Final Draft Portfolio

Loras College
The Making of Black Power: A Parallel Movement of Black Nationalism
A Thesis Submitted to
The Faculty of the Division of History
In candidacy for the Undergraduate
Bachelor Degree of History
Department of History
by
Peter J. Kilburg
Dubuque, Iowa
December 10th, 2020
2
June 17th in Greenwood, Stokely Carmichael was arrested for failing to comply with
police orders. Word spread quickly of Carmichael’s arrest and a rally held in the city park that
night attracted nearly three thousand people -- five times the usual number. Luckily, Carmichael
was released from jail minutes before the rally was scheduled to start and where he was slated to
speak. The crows-goers were angry with Carmichael’s arrest, calling it unnecessary and speeches
the rest of the night resounded with a militant tone. When it was Carmichael’s turn to speak, he
moved forward to a roaring crowd with a raised hand and clenched fist. “This is the twenty-
seventh time I’ve been arrested -- And I ain’t going to jail no more! The only wat we gonna stop
them white men from whuppin’ us is to take over... What we gonna start saying now is Black
Power!” The crowd was electrified by the phrase and roared back in union:
“Black Power!” Nearby, Willie Ricks yelled into the crowd, “What do you want?”
“BLACK POWER”
“What do you want?”
“BLACK POWER”
“What do you want?”
“BLACK POWER BLACK POWER BLACK POWER.”1
The phrase first used in such a wide capacity was introduced by Stokely Carmichael
during this rally, and it ultimately set off a wave of black consciousness across the country.
Black Power was a phrase that African-Americans across the Deep South could resonate with
and feel empowered about themselves and their culture. With Carmichael being considered the
leader of Black Power and its usage within the civil rights movement, he certainly appeared to be
the role model of rhetoric surrounding the phrase. Carmichael famously used the phrase where
1
Cleveland Sellers and Robert Terrell, The River of No Return: The Autobiography of a Black Militant and
the Life and Death of SNCC (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1973), 167.
3
he could while chairman of The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), but the
organization as a whole despised the manner in which he used it. The Atlanta Project was an
urban movement that focused on organizing in Vine City, Atlanta throughout much of 1967 and
1968. Both Carmichael and the Atlanta Project used forms of Black Power in their efforts
towards the Black Struggle, but they are not as connected as it may seem. Peniel Joseph is a
scholar who focuses heavily on the Black Power movement throughout history. While he has a
strong depiction of Carmichael and his using of Black Power, he merely references Winston
Grady-Willis and his report on the Atlanta Project.
In Peniel Joseph’s report, “The Black Power Movement: A State of the Field,” he focuses
on all scholarship that relates to Black Power. Joseph looks at scholarship across the board and
how much of it attempts to demonize Black Power and provide it a negative image.2 Joseph,
much like Payne, argues that the civil rights movement and especially Black Power should be
looked at as a long movement across time.3 Joseph’s extensive critique of authors that have
written about Black Power goes to show the importance of the topic, and most notably the
importance of the groundwork that was laid by activists within the movement even from the
early 50s.4 For specifics, Joseph points to the work of Winston Grady-Willis and his writings on
the Atlanta Project, citing that Black Power was manifested in Atlanta and inspired a
combination of, “grassroots neighborhood activism, radical Black nationalism, progressive Black
electoral activism, and explicitly women-centered activism.”5 Peniel Joseph is central to
discussing Black Power in more ways than one, but his comprehensive review of Black Power
2
Peniel Joseph, “The Black Power Movement: A State of the Field,” Journal of American History 96, no. 3
(December, 2009), 752, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25622477.
3
Joseph, “The Black Power Movement,” 757.
4
5
4
writings and reports suggests the importance of the topic and even notes the significance locals
played in advancing the movement.
While Joseph is a key scholar surrounding Black Power, several other historians have
discussed the topic as well. Hasan Jeffries is another renowned author in the Black Power
rhetoric and has numerously offered insight towards Carmichael’s iteration of Black Power. In a
journal article written by Jeffries, he noted Cleveland Sellers quote on what Black Power meant
to members of SNCC, “it was in a political context of building political...and social institutions
in the Black community where we worked.”6 Although Jeffries also takes note of the central
beginnings of separatism that is famously tied to the Atlanta Project and how it sprang out of
Freedom Summer; citing the white volunteers helping in Freedom Summer, but also mentioning
the position paper penned by staffers of the Atlanta Project.7 Key to the discussion is Jeffries
interpretation of the Atlanta Project’s connectivity with SNCC, mentioning that members of the
Atlanta Project did not speak for SNCC.8 Jeffries does make note between the connection of
Black Power and the Atlanta Project, but Winston Grady-Willis is arguably the most known
scholar in regards to the Atlanta Project.
Grady-Willis’ book covering civil rights in Atlanta and his journal article about Black
Power in Atlanta show his incredible understanding on the topic at hand. Grady-Willis makes it
aware that the Atlanta Project’s struggle for black freedom was more about organizing in the
Vine City neighborhood to address housing inequality.9 Although, most of the members of the
6
Hasan Kwame Jeffries, “SNCC, Black Power, and Independent Political Party Organizing in Alabama,
1964-1966,” The Journal of African American History 91, no. 2 (Spring 2006), 171,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20064069.
7
Jeffries, “SNCC, Black Power,” 173.
8
Jeffries, “SNCC, Black Power,” 186.
9
Winston Grady-Willis, “Black Power in the South: Urban Protest and neighborhood Activism in Atlanta,
Georgia, 1966-1969,” Presence Africaine, no.161/162 (2000), 335, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24352105.
5
Atlanta Project agreed with the purpose of SNCC activities, they were fighting a different battle
for civil rights and the fight for black freedom. The rhetoric used in the Atlanta Project was
certainly radical, but it also set in motion the ability to establish black consciousness in the
neighborhoods they were working in.10 Grady-Willis also argues that the Atlanta Project is
undervalued in the scholarly discussion of the black freedom movement.11 His argument centers
around the division between the organizations struggles with SNCC’s executive committee and
that they were some of the most successful activists in providing a framework for the black
