walks hand in hand with struggle.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“So that the failures to pass a civil rights bill isn't because of Black Power, isn't because of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; it's not because of the rebellions that are occurring in the major cities.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“One of the tragedies of the struggle against racism is that up to now there has been no national organization which could speak to the growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghetto.”

— Stokely Carmichael

Our grandfathers had to run, run, run. My generation's out of breath. We ain't running no more.

— Stokely Carmichael

“It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.”

— Stokely Carmichael

The first need of a free people is to define their own terms.

— Stokely Carmichael

“I knew that I could vote and that that wasn't a privilege; it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“Seems to me that the institutions that function in this country are clearly racist, and that they're built upon racism.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“The knowledge I have now is not the knowledge I had then.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“An organization which claims to be working for the needs of a community - as SNCC does - must work to provide that community with a position of strength from which to make its voice heard. This is the significance of black power beyond the slogan.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“I also know that while I am black I am a human being, and therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people didn't know that. Every time I tried to go into a place they stopped me.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“A man is born free.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“Capitalism is a stupid system, a backward system.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“Now, then, in order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom.”

— Stokely Carmichael

Black power can be clearly defined for those who do not attach the fears of white America to their questions about it.

— Stokely Carmichael

“We are revolutionaries.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“The masses don't shed their blood for the benefit of a few individuals.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“The philosophers Camus and Sartre raise the question whether or not a man can condemn himself.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“Now we maintain that we cannot be afford to be concerned about 6 percent of the children in this country, black children, who you allow to come into white schools. We have 94 percent who still live in shacks. We are going to be concerned about those 94 percent.”

— Stokely Carmichael

I usually say I did the best I could with what I had. I have no major regrets.

— Stokely Carmichael

“If a white man wants to lynch me, that's his problem. If he's got the power to lynch me, that's my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it's a question of power.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“Go home and tell your daughters they are beautiful.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“What a liberal really wants is to bring about change that will not in any way endanger his position.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“One does not fight to influence change and then leave the change to someone else to bring about.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“An organization which claims to speak for the needs of a community must speak in the tone of that community.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“Our noses are broad, our lips are thick, our hair is nappy-we are black and beautiful!”

— Stokely Carmichael

“The time for running has come to an end. You tell them white folk in Mississippi that all the scared niggers are dead!”

— Stokely Carmichael

“I ain't going to jail no more. The only
way we gonna stop them white men from whuppin' us is to take over.
What we gonna start sayin' now is Black Power!”

— Stokely Carmichael

I place my own hope for the United States in the growth of belief among the unqualified that they are in fact qualified: they can articulate and be responsible and hold power

— Stokely Carmichael

“The death of Che Guevara places a responsibility on all revolutionaries of the World to redouble their decision to fight on to the final defeat of Imperialism. That is why in essence Che Guevara is not dead, his ideas are with us.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“The only position for women in SNCC is prone.”

— Stokely Carmichael

“Now you know where I got my name.”

— Stokely Carmichael