In Oakland, California, the first people were the Native Americans from thousands of years ago. The earliest known inhabitants of the area were the Huchiun tribe.They lived in Oakland since time immemorial. The Huchiun people belonged to a linguistic groups called the Ohlone (a Milwok word meaning "western people"). I Oakland, they lived around Lake Merritt and Temescal Creek, or a stream that enters the San Francisco Bay at Emeryville. Later, there was the Spanish and Mexican period of Oakland's hsitory. Conquistadors from New Spain claimed Oakland, and other Ohlone lands of the East Bay. The conquistadors also conquered the rest of California for the king of Spain in 1772. By the early 19th century, the Spanish crown deeded the East Bay area to Luis Maria Peralta for his Rancho San Antonio. The grant was confirmed by successor Mexican republic upon its independence from Spain. Upon his death in 1842, Peralta divided his land among his 4 sons. Most of Oakland was within the shares given to Antonio Maria and Vicente. The Peralta ranch included a stand of oak trees that stretched from the land that is today Oakland's downtown area to the adjacent part of Alameda, then a peninsula. The peralta called the area encinal or the Spanish word that means, "oak grove." This was translated more loosely as "Oakland" in the subsequent naming of the town (according to Horace Carpenter in his first address as mayor). He said: "The chief ornament and attraction of this city consists, doubtless, in the magnificent grove of evergreen oaks which covers its present site and from which it takes both its former name of 'Encinal' and its present one of 'Oakland.'" The trees were California live oaks which are the dominant oversotyr plant of the coast like oak woodland habitant.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo after the Mexican-American War, the Mexican government ceded 525,0000 square miles or 55 percent of its pre-war territory (excluding Texas) to America in exchange for $15 million. The Treaty also gave the safeguarding of the land and property of Mexican citizens. Yet, that provision was regularly ignored by squatters and land speculators. Some of them began settling in the Peralta Ranch during the Gold Rush especially. Before Congress created a Land Commission in 1851 to pursue a settlement of property claims, there were a group of three men. These men were Horace Carpentier, Edson Adams, and Andrew Moon. They were backed at one point by a small army of some 200 men hired from San Francisco to develop a small settlement on Peralta land. It was at first called Contra Costa (opposite shore). It was the Spanish name for the lands on the east side of the Bay in the area that is now downtown Oakland. The United States Post Office recognized this by establishing a post office there with the name "Contra Costa." Carpentier was elected to the California state legislature and go the town of Oakland incorporated on May 4, 1852. By the time of the Land Commission got around to confirming the Peraltas' claims in 1854, Oakland was quickly being futher developed. The Peraltas in the meantime had been persuaded to sell various parcels of their vast holdings. In 1853, John Coffee "Jack" Hays, a famous Texas Ranger, was one of the first to establish residence in Oakland while performing his duties as sheriff of San Francisco.
On March 25, 1854, Oakland was re-incorporated as the City of Oakland. Horace Carpentier was elected its first mayor. His tenure didn't last. He was ousted in 1855. People were angry that he acquired exclusive rights to the waterfront from the Town Board of Trustees in 1852. Charles Campbell replaced him as Mayor on March 5, 1852. The city and its environs grew quickly. There were railroads making Oakland a major rail terminal in the late 1860's and 1870's. In 1868, the Central Pacific made the Oakland Long Wharf at Oakland Point. That is the site of today's Port of Oakland. The Long Wharf served as the terminus both for the Transcontinental Railroad and for local commuter trains of the Central (later, Southern) Pacific. The Central Pacific also established one of its largest rail yards and servicing facilities in West Oakland, which continued to be a major local employer under the Southern Pacific well into the 20th century. The principal depot of the Southern Pacific in Oakland was the 16th Street Station located at 16th and Wood, which is currently being restored as part of a redevelopment project.
In 1871, Cyrus and Susan Mills paid $5,000 for the Young Ladies' Seminary in Benicia, renamed it Mills College, and moved it to its current location in Oakland, adjacent to what is now Seminary Boulevard. In 1872, the town of Brooklyn was incorporated into Oakland. Brooklyn, a large municipality southeast of Lake Merritt, was part of what was then called the Brooklyn Township.