power movement.12 Winston Grady-Willis’ argument for the importance of the Atlanta Project is
key in understanding the movement of civil rights in the middle to late 1960s.
Black Power and the Atlanta Project is rooted in the individualistic characteristics of the
overall movement. Highlighting specific individuals like Stokely Carmichael, Bill Ware, Julian
Bond, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, and more, showcase how much of an importance individuals
played in advancing the phrase Black Power. While Carmichael first coined the phrase,
individuals like Bill Ware and Julian Bond who were important leaders of the Atlanta Project
show how specific individuals and grassroots organizers helped advance the radical ideology of
Black Power. The entire basis of Black Power is surrounding independent political organizing,
and for this to succeed, there needed to be activists on the ground creating real change rather than
larger organizations and the Federal government. Not only do these topics align with the focus
on individuals, it also focuses on the long movement of the civil rights movement as a whole.
The Atlanta Project, which reaches its peak in 1968-1967, really came to fruition out of the
Mississippi Freedom Summer campaign in 1964. This is where racial tensions first began and
10
Willis, “Black Power in the South,” 341.
11
Winston A. Grady-Willis, Challenging U.S. Apartheid: Atlanta and Black Struggles for Human Rights,
1960-1977 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 84.
12
Grady-Willis, Challenging U.S. Apartheid, 84.
6
can be traced to the separationist ideology of the Atlanta Project. Black Power can be traced
across the entire civil rights movement throughout the 60s, but the term is still relevant today and
even used within rhetoric today. While both using the phrase Black Power, Stokely Carmichael
and the Atlanta Project are parallel movements in the expansion of Black Nationalism.
Racial tensions had long been an issue within SNCC before the Atlanta Project. Prior to
Freedom Summer, James Foreman noted that SNCC already had class tensions among black
staff workers.13 Mississippi during the summer of 1964 was a hotbed for racial violence and the
Mississippi Freedom Summer Project only made matters worse. The overall feeling by some
leading officials is that whites were unaware of the true travesties that local blacks were facing
and that bringing the volunteers in would only create further escalations in violence. Rather than
accepting the volunteers help, and using the publicity to show the interracial relationships,
Carmichael refused to work with white volunteers throughout the entire summer project.14
Although, Carmichael was not the only skeptic. Following the original announcement of the
project, locals from Mississippi including politicians, press workers and citizens pressed against
the project. Calling the project an invasion of white individuals that would undermine the liberty
African-Americans were working towards.15 Communication between groups of volunteers in
SNCC was very little at the beginning. The sense of white volunteers being naïve and furthering
the inferiority aspect of African-Americans created initial tensions and an unwillingness to work
together.16 At its core, the project and specifically SNCC, struggled with tension between local
13
James Foreman, The Making Black Revolutionaries, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007),
422.
14
Norhaus, “S.N.C.C. and the Civil Rights Movement,” 97.
15
John Rachal, “The Long, Hot Summer: The Mississippi Response to Freedom Summer, 1964,” The
Journal of Negro History 84, no. 4 (Autumn, 1999), 316, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2649035.
16
Mary Aickin Rothschild, A Case of Black and White: Northern Volunteers and the Southern Freedom
Summer 1964-1965 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982), 53.
7
African-Americans unwilling to submit to further inferiority by white volunteers, tension was an
unavoidable result.
The Waveland Conference was one of the first public instances where SNCC had begun
to openly oppose whites. Cleveland Sellers, infamous SNCC veteran, recalled in his memoir that
the Waveland Conference was one of the most important staff meetings because this is where the
separationist ideology begins to form.17 Foreman noted in his memoir how the atmosphere at
Waveland reached a new low in bad vibrations and secretive maneuvers, discussing how people
were starting to criticize each other but never openly.18 Relationships between black and white
staffers were becoming worse, and Grady-Willis noted a specific relationship between Ruby
Doris Smith Robinson and white SNCC worker Jack Minnis. Grady-Willis noted how they had
maintained a “very antagonistic” relationship and how Robinson believed that Minnis ‘just
thought it was absolutely stupid to be raising the race question in the context in which we were
raising it.”19 Exchanges like this had a deep impact on Robinson as she was quoted saying, “You
must really be totally insensitive if you don’t understand what racism, white nationalism, has
done to black people in this country.”20 While racial tensions had certainly been a common issue
before, the Waveland conference accelerated these tensions for SNCC workers.
The SNCC meeting in March 1966 first raised the issue of black-determination, serving
as a gateway towards racial segregation. Bill Ware presented a one of the three position papers
that dealt with the idea of black consciousness. Overall, the black consciousness papers
generated heat from SNCC members as its main focus was having whites leave SNCC because a
17
Sellers, River of No Return, 114.
18
Foreman, Black Revolutionaries, 436.
19
Grady-Willis, Challenging U.S. Apartheid, 92-93.
20
8
“climate has to be created where blacks can express themselves.”21 These position papers
contended that blacks should be organizing blacks and whites should be working in white
communities. The second and third position papers focused more on this idea, noting specifically
that whites need to serve where “racism is manifest,” and that the idea of integration building to
larger societal changes would be “meaningless...because of the lack of organization in the white
communities.”22 Race was simply always an issue within SNCC, but it was originally viewed as
a systematic issue that they were fighting against.23 The Waveland Conference and the SNCC
meeting in March of 1966 appeared to finally set a spark in Black staffers that they were done
working with whites in SNCC.
Stokely Carmichael played a divisive role during Freedom Summer when it comes to
racial tensions. His unwillingness to work with whites comes as a stark contrast to his position
on whites while as SNCC chairman. Although his beliefs were different, there is no denying that
racial tension was an issue long before the introduction of black power. Most importantly, black
