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

Stokely Carmichael

There is a higher law than the law of government. That’s the law of conscience.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Conscience Government Law
Our grandfathers had to run, run, run. My generation’s out of breath. We ain’t running no more.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Breathe Generation Myself Run
Black Power can be clearly defined for those who do not attach the fears of white America to their questions about it.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Black Define Power Question White
I ain’t going to jail no more. The only way we gonna stop them white men from whuppin’ us is to take over. What we gonna start sayin’ now is Black Power!
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Black Jail Power Prison Way
The only position for women in SNCC is prone.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Position Women
If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Man Oppression Power Problem Question Racism White
One of the tragedies of the struggle against racism is that up to now there has been no national organization which could speak to the growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghetto.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Black National People Struggle Tragedy Young
We had no more courage than Harriet Tubman or Marcus Garvey had in their times. We just had a more vulnerable enemy.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Courage Enemy Time Vulnerable
I usually say I did the best I could with what I had. I have no major regrets.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Best Content Myself Regret
The secret of life is to have no fear; it’s the only way to function.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Fear Function Life Secret Way
It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Black Build Community Country Organization People Sense
An organization which claims to speak for the needs of a community must speak in the tone of that community.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Community Need Organization Talk
We were aware of the fact that death walks hand in hand with struggle.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Aware Death Fact Hands Struggle
I also know that while I am black I am a human being, and therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people didn’t know that.Every time I tried to go into a place they stopped me
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Black Known Myself People Place Stop White
I place my own hope for the United States in the growth of belief among the unqualified that they are in fact qualified: they can articulate and be responsible and hold power
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Belief Growth Hold Hope Myself Place Power Qualification
Go home and tell your daughters they are beautiful.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Beautiful Daughter Home Yourself
What a liberal really wants is to bring about change that will not in any way endanger his position.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Change Himself Liberty Position
Now, then, in order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Freedom Order People Understand
I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Black Civil Country People Right White
The death of Che Guevara places a responsibility on all revolutionaries of the World to redouble their decision to fight on to the final defeat of Imperialism. That is why in essence Che Guevara is not dead, his ideas are with us.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Death Decision Ideas Ourselves Place Responsibility
An organization which claims to be working for the needs of a community – as SNCC does – must work to provide that community with a position of strength from which to make its voice heard. This is the significance of black power beyond the slogan
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Beyond Black Claim Community Need Organization Power Slogan Strength Work
The philosophers Camus and Sartre raise the question whether or not a man can condemn himself.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Himself Man Philosophy Raise
Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Close Open Rank Society
No man can given anybody his freedom.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Freedom Man
The masses don’t shed their blood for the benefit of a few individuals.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Benefit Blood Individual Mass
Now you know where I got my name.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Myself Name Yourself
Capitalism is a stupid system, a backward system.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Capitalism Stupidity System

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

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

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