A number of horsecar and cable car lines were constructed in Oakland during the latter half of the 19th century. The first electric streetcar set out from Oakland to Berkeley in 1891, and other lines were converted and added over the course of the 1890's. The various streetcar companies operating in Oakland were acquired by Francis "Borax" Smith and consolidated into what eventually became known as the Key System, the predecessor of today's publicly owned AC Transit. In addition to its system of streetcars in the East Bay, the Key System also operated commuter trains to its own pier and ferry boats to San Francisco, in competition with the Southern Pacific. Upon completion of the Bay Bridge, both companies ran their commuter trains on the south side of the lower deck, directly to San Francisco. The Key System in its earliest years was actually in part a real estate venture, with the transit part serving to help open up new tracts for buyers. The Key System's investors (incorporated as the "Realty Syndicate") also established two large hotels in Oakland, one of which survives as the Claremont Resort. The other, which burned down in the early 1930's, was the Key Route Inn, at what is now West Grand and Broadway. From 1904 to 1929, the Realty Syndicate also operated a major amusement park in north Oakland called Idora Park.
R&B in 2006 was the start of a shift. It saw the growth of 2nd generation singers of the 21st century to come alive along with legendary icons continuing to make music. By early 2006, Mary J. Blige's song of Be Without You was very high in popularity. Cassie had the song of Me and U. Cassie, back then, was very new on the scene. Cassie is a singer with a multiracial heritage. She was born in 1986 at New London, Connecticut. Her mother is African American, Mexican Americans, and West Indian. Her father is Filipino. She was a model when she was 14. Her album of Cassie was released on August 8, 2006. It sold 321,000 copies in America. Her other single in 2006 was Long Way 2 Go. This year saw massive R&B singers and rapper collaborations like Beyonce and Jay's Deja Vu, Chingy ft. Tyrese's Pullin' Me Back, Ciara ft. Chamillionaire's Get Up, P Diddy ft. Nicole Scherzinger's Come to Me, and Janet Jackson ft. Nelly's Call on Me. Chris Brown has the song of Say Goodbye. Beyonce in 2006 had another hit of Irreplaceable. Beyonce's 2nd solo album was B'Day being released on September 4, 2006. This came with her 25th birthday. It sold 541,000 copies in its first week and debuted atop the Billboard 200. This was Beyonce's 2nd consecutive number one solo album in America. Deja Vu and Irreplaceable from the album became women anthems. She had on the albums more songs like Ring the Alarm, Get Me Bodied (co-written by her sister Solange), Freakum Dress, and Green Light. In 2006, Beyonce was in the films Dreamgirls and The Pink Panther. She used funk, hip hop, and R&b in the music. Many people saw controversies with the album from alligators used in a video to the suggestive, sexual lyrics. Back in 2006, it was very controversial to show sexual innuendo in music videos. B'Day was an album was Beyonce became more liberated to touch on more adult subject matter. It was her first visual album. Upon its release, B'Day received generally favorable reviews from critics and earned several accolades, including the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007. Rihanna increased her powerful presence in the music industry by 2006. She is an Afro-Barbardian powerhouse of talent and business skills. She was born on February 20, 1988 in Saint Michael, Barbados. Her name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty. Rihanna has two brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty, and two half-sisters and a half-brother from her father's side, each born to different mothers from his previous relationships. Rihanna's mother is Monica Braithwaite Fenty and his father is Ronald Fenty. Rihanna loves reggae music and saw her mother being physically abused by her father. Later, Rihanna more a musical trio with her classmates in 2003. Producer Evan Rogers found Rihanna and allowed her to go to America to perform. She made Pon de Replay in 2005 and the Last Time. Her debut album was Music of the Sun. Rihanna sent a demo to Jay Z and L.A. Reid. Jay Z never left the building until Rihanna signed a contract. She waited in Jay-Z's office until 3:00 in the morning to get lawyers to draft up a contract because he wanted to prevent her from signing with another label. Rihanna once lived with Rogers and his wife. Rihanna's 2nd album was A Girl Like Me being released on April 2006. It had R&B and guitar sounds. It was her first album going platinum. Her lead single was SOS. Other songs were Unfaithful, We Ride, and Break It Off. In 2006, there were artists like Akon, Ray J, Ne-Yo, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, Keyshia Cole, Cherish, Christina Milian, Omarion, Nelly Furtado, Tey Songz, Jamie Foxx, Kelis (with Bossy ft. Too Short), and other artists making music. LeToya Luckett made the song Torn, establishing her own solo career. The Ohio artist Lyfe Jennings made huge records. Avant had the son of 4 Minutes. Monica worked with Dem Franchize Boyz with Everytime tha Beat Drop. Ruben Studdard, Vivian Sakiyyah Green (from Philadelphia), Lionel Richie, Anthony Hamilton, and Heather Headley released music. Heather Headley is a great vocal artist. In 2006, Jaheim released Ghetto Classics, Ne-Yo released In My Own Words, Prince had 3121, Avant had Director, The Isley Brothers had music, Donell Jones released Journey of a Gemini, Monica had the Makings of Me, Ciara had Ciara: The Evolution, and Janet had 20 Y.O. Janet Jackson's album of 20 Y.O. celebrated 20 years after he third studio album of Control (that was made in 1986). She worked with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, her then boyfirend Jermaine Dupri, and LRoc, plus other producers on 20 Y.O. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it platinum, becoming Jackson's eighth consecutive platinum album. Worldwide, the album has sold 1.5 million copies. 20 Y.O. earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album in 2007. Songs on it are Call on Me, So Excited, and With U.