consciousness was beginning to grow between SNCC staffers and residents throughout the south.
Through SNCC meetings where racial segregation was beginning to make ground, the overall
theme was pushing towards eventual racial segregation. Racial segregation was not initially a
main goal of Carmichael’s when coining Black Power. Carmichael simply wanted the phrase to
emulate what it means to be black and how to get into positions of power as black men.
Carmichael’s usage of Black Power appeared to much more incendiary to whites and the media
throughout the country, and to Carmichael and SNCC that was not always a positive. Tension
21
22
23
9
appeared unavoidable at this point, but to Carmichael and other SNCC staffers, Black Power was
only just beginning.
Following the election of Stokely Carmichael, a majority of his chairmanship was
attempting to define the phrase Black Power. While Carmichael had first used the term during
the Meredith March, the SNCC executive committee, consisting of close friends Cleveland
Sellers and Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, decided that SNCC needed a position paper, and
Stokely Carmichael was tasked with writing it.24 Through Carmichael’s new position as
chairman, be believed it was his job to articulate the changes in SNCC and the new mission of
SNCC; which is exactly his role with helping create the position paper.25 Carmichael took to the
press to help spread his meaning of Black Power, and in an interview with Face the Nation,
Carmichael said, “Black Power does not equate violence... Local blacks organize and take over
racist white communities.”26 Stokely was often asked about the phrase by reporters and
bypassers, while he never wavered from the definition of organizing independent political
parties, he did provide this statement in an interview with local reporter Gordon Parks, “Our
organization feels that any man has the right to physically protect his life and his home.”27
Although Carmichael dealt with a majority of his chairmanship defining Black Power, he
consistently aligned the meaning with political power.
The goal of Black Power was to create a movement that African-Americans could align
with politically. For people of color, the phrase Black Power was empowering and they began
24
Stokely Carmichael and Michael Thelwell, Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely
Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (New York: Scribner, 2003), 308.
25
Carmichael, Ready for Revolution, 527.
26
Peniel Joseph, Waiting ‘til the Midnight Hour: a Narrative History of Black Power in America (New
York: Henry Holt and Company, 2007), 144.
27
Gordon Parks, “Whips of Black Power,” in Reporting Civil Rights: Part Two American Journalism
1963-1973, ed. Clayborne Carson (New York: The Library of America, 2003), 555.
10
calling themselves African-American because it was their image and an image they felt they
could identify with. In Carmichael’s attempt to align the phrase with political endeavors, he
stressed the importance of having black people hold independent political positions at the state
level and the Federal level. Carmichael stressed this point several times throughout his
chairmanship because without having black leaders in black communities, they would simply
subdue to white leadership and not generate any change. Gordon Parks reiterates this point in
Reporting Civil Rights, noting that Black Power was a means for people coming together to form
political alliances and either electing representatives or forcing representatives to speak their
needs. The Black Power movement aimed at starting at the lowest-level of the political
organization and reforming the system from the bottom up. This means that the intentions of
Black Power was to start at local and state level elections, and working towards eventually
electing black representatives at the Federal level; a case you will see later with Julian Bond
being elected in Georgia. While Carmichael’s goal of Black Power was electing black officials,
merely having black visibility in politics was not enough. Instead, broadening political
participation in black politicians was key.
The idea of Black power was not widely accepted by whites and the media. To whites,
the idea of Black Power was frightening and not accepted by the U.S. government because of its
revolutionary implications.28 Lerone Bennett Jr authored a nearly six page long article discussing
how Carmichael had sparked national uproar with his call for new orientation.29 The entire
article itself is a critique of Carmichael’s rhetoric surrounding Black Power and how the media
portrays it. While its media presence continued to try and enflame the rhetoric negatively,
28
29
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A: I: 48: 0098.
11
Bennett’s article shed some light on what Carmichael was trying to accomplish with the phrase.30
Bennett sets his article up in a fashion to almost compare how Carmichael uses his rhetoric to
how the media truly portrays the phrase. In another article discussing the election of Carmichael,
the media talks about internal criticisms from white organizational leaders and how their
militancy had driven them to lose respect for other black leaders.31 Hundreds of whites wrote
letters to Carmichael criticizing him for creating just an incendiary rhetoric. In a letter written by
Horace Casselberry to Carmichael, he mentioned how there are millions of white people who are
just of true friends of the blacks as the blacks themselves.32 Carmichael simply could not evade
media attention wherever he went, or persuade many whites of what he truly meant by Black
Power. While Carmichael provided several instances where he was defining Black Power as a
political movement, the media often provided a plethora of definitions for the phrase.
The media and news outlets often attempted to define the meaning of Black Power in a
way that posed it as reverse racism. Mass media would attempt to associate the phrase with
violence and how the use of violence was contrary to the American way.33 Whenever Black
Power rhetoric was used, several news outlets including Times and The Washington Post
criticized the phrase saying it was a “racist philosophy” and “confirmed SNCC’s new radical
direction,” respectively. Several others including Newsweek called it “a new white backlash,”
and US and World News Report saying it “promotes reverse discrimination.” Charles Hamilton
sensed this attention by the media noting in an article, “Whenever Black Power tried to get
defined, it is labeled as ‘militant.’” The common theme among media coverage was the militant
likeliness between the Black Power phrases and meaning of it; very simply if a black man even
30
31
32
33
12
discussed the possibility of controlling his own identity, they had to be talking about revolution.
Interestingly, the media often provided positive media coverage when there were talks of
integration, but any talks of separatism or independence resulted in negative media attention.
