DATE=11/16/98
TYPE=ENGLISH PROGRAMS FEATURES
NUMBER=7-30886
TITLE=OBIT: STOKELY CARMICHAEL/KWAME TURE, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST
BYLINE=DAN NOBLE
TELEPHONE=619-1014
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=SWANEY

CONTENT=

(ACTUALITIES AVAILABLE FROM AUDIO SERVICES)

INTRO:   KWAME TURE, WHO AS STOKELY CARMICHAEL WAS A LEADING 
         AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST IN THE 1960S, DIED OF 
         PROSTATE CANCER IN THE WEST AFRICAN COUNTRY OF GUINEA. 
         HE WAS 57 YEARS OLD. DAN NOBLE HAS DETAILS.

TEXT:    STOKELY CARMICHAEL WAS BORN ON JUNE 29, 1941, IN 
         TRINIDAD.  WHEN HE WAS 11, THE FAMILY MOVED TO THE 
         UNITED STATES WHERE THEY LIVED IN THE HARLEM SECTION OF 
         NEW YORK CITY.  YOUNG STOKELY WON ADMISSION TO THE 
         PRESTIGIOUS BRONX HIGH SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, AND LATER WENT
         TO HOWARD UNIVERSITY, IN WASHINGTON DC,  WHERE HE BECAME
         AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF CORE, THE CONGRESS OF RACIAL 
         EQUALITY.  WHEN HE GRADUATED IN 1964, HE DECLINED 
         SCHOLARSHIPS TO CONTINUE HIS STUDIES.  INSTEAD, STOKELY 
         CARMICHAEL WENT TO THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE UNITED 
         STATES TO JOIN SNCC (PRON.: SNICK), THE STUDENT 
         NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE, A GROUP INVOLVED IN 
         REGISTERING AND EDUCATING BLACK VOTERS.  HE BECAME 
         SNCC'S CHAIRMAN.  AT A MASS RALLY IN JACKSON, 
         MISSISSIPPI, IN THE SUMMER OF 1966, HE DELIVERED A 
         SPEECH THAT CHANGED THE TONE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS 
         MOVEMENT.

TAPE:    CUT ONE -- CARMICHAEL/TURE + EFX (0:25)

         "THERE ARE THREE TERMS THAT BLACK PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY
         SHOULD LEARN AT BIRTH: ONE IS WHITE SUPREMACY.   ONE IS 
         NEOCOLONIALISM.  AND, ONE IS BLACK POWER."  (APPLAUSE 
         AND CROWD CHANTS OF "BLACK POWER," "BLACK POWER)

TEXT:    THE PHRASE "BLACK POWER" CAUGHT ON, AND FOR MANY IT 
         REPLACED THE PREVIOUS RALLYING CRY OF "FREEDOM NOW."  
         STOKELY CARMICHAEL USED THE BLACK POWER SLOGAN AT MANY 
         OTHER RALLIES, WITH SIMILAR EFFECT, INCLUDING ONE AT 
         GREENWOOD, MISSISSIPPI.

TAPE:    CUT TWO -- CARMICHAEL/TURE (0:48)

         "WE DON'T HAVE TO BE ASHAMED OF IT.  WE HAVE STAYED 
         HERE, AND WE BEGGED THE PRESIDENT, WE BEGGED THE FEDERAL
         GOVERNMENT.  THAT'S ALL WE'VE BEEN DOING, BEGGING, 
         BEGGING.  IT'S TIME WE STAND UP AND TAKE OVER, TAKE 
         OVER.  WE HAVE TO DO WHAT EVERY GROUP IN THIS COUNTRY 
         DID.  WE'VE GOT TO TAKE OVER THE COMMUNITIES WHERE WE 
         OUTNUMBER PEOPLE SO WE CAN HAVE DECENT JOBS, SO WE CAN 
         HAVE DECENT HOUSES, SO WE CAN HAVE DECENT ROADS, SO WE 
         CAN HAVE DECENT SCHOOLS, SO WE CAN HAVE DECENT JUSTICE. 
         EVERY COURTHOUSE IN MISSISSIPPI OUGHT TO BE BURNED DOWN 
         TOMORROW, TO GET RID OF THE DIRT IN HERE, AND THE FILTH.
         NOW FROM NOW ON WHEN THEY ASK YOU WHAT YOU WANT, YOU 
         KNOW WHAT TO TELL THEM.  WHAT DO YOU WANT?  CROWD: BLACK
         POWER! ... WHAT DO YOU WANT?  BLACK POWER! ... 
         EVERYBODY, WHAT DO YOU WANT? BLACK POWER! ... THAT'S 
         WHAT WE'RE GOING TO GET."