In 2007, R&B saw new old school sounds and techno sounds. By early 2007, Beyonce's Irreplaceable and Ciara's Promise along with Lloyd ft. Lil Wayne's You were high on the charts. Fantasia made the song When I see U. Fantasia is one of the most talented vocalists of our generation. She has been praised by Patti Labelle and other legends like Debbie Allen. She is that great. Fantasia has been an actress too. Fantasia was born in High Point, North Carolina on June 30, 1984. She sang with great singers like Kem and Rashaan Patterson. Her self titled album Fantasia was released on December 12, 2006. . Robin Thicke made the song Lost Without U. The anthem of Let It Go had Keyshia Cole, Missy Elliot, and Lil Kim. J Holiday had the song of Bed. One of the most popular songs of 2007 was Alicia Keys No One. That song was shown everywhere. In 2007, Omarion had his album growing called 21. The Dreamgirls movie soundtrack was very popular (with the great voice of Jennifer Hudson). Pretty Ricky had their songs. Gerald Levert's album In My Songs was highly inspiring. Artists like Prince with Planet Earth, R. Kelly, Bobby Valentino, and other people released music. Keyshia Cole released Just Like you. Angie Stone made her comeback with The Art of Love and War. Alicia Keys released her third album in November 9, 2007 with As I Am. She worked with Kerry Brothers, Jack Splash, and Linda Perry. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 742,000 copies in its first week, and was eventually certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It became an international commercial success and spawned four singles that achieved chart success, including "No One", which became the song most listened to of 2007 in the United States. Alicia Keys won many awards including 3 Grammy Awards. It sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Alicia Keys's Superwoman was another one of her anthems. In 2007, Leona Lewis released the Bleeding Love song. Leona Lewis has a great voice and is one of the nicest, humblest vocalists of our generation. She is a woman born in London. She was on X-Factor before releasing albums. Leona Lewis was born on April 3, 1985. She is an actress, activist, and songwriter. Her debut album Spirit was released in 2007 selling over 10 million copies. Spirit (2007), which was certified 10× platinum in the UK and became the fourth best-selling album of the 2000s and one of the best-selling albums in UK chart history. According to the Official Charts Company, Spirit is officially the best-selling debut album by a female artist in the 21st century. The lead single, "Bleeding Love", spent seven weeks at number one in over 30 countries, including the UK where it became the best-selling single of 2007 and the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the best-selling single of 2008. Its follow-up single, "Better in Time", was also successful. As a result, Lewis was proclaimed Top New Artist by Billboard in 2008. The Spirit album had other great songs like Run, I Will Be, A Moment Like This, and Better in Time/Footprints in the Sand. At the 2008 Music of Black Origin Awards Spirit won the MOBO award for Best Album and Lewis was nominated for Best UK Female. In the US, Spirit debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 208,607 copies in its first week, which made Lewis the first British solo artist to top the chart with a debut album, and the first British female to hit number one with an album in over twenty years when Sade Adu topped the chart in February 1986 with Promise. In 2007, Rihanna released Good Girl Gone Bad. It was her 3rd studio album. It featured producers like Christopher Stewart, Terius Nash, Neo da Matrix, Timbaland, Evan Rogers, Carl Sturken, and Stargate. It was a R&B record with dance pop music. It was a turning point in her career. It propelled her career into another level. The music, sound, and lyrics were edgier. The album received seven Grammy Award nominations and one win in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category for "Umbrella" at the 2008 ceremony. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart and sold 162,000 copies in its first week. Certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it sold more than 2.8 million copies in the United States. The album reached number one in Canada, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. As of 2017, the album had sold over 9 million copies worldwide. The single of Umbrella was one of the most popular songs of the 21st century. It was shown everywhere. Her other singles in the albums were Don't Stop the Music, Rehab, Shut Up and Drive, and Hate That I Love You. Ne-Yo co-wrote and provided vocals on the song Hate That I Love You. "Umbrella" (which featured hip hop artist Jay Z) reached number one in more than seventeen countries worldwide, including on the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the United Kingdom, the song topped the singles chart for ten consecutive weeks, while in the United States, it was at the top for seven consecutive weeks. As of June 2013, "Umbrella" has sold 4,236,000 digital copies there, making it Rihanna's fifth-best selling single in the country. To further promote the album, Rihanna embarked on her first worldwide and second overall tour, the Good Girl Gone Bad Tour (2007–09). She performed in Europe, North America, Oceania, Asia and Africa. During the concert shows she wore S&M-inspired outfits and high boots. The Girl Good Gone Bad album from Rihanna caused Rihanna to be a total international super star of music. 2007 saw Akon, Trey Songz's Can't Help But Wait, Sean Kingston, Omarion, Mary J. Blige, Usher, R. Kelly, Musiq Soulchild with B.U.D.D.Y., Ciara's Like a Boy, Lloyd, Tank, Neo-Yo, Pretty Ricky, J. Holdiay, Robin Thicke, Jennifer Hudson, Joe, Gerald Levert, Chris Brown's Wall to Wall, and other artists who their music to the world.