The media was notorious for building a negative image during the makings of Black
Power. As introduced previously, Carmichael’s speech in Greenwood, MS sprung confidence
and pride within Blacks all-across the south, but Cleveland Sellers recalled in his memoir that the
media immediately responded with warnings of racial cataclysm.34 For Carmichael, as the
chairman of SNCC he took every opportunity he could to clarify and spread his political
messages.35 In an interview with Carmichael by Gordon Parks, he recalls the media constantly
sending the message of black power being about racial separatism; Carmichael was quoted in the
interview saying, “... as for separatism, what are they talking about? We have no choice.”36
Andrew Lewis too remembers national press taking advantage of Carmichael’s chairmanship,
often calling the new leadership a broad shift equating the call for political power with a call for
separatism.37 Lewis also remembered there being a clear distinction between media coverage
when leaders were calling for integration and patience versus frustration and impatience; noting
that the former often received positive news coverage, while the press turned negative for the
latter.38 Although, no matter how strong of a message the press tried to equate the call for Black
Power about racism or separatism, Black were going to continue using the phrase.39 James
Foreman too remembers how Washington D.C. was disappointed that SNCC was working in
34
35
36
Parks, “Whips of Black Power,” 559.
37
Andrew Lewis, The Shadows of Youth: The Remarkable Journey of the Civil Rights Generation (New
York: Hill and Wang, 2009), 204.
38
Lewis, Shadows of Youth, 204.
39
Stokely Carmichael and Mumia Abu-Jamal, Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism
(Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2007), 18.
13
sharp conflict with the picture of democracy.40 While the media constantly attempted to equate
Black Power with a negative connotation and call it reverse racism, few Blacks stopped using the
phrase and in some instances it even grew stronger out of media presence. For Carmichael, his
chairmanship was about defining black power and what it meant; but the media sent the message
that it was going to ruin society. In one instance, the media presence grew so strong that local
officials began playing into the idea of it. Racist mayor Ivan Allan of Atlanta began framing the
black people of this city and SNCC, claiming that they were responsible for the revolt of the
black community.41 Overall, the media played an important role in how Black Power was viewed
by individuals outside of SNCC.
Stokely Carmichael and the upbringing of Black Power is one of the most common
relationships discussed among scholars. While Carmichael is notorious for using the phrase so
often, and integrating it into his speeches and rhetoric as much as possible. He was not the only
culprit of using Black Power. While the oft-considered militant group of Atlanta Project staffers
were an organization of SNCC, they too used Black Power but in a way that was central to their
ideas. The Atlanta Project talked about Black Power being about economic independence for
Blacks, and through their Vine City project they were hoping to accomplish that. Too much light
is shed on how Carmichael used Black Power and how it got its fame, but not enough light is
shed on the Atlanta Project and how they too advanced the meaning of Black Power for black
nationalism.
The Atlanta Project was formed in February 1966 and its main aim was to fight for better
housing conditions of those living in Vine City. When the project formed, leading activists Bill
40
41
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A: XV: 37: 0572.
14
Ware and Gwendolyn Robinson were named co-directors.42 The central purpose of the Atlanta
Project was to intensify SNCCs position in organizing through major urban cities.43 SNCC had
long led grassroots organizing, but the beginnings of working Atlanta and specifically Vine City
signaled a shift in their organizing efforts. A SNCC paper reporting on the purpose of the Atlanta
Project notes that it is more than just a voter-registration project. While workers will still focus
on this issue, the main point is fighting back against abusive and violent landlords.44 The Project
chose Vine City because SNCC noticed the unusual conditions citizens were living in, but also
former SNCC staffer Julian Bond represented that district in the state legislation.45 Affidavits
were provided by individuals living within Vine City to reveal the conditions they lived in,
making it publicly known why the Atlanta Project was dealing with this issue. Willie Williams
living in the area mentioned how the only heat provided to his house is through wood and coal
and that it is freezing; Williams is often dealt with spending his own money to make fixes around
the house without being paid from his landlord for it.46 Native Vine City resident Martin Luther
King Jr even recognized how poor living conditions were, “This is appalling... I had no idea
people were living in Atlanta, Georgia in such conditions.”47 While the main focus of the project
was fixing living conditions, the creation of the project also centered on the state legislature
failing to seat Julian Bond.
The Atlanta Project started as a response to the Georgia State Legislature failing to seat
Julian Bond following his election. SNCC believed it to be essential that they mounted a major
42
43
44
45
46
47
15
political program in Atlanta following the startling ousting of Julian Bond.48 SNCC believed it to
fundamental that this assault against Julian Bond did not go unanswered. They also felt, in
correlation with Bond not being seated, that Atlanta could serve as a Southern City that could
promisingly push forward the civil rights movement.49 Julian Bond’s election served a
significant breakthrough in political representation for individuals in the South and Southern
communities now felt a stronger sense of confidence in controlling their future.50 The
combination of Bond’s election and the creation of the Atlanta Project created a climate where
blacks could express themselves both politically and socially.51 The intentions of creating the
project centered on Bond’s election was predicting the power structure that could be achieved in
Vine City.52 One of the key developments that helped the Atlanta Project was that it was built on
already existing organizations out of SNCC.53 If blacks could be elected into political positions
then they could easily bridge the gap between creating political power, while fixing the main
issues of housing conditions in Vine City.
The Vine City was the leading Black Power Project of the Atlanta Project and focused
entirely on creating better housing and economic opportunities for blacks. James Foreman noted
in his memoir that SNCC had been actively protesting housing conditions in Atlanta prior, but
this project was intended to help give blacks economic freedom in Atlanta.54 Foreman recalled
48