TEXT:    STOKELY CARMICHAEL'S CALL FOR BLACK POWER WAS REJECTED 
         BY THE REVEREND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., WHO SAID 
         THAT "BLACK SUPREMACY WOULD BE EQUALLY AS EVIL AS WHITE 
         SUPREMACY."  IN 1967, CARMICHAEL RESIGNED AS CHARIMAN OF
         SNCC, AND WAS LATER EXPELLED FROM THE ORGANIZATION.  THE
         NEXT YEAR HE TRAVELED AROUND THE WORLD, MAKING VISITS TO
         SEVERAL COMMUNIST NATIONS, AND TO GHANA, IN AFRICA, 
         WHERE HE WAS INTRODUCED TO THE PAN-AFRICAN MOVEMENT.  
         STOKELY CARMICHAEL RETURNED TO THE UNITED STATES WHERE 
         HE JOINED THE MILITANT BLACK PANTHER PARTY.  IN 1969, HE
         LEFT THE PANTHERS AND MOVED TO GUINEA, WHERE HE HAD BEEN
         OFFERED POLITICAL ASYLUM.

         IN 1978, STOKELY CARMICHAEL CHANGED HIS NAME TO KWAME 
         TURE, TO HONOR THE TWO AFRICAN LEADERS WHO HE SAID MOST 
         INFLUENCED HIS PAN-AFRICAN BELIEFS -- SEKOU TOURE, OF 
         GUINEA, AND KWAME NKRUMAH, OF GHANA.  BY THE 1980S, HE 
         WAS CHAIRMAN OF THE ALL-AFRICAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY 
         PARTY, AND CALLED HIMSELF A FULL-TIME REVOLUTIONARY.

TAPE:    CUT THREE -- CARMICHAEL/TURE (0:21)

         "THE JOB OF A REVOLUTIONARY IS, OF COURSE, TO OVERTHROW 
         UNJUST SYSTEMS AND REPLACE THEM WITH JUST SYSTEMS 
         BECAUSE A REVOLUTIONARY UNDERSTANDS THIS CAN ONLY BE 
         DONE BY THE MASSES OF THE PEOPLE.  SO, THE TASK OF THE 
         REVOLUTIONARY IS TO ORGANIZE THE MASSES OF THE PEOPLE, 
         GIVEN THE CONDITIONS OF THE AFRICANS AROUND THE WORLD 
         WHO ARE DISORGANIZED, CONSEQUENTLY ALL MY EFFORTS ARE 
         GOING TO ORGANIZING PEOPLE."

TEXT:    THE FORMER STOKELY CARMICHAEL TOOK HIS MESSAGE TO BLACKS
         EVERYWHERE.

TAPE:    CUT FOUR -- CARMICHAEL/TURE (0:13)

         "I ORGANIZE FOR THE ALL-AFRICAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY 
         PARTY.  WE HAVE CHAPTERS IN AFRICA.  WE HAVE CHAPTERS IN
         THE CARIBBEAN.  WE HAVE CHAPTERS IN LATIN AMERICA.  WE 
         HAVE CHAPTERS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.  WE HAVE 
         CHAPTERS IN EUROPE.  WHEREVER THERE ARE AFRICANS, WE 
         HAVE CHAPTERS."

TEXT:    (BEGIN OPT) MARY KING, A POLITICAL SCIENTIST AT AMERICAN
         UNIVERSITY IN WASHINGTON, DC, REMEMBERS THE CIVIL RIGHTS
         MOVEMENT OF THE 1960S.  OF THE MAN WE KNEW AS STOKELY 
         CARMICHAEL, PROFESSOR KING RECALLS: "HE STILL BELIEVES 
         IN USING WORDS AND PERSUASION AS HIS PRIMARY MEANS OF 
         GETTING THINGS CHANGED.  EVEN THOUGH THE WORDS ARE 
         LOADED, HE STILL BELIEVES IN WORDS."  (END OPT)

         STOKELY CARMICHAEL, LATER KNOWN AS KWAME TURE, DEAD AT 
         THE AGE OF 57.



(ACTUALITIES FROM CBS)

  

16-Nov-98 12:33 PM EST (1733 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.