Kwame Ture revolutionized the Black Power movement, but the concept of Black Power existed for a long time before the 1960's. Black Power was used by many, especially young African Americans, to promote freedom. Black Power grew because of many factors. The Civil Rights Movement fought to make legitimate laws to exist like the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Yet, the problem was that still millions of black people had police brutality, economic inequality, lax education, housing discrimination, and other problems as a product of a racist, exploitative capitalist system. That is why the movement of Black Power flourished back in the 1960's and beyond. Progress on the civil rights front was slow. Much of the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement (not all people in it) were infiltrated by corporations and establishment figures who supported the unjust Vietnam War and other reformist policies that permitted capitalist reformism not revolutionary change. The key to liberation is empowering black people, all oppressed people, and the working class via a redistribution of economic and political power (as most economic and political power back then and today are centralized mostly under the control of the one percent). You have to empower the power collectively in order for true freedom to exist. According to Kwame Ture, "Black Power meant black people coming together to form a political force and either electing representatives or forcing their representatives to speak to their needs [rather than relying on established parties]." To Ture, Black Power was a call of black political, economic independence. Kwame Ture was also influenced by the work of Frantz Fanon and his landmark book The Wretched of the Earth, along with others such as Malcolm X, etc. Kwame Ture led SNCC to become more pro-Black Power and more nationalistic. The group focused on Black Power as its core goal and ideology.
There was the Atlanta Project in 1966 which was an experiment to see how Black Power would function under SNCC. It was led by the local leadership of Bill Ware. The program wanted to have a voter drive to promote the candidacy of Julian Bond (who opposed the Vietnam War by his words in public in 1966). Julian Bond ran a campaign for an Atlanta district for a seat in the Georgia State Legislature. Ware excluded Northern white SNCC members from working on this drive. Kwame initially opposed this decision but changed his mind. Me personally, I have no problem with people of any color working on a voter drive as long as revolutionary change is the goal. At the urging of the Atlanta Project, the issue of white members in SNCC came up for a vote. Kwame Ture ultimately sided with those calling for the expulsion of whites. Ture said that white people should organize poor white southern communities, of which there were plenty, while SNCC focused on promoting African-American self-reliance through Black Power. Kwame Ture wasn't a racist. He just felt that the best thing that white people can do is to organize in their communities to eliminate racism. You can disagree with him, but this is how he felt. You have to realize that Kwame Ture was a victim of false imprisonment, violence, discrimination, and racial oppression for years. Kwame Ture always considered nonviolence a tactic not a way of life. Dr. King believed in nonviolence as a way of life. Yet, even Dr. King said that there is nothing wrong with a family have gun at their homes for self defense. Dr. King said that he would forsake his pacifism to fight the Nazis during WWII as Hitler was a genocidal, wicked human being. Dr. King and Ture were friends despite their disagreements on some issues. Kwane Ture believed that black people shouldn't use integration as an excuse to be submissive under token middle class mainstream values. Life is bigger than that. He said that sitting next to white people alone will not solve the problem of racism and oppression (he's right on that point). Kwame Ture said the following words: "...Now we maintain that in the past six years or so, this country has been feeding us a "thalidomide drug of integration", and that some Negroes have been walking down a dream street talking about sitting next to white people; and that that does not begin to solve the problem; that when we went to Mississippi we did not go to sit next to Ross Barnett; we did not go to sit next to Jim Clark; we went to get them out of our way; and that people ought to understand that; that we were never fighting for the right to integrate, we were fighting against white supremacy. Now, then, in order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom. No man can give anybody his freedom. A man is born free. You may enslave a man after he is born free, and that is in fact what this country does. It enslaves black people after they're born, so that the only acts that white people can do is to stop denying black people their freedom; that is, they must stop denying freedom. They never give it to anyone..."