49
50
51
52
53
Stephen Tuck, Beyond Atlanta: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Georgia, 1940-1980 (Athens, GA:
University of Georgia Press, 2001), 230.
54
16
how difficult it was to worry about the lack of money and survival for locals who were involved
with SNCC.55
The Atlanta Project created the newspaper The Nitty Gritty to spread their message about
organizing, focusing on their intentions of creating black consciousness. The staffers of the
Atlanta Project felt that the organizing in urban areas served a useful purpose in building
individuals beliefs in themselves, so they felt the need to strengthen this through the creation of
the newspaper.56 This newspaper served and attracted a more militant and tenacious SNCC cadre
in Vine City.57 The function of this newspaper was to highlight the hopes and inspirations of
blacks within Vine City, while also calling upon the brutal indignities non-whites were imposing
through their power and influence.58 The newspaper calling was centered on Black Power and
black consciousness and was produced mainly as an organizing tool for Atlanta Project staffers.
The newspaper focus was on both issues that the Atlanta Project was fighting for: housing
conditions and political independence. One of the newspapers mini-series would bring to light
the bad housing conditions in Atlanta in hopes to make way for progress within neighborhoods.59
Although the Atlanta Project sought to help locals in Vine City and in Atlanta, their overall
movement towards militancy began to cause problems in SNCC. The infamous Peg Leg Bates
Meeting set off the radical separationist ideology from the Atlanta Project and created deep rifts
between Carmichael, SNCC, and the Atlanta Project.
The Peg Leg Bates meeting signaled the militant attitude coming from the Atlanta
Project. The meeting itself was expected to be a regular organizational check-up, but was soon
55
56
57
Joseph, Waiting ‘til the Midnight Hour, 159
58
59
17
hijacked by members from the Atlanta Project and it became a meeting to determine the role and
presence of white within the movement.60 This incendiary rhetoric coming from Atlanta staffers
was met with criticism from SNCC veterans. Ruby Doris Smith Robinson recalled in her memoir
that the Atlanta Project’s newcomers were the leading voices of expelling whites, but Ruby and
others from the beginning were reluctant to take the final drastic steps of expelling whites.61
Newcomers and project leader Bill Ware pushed for the end of white participation because “the
cats on the corner do not dig having white people in the organization,” but when respected
SNCC veteran Fannie Lou Hamer spoke up for having a biracial group they mocked her and
called her irrelevant.62 Leading SNCC members, including Carmichael and James Foreman,
agreed that the question was unnecessary and destructive and becoming increasingly frustrated
with the group.63 Regardless of veteran opposition to Bill Ware and the newcomers of the
Atlanta Project, there was motion to set a vote for expelling whites from SNCC.
Whites, while an important asset in SNCC, were expelled from SNCC at the infamous
“Peg Leg Bates” Conference. The “Peg Leg Bates” meeting was originally expected to be a
standard organization review. A faction of Atlanta Project workers came into the meeting with a
plan to make the question of the role and presence of whites an ideological one.64 The issue of
white involvement within SNCC dogged the remainder of the meeting, following Stokely
Carmichael’s introduction statement pertaining to whites staying in SNCC but working in white
communities.65 Following contentious debates over three days, 19 members voted to expel
60
61
Cynthia Griggs Fleming, Soon We Will Not Cry: The Liberation of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson
(Lantham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), 180.
62
63
64
65
Grady-Willis, Challenging U.S. Apartheid, 109-110.
18
whites from SNCC, while 18 voted against and 24 members abstained from voting.66 Bob
Zellner, the last white SNCC worker, remembered disagreeing with the aim of Atlanta Project
workers saying, “I disagree that the fear of the organization was to be taken over by whites.”67
While white workers were expelled from SNCC, the Atlanta Project played an important role in
this event.
The Atlanta Project and several workers led the charge of wanting to expel whites from
SNCC. As mentioned previously, Bob Zellner a long-time SNCC activist claimed that a majority
of the influence came from newcomers out of the Atlanta Project who did not understand the
organization very well.68 Coming out of the “Peg Leg Bates” meeting, Bill Ware gave a speech
and asserted that whites should not be in SNCC, “I am profoundly convinced that black people
and the SNCC do not understand the concept of Black Power. If they understood it, there would
be no white people in the organization at this time.”69 The attitude of Atlanta Project members
was captured in Grady-Willis’ book, Challenging U.S. Apartheid, noting that “members of the
project were among the most strident proponents of the exclusion of whites from the
organization.”70 Through this effort, the Atlanta Project was successful in expelling white
members from SNCC and that soon have further consequences on their image.
Following the expulsion of whites, the Atlanta Project had a separationist ideology that
differed from the rest of SNCC. Stokely Carmichael’s expression of Black Power and the
influence from SNCC cause more extreme ideas about racial separatism from the workers in
66
67
Bob Zellner and Constance Curry, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: a White Southerner in the Freedom
Movement (Montgomery: New South Books, 2008), 293.
68
Zellner, Wrong Side of Murder Creek, 296.
69
70
19
Atlanta. Mentioning Bill Ware’s speech about expelling whites set off a radical ideology within
the Atlanta Project, and a majority of the extreme ideas of black separatism came under Bill
Ware while the SNCC field staff was exclusively black. Emily Stoper in an interview with
Julian Bond, recorded that Bond believed himself that the Atlanta Project was more militant than
SNCC as a whole. Not only were members internally recognizing that the Atlanta Project was
becoming more militant, The New York Times reported that the expelling of whites reinforced
the image of SNCC as a radical, separatist organization. The Atlanta Project was beginning to
become more and more militant, and their use of rhetoric surrounding Black Power can be
attributed to this cause.
Although several SNCC members and leaders believed that Carmichael never wanted to
get rid of whites in SNCC, there is plenty of evidence supporting a counter argument. Before the
Atlanta Project members succeeded in the expelling of whites, several SNCC members and
leaders felt that whites were an integral part to the movement. Emily Stoper interviewed Jane
Stembridge and recalled that as more and more whites came into the organization, the greater the
