STOKELY CARMICHAEL [KWAME TURE]
March 14, 1971

Carmichael, a Trinidadian-American revolutionary credited for coining the term “Black Power,” flashed a brilliant smile as he posed with two local detectives at Byrd Airport. Carmichael’s message transformed throughout his years in the Civil Rights Movement from nonviolence to militant self-defense. Ultimately, Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Ture and joined the Pan Africanist, All African People’s Revolutionary party. Pan Africanism addressed what Carmichael saw as the central problems black people face: landlessness, capitalist exploitation, and racism.

In 1971, Carmichael brought his call for Pan Africanism to students at Virginia Union University. He was coming to a city where black citizens had struggled for over a decade to find a political voice. As a court ordered the city to adopt a busing plan to integrate its schools, fears of integration and a new Downtown Expressway spurred white flight into the surrounding counties. Carmichael’s visit to Richmond signified that black students and Richmonders alike were at least interested in hearing what Carmichael had to say.

Stokely Carmichael with Sergeant Dalton Rotruck Duling and Detective F. L. Coleman at Byrd Airport, March 14, 1971, Courtesy of The Valentine