Kwame Ture always had skepticism over American society. Kwame Ture said that, ""in order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none." Kwame Ture's leadership time in SNCC was a time of coalition building. He and SNCC had a coalition with many progressive groups like the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). SNCC encouraged the SDS to focus on revolutionary anti-draft resistance as the Vietnam War was unjust. At an SDS-organized conference at UC Berkeley in October 1966, Carmichael challenged the white left to escalate their resistance to the military draft in a manner similar to the black movement. For a time in 1967, he considered an alliance with Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation, and generally supported IAF's work in Rochester's and Buffalo's black communities. One issue of SNCC was the issue of sex. Women made up a large part of SNCC, and tons of women wanted equality. Kwame Ture made the comment that the best position of women are prone. I don't agree with Ture saying those words, even if he was joking. He made those words on November 1964. He was speaking in response to a SNCC position paper written by his friends Casey Hayden and Mary E. King on the position of women in the movement. In the course of an irreverent comedy monologue he performed at a party after SNCC's Waveland conference, Kwame Ture said, "The position of women in the movement is prone."
Ture's Carmichael's colleague, John Lewis, stated in his autobiography, March, that the comment was a joke, uttered as Carmichael and other SNCC officials were "blowing off steam" following the adjournment of a meeting at a staff retreat in Waveland, Mississippi. When asked about the comment, former SNCC field secretary Casey Hayden stated: "Our paper on the position of women came up, and Stokely in his hipster rap comedic way joked that 'the proper position of women in SNCC is prone'. I laughed, he laughed, we all laughed. Stokely was a friend of mine." In her memoir, Mary E. King wrote that Kwame Ture was "poking fun at his own attitudes" and that "Casey and I felt, and continue to feel, that Stokely was one of the most responsive men at the time that our anonymous paper appeared in 1964."
Carmichael appointed several women to posts as project directors during his tenure as chairman of SNCC; by the latter half of the 1960's (considered to be the "Black Power era"), more women were in charge of SNCC projects than during the first half.
One of the views that I agree with Kwame Ture on 100 percent was his total opposition to the Vietnam War. One of SNCC's greatest accomplishments was educating the public on the brutal, wicked Vietnam War. SNCC made its first actions against the military draft and the Vietnam War under Kwame Ture's leadership. He popularized the oft-repeated anti-draft slogan "H__ no, we won't go!" during this time." By 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in public strongly condemning the Vietnam War. Kwame Ture was with him 100 percent when Dr. King gave speeches to condemn the war. Both of them united to fight the evil of that war. Dr. King's advisors cautioned him opposing the Vietnam War would cost him LBJ's support and financial support for SCLC. Dr. King knew all of this and still proceeded. Dr. Martin Luther King's views on Black Power were nuisance. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. agreed with Black Power on its promotion of political and economic power growth for black people as he said that black people in America live in a state of neo-colonialism. Dr. King believed in self determination among black people. Dr. King said that Black is Beautiful. Dr. King rejected separatism. Kwame Ture was at the front row of Dr. Martin Luther King's church when Dr. King promoted being against the Vietnam War. TIME and the NY Times had authors who disrespected Dr. King for his views. Even moderate bourgeoisie civil rights leaders like Roy Wilkins opposed Dr. King for his anti-Vietnam War views, but Dr. King stood strong in his convictions. It would be until 1969 and beyond when those moderate civil rights leaders like Wilkins disagreed with the Vietnam War. Dr. King spoke out against the war as early as 1964, but he tempered those views in public in 1966 until he saw the kids burned by napalm on a cover of a magazine. Then, he wrote his final book in Jamaica and planned an all out assault on the evil of militarism. Kwame Ture and Dr. King talked in private about anti-imperialism and other matters. In May 1967, Kwame Ture stepped down as chairman of SNCC. H. Rap Brown replaced him. SNCC focused on group consensus. They rejected hierarchical leadership. Many SNCC members didn't like what they percieve to be Ture's "celebrity status." SNCC leaders had begun to refer to him as "Stokely Starmichael" and criticized his habit of making policy announcements independently, before achieving internal agreement. According to historian Clayborne Carson, Kwame Ture did not protest the transfer of power and was "eager to relinquish the chair." It is sometimes mistakenly reported that Carmichael left SNCC completely at this time and joined the Black Panther Party, but that did not occur until 1968. SNCC officially ended its relationship with Carmichael in August 1968; in a statement, Philip Hutchings wrote, "It has been apparent for some time that SNCC and Stokely Carmichael were moving in different directions."