antagonism towards them grew; but she also did not think that Stokely was trying to rid of whites
in SNCC.71 Several SNCC workers even believed that white supporters would embrace Black
Power.72 Carmichael himself even noted that Black Power was not about having blacks take over
the country, but merely “get Whitey” off the black man’s back.73 James Foreman had made note
in his memoir how far off tract the Atlanta Project got with expelling whites. What the Atlanta
Project was first meant to be about was an experiment in political organizing, but it quickly
71
Jane Stembridge, interview by Emily Stoper, 1966, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee:
The Growth of Radicalism in a Civil Rights Organization, 263.
72
Vanessa, Murphree, The Selling of Civil Rights: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and
the Use of Public Relations ( New York: Routledge, 2006), 122.
73
Stokely Carmichael, Stokely Speaks, 28.
20
became about emphasizing the elimination of whites from the organization.74 Although there was
a general consensus that whites were important among SNCC leaders, there was not a major
attempt at stopping the expulsion.
For Stokely Carmichael, having white workers in SNCC was neither an idea that he
supported or rejected. Carmichael noted in his personal memoir, that the expulsion of whites was
not personal, but rather a political move and everybody moves on.75 Prior to the expulsion of
whites though, a majority of seasoned veterans within SNCC disagreed with Carmichael’s
incendiary rhetoric, leading towards further animosity towards whites in SNCC.76 Several
workers, including Carmichael’s executive secretary Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, were critical
of Carmichael’s new racial focus because all they would do is, “sit around talking about white
people.”77 Interestingly, Gordon Parks interview showcases Carmichael’s feelings toward
separation being quoted, “I’m just telling the white man he’s beat my head enough. I won’t take
it anymore... As for separatism, what are they talking about? We have no choice.”78 Although
Carmichael neither supported nor rejected the idea of having whites in the movement, the
Atlanta Project became the leading advocates for separatism.
Bill Ware and members of the Atlanta Project were the leaders of black separatism within
SNCC. Stephen Tuck wrote in his book Beyond Atlanta, that under Bill Ware the Atlanta Project
adopted extreme ideas of Black Separatism, and that the project was run exclusively by a black
field staff.79 Bill Ware and others were influenced by the early rhetoric echoed by Charles
74
Foreman, The Making of Black Revolutionaries, 452.
75
76
77
Fleming, Soon We Will Not Cry, 179.
78
Parks, Reporting Civil Rights, 559.
79
Tuck, Beyond Atlanta, 231.
21
Sherrod call to counter the psychological effects of white supremacy.80 What the project wanted
to build was an organization that was black-dependent and built up the power of black
consciousness. Out of this forms the radical militant ideology of the Atlanta Project and it can be
seen in a SNCC correspondence about stopping police brutality. The release, in all capital letters,
discusses what staffers and citizens can do when facing police brutality, and it echoes the
sentiment of violence towards the police.81 In a memo sent to the Atlanta Office Staff from the
Atlanta Project Staff that was supposed to be about campaign money for Julian Bond, the memo
quickly got into the idea of separatism. The first page discusses how whites have always blocked
the attempt of blacks trying to organize themselves subconsciously.82 The rest of the memo
throughout rarely discusses the funds of Bond’s campaign money, and instead focuses on how
whites have consistently caused problems in black organizations. They make the strident call in
this memo as well that whites have to work where racism manifests itself, that being in white
communities.83 The separatism ideas of the Atlanta Project are made very clear by staff members
and they do not back down in calling for racial separatism. While the staffers make these calls,
rifts were beginning to form between project workers and SNCC members.
SNCC staffers and Atlanta Project staffers grew weary of each other quickly their
disintegrated rhetoric. With the Atlanta Project growing more and more militant, while also
raising more negative attention around SNCC, many SNCC veterans were tired of their behavior.
Throughout the entire spring and summer of 1966, tensions between Atlanta Project workers and
SNCC staffers flared up and down.84 At a later meeting, a check came into the Atlanta Project
80
Tuck, Beyond Atlanta, 231.
81
82
83
84
22
for $3000, but instead of using it they used it as leverage against SNCC.85 Bill Ware, leading
Atlanta Project staffer, refused to take orders from Carmichael and SNCC, furthering tensions
between the two organizations.86 Before Ruby Doris Smith Robinson’s passing, she made
several notes of how difficult it was to work with Atlanta Project staffers. She noted how their
belief in Black Separatism caused huge conflicts between staffers on the Atlanta Project and at
the Atlanta headquarters office.87 Although Robinson feuded with Atlanta Project staffers, she
continued to have a working relationship but remained critical of their pro-black stance. Several
other high ranking SNCC veterans recalled working tensions between SNCC and the Atlanta
Project as well.
Cleveland Sellers recalls this rift and how it affected the relationships between workers in
both organizations. By 1967, Sellers remembered that the Atlanta Project was almost demanding
complete autonomy from SNCC and completely refused to work with organizational
leadership.88 This is noted with a feud between SNCC and the project over an unreturned car.
Carmichael and Sellers filed charges with the Atlanta Police after a project staffer refused to
return a car used for project activities.89 As mentioned before, in a memo sent from the Atlanta
Project to the SNCC Atlanta headquarters, they discussed how they intended to hold onto a
check that was delivered to the Vine Street office and use it for their own sake.90 Unfortunately
their unwillingness to work with SNCC staffers caused them harm in the long run. As an
85
86
87
Fleming, Soon We Will Not Cry, 179.
88
89
90
23
organization of SNCC, without proper funding and with oversight from SNCC, the Atlanta
Project was suspended after only one year of existence.
The ending of the Atlanta project showcased how transformative a single organizational
project can truly be. Different from Carmichael’s Black Power movement, the Atlanta Project
which centered on Bond’s campaign focused more on housing and economic reform.91 Grady-
Willis who wrote extensively on the Atlanta Project also made the connection of how much
change the Atlanta project made in their short existence. Not only did the project make huge
strides in grassroots organizing, but through their launching of Black Power they were able to
build a sustaining black consciousness movement.92 Bond’s campaign itself showed how Black
Power used to its advantage could orchestrate change behind ordinary-citizens, the primary basis
of black power.93 Although the Atlanta Project suffered rifts with SNCC, their ability to create a
sustained movement over the length of time is where I see my project fitting in. The Black Power
movement is not simply struck down to the late 60s, but has seen growth over time while blacks
have continued their fight for freedom.
Steven Lawson’s essay in, Debating the Civil Rights Movement, focuses on a timeline of
civil rights following World War II up to the late 60s and 70s. For Lawson, he looks at the
movement from a top-down approach and identifies the national government and larger
organizations as key to the successes of the movement. Lawson argues that the account of the
Black freedom struggle requires an interconnected approach and looks at how the federal
91
Tomoko Brown-Nagin, Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement
(London: Oxford University Press, 2011), 257.
92
93
Brown-Nagin, Courage to Dissent, 257.
24
government could shape the direction of the struggle.94 Through Lawson’s approach, he tackles
the idea of Black Power and its transgression through the movement. Lawson categorizes SNCC
as a militant group that rejects integration and favors racial nationalism instead.95 Through
Lawson’s argument, he tends to focus more on the national groups of SNCC and SCLC and their
reactions to the term Black Power; specifically citing how Martin Luther King Jr. disapproves of
the term.96 This approach fails to mention much of the groundwork that was laid by the activists
in the field, especially in the area of Black Power. Although Lawson tends to focus more on
organizations successes in the movement, Charles Payne looks more at the individuals and their
importance within the movement.
Charles Payne’s argument is opposite of Steven Lawson’s that being that Payne
prioritizes the importance of individuals on the front lines of the movement. Key to Payne’s
argument is looking at the civil rights movement as a prolonged and sustained movement
because of the individuals involved.97 Payne’s approach to Black Power focuses on the ordinary
individuals who accepted the term and rejected the notion of white dominated communities.98
While Payne does mention MLK and his rejection of the term, noting that he believed whites
were exploiting the Black Power controversy, the activists who went through so much sacrifice
are looked at for success.99 This idea is central to the entire process of Black Power and relation
to the Atlanta Project members. Although unknown to most SNCC workers, the Atlanta Project
94
Steven Lawson, “Debating the Civil Rights Movement: The View from the Nation,” in Debating the
Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968, 2nd ed, by Steven F. Lawson and Charles Payne (Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2006), 4.
95
Lawson, Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 34.
96
Lawson, Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 34.
97
Charles Payne, “Debating the Civil Rights Movement: The View from the Trenches,” in Debating the
Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968, 2nd ed, by Steven F. Lawson and Charles Payne (Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2006), 115.
98
Payne, Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 145.
99
Payne, Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 147.
25
members were central in advancing the expulsion of whites from SNCC to push on the black
struggle for freedom. Lawson and Payne are not the only two scholars to have recently written
on the topic, as Peniel Joseph has established himself as one of the key figures in scholarship
surrounding civil rights.
Black Power and the Atlanta Project is rooted in the individualistic characteristics of the
overall movement. Highlighting specific individuals like Stokely Carmichael, Bill Ware, Julian
Bond, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, and more, showcase how much of an importance individuals
played in advancing the phrase Black Power. While Carmichael first coined the phrase,
individuals like Bill Ware and Julian Bond who were important leaders of the Atlanta Project
show how specific individuals and grassroots organizers helped advance the radical ideology of
Black Power. The entire basis of Black Power is surrounding independent political organizing,
and for this to succeed, there needed to be activists on the ground creating real change rather than
larger organizations and the Federal government. Not only do these topics align with the focus
on individuals, it also focuses on the long movement of the civil rights movement as a whole.
The Atlanta Project, which reaches its peak in 1968-1967, really came to fruition out of the
Mississippi Freedom Summer campaign in 1964. This is where racial tensions first began and
can be traced to the separationist ideology of the Atlanta Project. Black Power can be traced
across the entire civil rights movement throughout the 60s, but the term is still relevant today and
even used within rhetoric today.
The rise of Black Power is important to discuss because of the relevance that it still
carries with today. In modern society, the phrase Black Phrase is still used at numerous Black
Lives Matters rallies and protests, and it is still used as an identifier of black consciousness.
Black Power is not merely a phrase to be chanted just because, but it instead exemplifies what it
26
means to be black and unites blacks across the United States and the World. While Carmichael
appears to be the leader of Black Power, and the Atlanta Project themselves using Black Power
in a different form, there is still plenty of research to be done. The Atlanta Project has been left
out of history, mostly because of their short status as a true organization. Although they spent
just over a year in operation, the Project made huge steps towards the black freedom struggle and
in black nationalism. The Atlanta Project deserves to have more scholarly research dedicated
towards them, and have their intentions be brought to light. An interesting topic to explore
further from the Atlanta Project would looking into the backgrounds and lives of project staffers,
hoping to better understand their militant attitudes. Specific research dedicated to project leader
Bill Ware would be insightful on how and why the Atlanta Project operated the way they did,
along with looking into the campaign of Julian Bond and following election. There are plenty of
doors left open on research that can be conducted surrounding the Atlanta Project and Stokely
Carmichael. Overall, the relation of Black Power occurring in the 1960s and how it is used today
can still be seen through its usage over time; and Carmichael and the Atlanta Project were two of
the key advocates in their parallel push towards black nationalism.