During this time, the FBI used COINTELPRO (or counter intelligence) to harm the black freedom movement. J. Edgar Hoover hated black liberation groups. COINTELPRO used slander and violence against their targets. Hoover considered Dr. King, SNCC, Black Panthers, and other revolutionary groups as enemies of the U.S. government. Hoover didn't want a Black Messiah to motivate black people to enact social change. Kwame Ture later accepted the position of Honorary Prime Minister in the Black Panther Party. He was on the SNCC staff for a time. Ture tried to have a merger of SNCC and the Black Panthers. A March 4, 1968 memo from Hoover states his fear of the rise of a Black Nationalist "messiah" and that Carmichael alone had the "necessary charisma to be a real threat in this way." In July 1968, Hoover stepped up his efforts to divide the black power movement. Declassified documents show he launched a plan to undermine the SNCC-Panther merger, as well as to "bad-jacket" Ture as a CIA agent (which is a slanderous lie). Both efforts were largely successful: Ture was expelled from SNCC that year, and some of the Panthers began to denounce him, putting him at grave personal risk. After not being SNCC chair, Kwame Ture wrote the book entitled, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation (1967) with Charles V. Hamilton. It is a first-person reflection on his experiences in SNCC and his dissatisfaction with the direction of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960's. Throughout the work he directly and indirectly criticizes the established leadership of the SCLC and NAACP for their tactics and results, often claiming that they were accepting symbols instead of change.
He promoted what he calls "political modernization." This idea included three major concepts: "1) questioning old values and institutions of the society; 2) searching for new and different forms of political structure to solve political and economic problems; and, 3) broadening the base of political participation to include more people in the decision-making process." By questioning "old values and institutions", Carmichael was referring not only to the established Black leadership of the time but also to the values and institutions of the nation as a whole. He criticized the emphasis on the American "middle-class." "The values," he said, "of that class are based on material aggrandizement, not the expansion of humanity." Kwame Ture believed that blacks were being lured to enter the "middle-class" as a trap, in which they would be assimilated into the white world by turning their backs on others of their race who were still suffering. This assimilation, he thought, was an inherent indictment of blackness and validation of whiteness as the preferred state. He said, "Thus we reject the goal of assimilation into middle-class America because the values of that class are in themselves anti-humanist and because that class as a social force perpetuates racism." History has shown many examples of some black people leaving behind the black collective to promote white racist interests (like Clarence Thomas, Jesse Lee Peterson, Candance Owens, etc.). Kwame Ture is right on that view.
Kwame Ture wanted to research forms of political institutions to solve political and economic problems. Back then, SCLC and the NAACP were in existence. Both groups were based on nonviolence and using legal and legislative change within U.S. system. Kwame Ture had skepticism of using existing systems to solve the problem of oppression. He said that the Mississippi Freedom Democrats and the 1966 local election in Lowndes County, and the political history of Tuskegee Alabama were examples of black people trying to change the system from within the system. To him, these plans ultimately failed to achieve more than the bare minimum. He believed that you can't reinforce the political and legal structures that perpetuate racism. Some people promoted the view of coalition as a way to go forward in terms of the Civil Rights Movement. Kwame Ture wanted black people to build and unite in growing power independent of mainstream society as a perquisite for coalitions to happen. The anti-colonial movements of Africa and Latin America influenced Kwame Ture's thinking. Kwame Ture traveled into Guinea, North Vietnam, China, and Cuba to speak to many people. He was speaking everywhere. He advocated his vision of Black Power. He also lamented the 1967 Marxist leader Che Guevara.
Kwame Ture visited the United Kingdom in July 1967 to attend the Dialectics of Liberation conference. After recordings of his speeches were released by the organizers, the Institute of Phenomenological Studies, he was banned from reentering Britain. In August 1967, a Cuban government magazine reported that Ture met with Fidel Castro for three days and called it "the most educational, most interesting, and the best apprenticeship of [my] public life." Because relations with Cuba were prohibited at the time, after his return to the US, the government withdrew his passport. In December 1967, he traveled to France to attend an antiwar rally. Fidel Castro has a complex legacy. Castro was right to oppose Western imperialism (and helping many black people), but many of his policies violated human civil liberties as he was a Stalinist (we know that Stalin oppressed Trotsykites in the Soviet Union). In France, Kwame Ture was detained by police and ordered to leave the next day, but government officials eventually intervened and allowed him to stay. Kwame Ture was in Washington, D.C. on April 5, 1968. This was on the night after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As we know, Dr. King became more revolutionary than his racist critics and many of those hypocritical nationalists (not all nationalists are hypocrites. I want to make that clear). Dr. King wanted reparations for black Americans, he fought for the Poor People's Campaign to make progressive economic change (in using billions of dollars to fight poverty, build housing, have a guaranteed income, etc. Dr. King was inspired to promote the Poor People's Campaign from Mary Wright Edelman and the welfare rights movement). Kwame Ture led a group through the streets, demanding that businesses close out of respect. He tried to prevent violence, but the situation escalated beyond his control. Due to his reputation being smeared as provocateur, the news media falsely blamed Kwame Ture for the ensuing violence as mobs rioted along U Street and other areas of black commercial development. During the next day, Kwame Ture held a press conference predicting mass racial violence in the streets.
Since moving to Washington, he had been under nearly constant FBI surveillance. After the riots, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover instructed a team of agents to find evidence connecting Kwame Ture to them. He was also subjected to COINTELPRO's bad-jacketing technique. Huey P. Newton suggested Carmichael was a CIA agent. That untruth led to Kwame Ture's break with the Panthers and his exile from the U.S. the following year. In 1968, Kwame Ture married the South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba. They left America for Guinea in 1969. He was an aide to Guinea President Ahmed Sekou Toure and a studnet of the exiled Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah. Makeba was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the Untied Nations. Three months after his arrival in Guinea, in July 1969, Carmichael published a formal leaving of the Black Panthers. Kwame Ture felt that the Black Panthers should first unite more with black people instead of favoring alliances with what he called "white radicals." The Black Panthers wanted white progressive activists to help them in their movement. Kwame Ture wanted the white activists to organize in their communities first before any long term alliance would be created with black people. Kwame Ture and the Black Panthers had the same goal of black liberation, but they used different tactics. It's like 2 relatives wanting the same goal, but they have 2 different approaches in getting to the same goal. The Black Panthers and Kwame Ture acted courageous to fight for our freedom. After 1969, Kwame Ture would be more anti-capitalist, and more pro-socialist. SNCC evolved from being Ella Baker inspired to ending being a Nationalist group by the 1970's. The Black Panthers was formed by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. They were right to advocate for self defense, being against police brutality, and opposing capitalist exploitation. Many Black Panthers were heroes who stood up for the human rights of black people. We know of their names from Fred Hampton to Terika Lewis. Many of them omitted the need to develop a class consciousness to fight for the liberation of the poor and the working class. In other words, you will need a coalition of the poor, the homeless, black people, the oppressed, and working class (making up labor) in order to fight for comprehensive social change. The concept of Black Power would be embraced by the black left (with the Black Panthers), the political nationalists, the cultural nationalists, and the black right (who were Republicans or those who love black capitalism). Black solidarity and unity is important along with using class struggle (as you can't be a revolutionary without addressing economic inequality, health care issues, housing, education, and poverty in general) in order to achieve goals too. We are human and we are multidimensional. In other words, I am a black man, my ancestors came from Africa, I was born in America, I'm from an urban environment, and I live in Virginia. It takes multi-dimensional actions in order to achieve black liberation. Also, black unity is always important to promote.
By Timothy
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