27
Bibliography
Primary
Carmichael, Stokely and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-
Africanism. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2007.
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Carmichael, Stokely and Michael Thelwell. Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of
Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture). New York: Scribner, 2003.
Carson, Clayborne. Reporting Civil Rights. New York: Library of America, 2003.
Foreman, James. The Making of Black Revolutionaries. Seattle: University of Washington Press,
1997.
Lewis, John, and Michael D’Orso. Walking with the Wind: a Memoir of the Movement. New
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Sellers, Cleveland and Robert Terrell. The River of No Return: The Autobiography of a Black
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Zellner, Bob, and Constance Curry. The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: a White Southerner in the
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Secondary
Brown-Nagin, Tomiko. Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights
Movement. London: Oxford University Press, 2011.
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Grady-Willis, Winston. Challenging U.S. Apartheid: Atlanta and Black Struggles for Human
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Loras College

The Making of Black Power: A Parallel Movement of Black Nationalism

Grady-Willis and his report on the Atlanta Project.

electoral activism, and explicitly women-centered activism.”5 Peniel Joseph is central to

played in advancing the movement.

scholar in regards to the Atlanta Project.

African-Americans were working towards.15 Communication between groups of volunteers in

African-Americans unwilling to submit to further inferiority by white volunteers, tension was an

working with whites in SNCC.

only just beginning.

Following the election of Stokely Carmichael, a majority of his chairmanship was

consistently aligned the meaning with political power.

participation in black politicians was key.

Power. As introduced previously, Carmichael’s speech in Greenwood, MS sprung confidence

by individuals outside of SNCC.

failing to seat Julian Bond.

issues of housing conditions in Vine City.

between Carmichael, SNCC, and the Atlanta Project.

attributed to this cause.

attempt at stopping the expulsion.

people.”77 Interestingly, Gordon Parks interview showcases Carmichael’s feelings toward

Atlanta Project became the leading advocates for separatism.

Project was suspended after only one year of existence.

have continued their fight for freedom.

importance within the movement.

surrounding civil rights.

even used within rhetoric today.

the key advocates in their parallel push towards black nationalism.

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