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Saying It Loud: 1966―The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement
Mark Whitaker “writes with the eye of a journalist and ear of a poet” ( The Boston Globe ) to tell the story of the momentous year that redefined the civil rights movement as a new sense of Black identity, expressed in the slogan “Black Power,” challenged the nonviolent philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis.
In “crisp prose” ( The New York Times ) and novelistic detail Saying It Loud tells the story of how the Black Power phenomenon began to challenge the traditional civil rights movement in the turbulent year of 1966. Saying It Loud takes you inside the dramatic events in this seminal year, from Stokely Carmichael’s middle-of-the-night ouster of moderate icon John Lewis as a chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to Carmichael’s impassioned cry of “Black Power!” during a protest march in rural Mississippi. From Julian Bond’s humiliating and racist ouster from the Georgia state legislature because of his antiwar statements to Ronald Reagan’s election as California governor riding a “white backlash” vote against Black Power and urban unrest. From the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California, to the origins of Kwanzaa, the Black Arts Movement, and the first Black studies programs. From Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ill-fated campaign to take the civil rights movement north to Chicago to the wrenching ousting of the white members of SNCC.
Deeply researched and widely reported, Saying It Loud offers brilliant portraits of the major characters in the yearlong drama and provides new details and insights from key players and journalists who covered the story. It also makes a compelling case for why the lessons from 1966 still resonate in the era of Black Lives Matter and the fierce contemporary battles over voting rights, identity politics, and the teaching of Black History.
In “crisp prose” ( The New York Times ) and novelistic detail Saying It Loud tells the story of how the Black Power phenomenon began to challenge the traditional civil rights movement in the turbulent year of 1966. Saying It Loud takes you inside the dramatic events in this seminal year, from Stokely Carmichael’s middle-of-the-night ouster of moderate icon John Lewis as a chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to Carmichael’s impassioned cry of “Black Power!” during a protest march in rural Mississippi. From Julian Bond’s humiliating and racist ouster from the Georgia state legislature because of his antiwar statements to Ronald Reagan’s election as California governor riding a “white backlash” vote against Black Power and urban unrest. From the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California, to the origins of Kwanzaa, the Black Arts Movement, and the first Black studies programs. From Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ill-fated campaign to take the civil rights movement north to Chicago to the wrenching ousting of the white members of SNCC.
Deeply researched and widely reported, Saying It Loud offers brilliant portraits of the major characters in the yearlong drama and provides new details and insights from key players and journalists who covered the story. It also makes a compelling case for why the lessons from 1966 still resonate in the era of Black Lives Matter and the fierce contemporary battles over voting rights, identity politics, and the teaching of Black History.
400 pages, Hardcover
Published February 7, 2023
27 people are currently reading
780 people want to read
About the author
Mark Whitaker
15 books34 followersMark Whitaker is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, My Long Trip Home. The former managing editor of CNN Worldwide, he was previously the Washington bureau chief for NBC News and a reporter and editor at Newsweek, where he rose to become the first African-American leader of a national newsweekly.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
July 24, 2024
Mark Whitaker's Saying It Loud offers a nuanced look at the radicalization of the Civil Rights Movement in 1966. Whitaker's book starts by reviewing the state of the Movement at the time: having achieved epochal legislative victories with the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, the movement's leaders seemed to stagnate as Lyndon Johnson turned his attention elsewhere (not least Vietnam), race riots broke out in Northern cities and white backlash spread beyond the Deep South. Then the murder of SNCC organizer Sammy Younge during a voting registration drive in Mississippi drove the Movement in a newer, more militant direction. The main protagonists of Whitaker's book are a mix of both well-known and more obscure movement leaders: Stokely Carmichael, organizing SNCC in Mississippi, through his charisma, drive and organizational skills; coining the phrase Black Power, he reenergized the movement with a new slogan and worldview that emphasized self-sufficiency over working with in the System. Also profiled are Julian Bond, who was being blocked from a seat in the Georgia State Legislature for speaking out against Vietnam; James Meredith, the hero of Ole Miss's integration struggle whose one-man protest march in 1966 (and assassination attempt) provided a major catalyst for Carmichael's militancy; Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, who advanced Malcolm X's doctrine of self-defense by creating the Black Panthers; Ron Karenga, the radical Los Angeles organizer who preached racial separatism; and of course Martin Luther King, who struggles to keep the Movement together while confronting skepticism among young organizers, resistance from the Federal government and ugly backlash in Chicago and other Northern cities. Whitaker's account is vivid and humanizing, articulating how Black Power seemed a logical response to the political state of 1966: after all, if working within the System only earns protesters a nightstick to the head. On the other hand, he doesn't shy away from Black Power's uglier moments, from the swaggering male chauvinism of Carmichael ("the position of women in the Movement is prone!") and others to the personality feuds within the movement (exacerbated by the FBI and government intervention), the oft-murky ideological feuds (Marxism vs. Pan-Africanism vs. integration) and Bill Ware's expulsion of white SNCC members, which Whitaker dramatizes in blow-by-blow detail. Ultimately, Whitaker concludes that Black Power played a major role in shaping self-esteem, identity and activism among African-Americans, a worthy achievement even if its political gains are harder to assess. A valuable addition to the literature on this heavily-covered, fraught and generally caricatured social movement.
April 30, 2023
Not much here new to anyone who's read as many of Whitaker's sources as I have, admittedly a tiny tiny group, smile. But he does a solid job telling the story of a complicated year and he doesn't fall into the traps of either simplifying or romanticizing Black Power. He leans heavily on Peniel Joseph's essential work, and Kwame Hassan Jeffries' Blood Lowndes, and I'd probably suggest starting with those, but if you just want the basic story, Whittaker's a trustworthy guide.
October 15, 2023
Powerful account of the rise and fall of the Black Power movement. For those who doubt that there was any real reason for Black youth to reject non-violence in favor of militancy, this book provides graphic examples of white mob violence, murderous police violence, and open racism in every city and institution in America.
These days you often hear aging, self-pitying white Baby Boomers (like Professor Mary Gordon) in privileged white enclaves (like Barnard College) protesting tearfully that they "loved" Martin Luther King but just can't understand why "the blacks" had to turn to Black Power. This book explains why.
These days you often hear aging, self-pitying white Baby Boomers (like Professor Mary Gordon) in privileged white enclaves (like Barnard College) protesting tearfully that they "loved" Martin Luther King but just can't understand why "the blacks" had to turn to Black Power. This book explains why.
March 1, 2023
Good history to read and know. White people and systemic racism is unbelievably horrible.
February 20, 2024
In “Saying It Loud,” Mark Whitaker makes a convincing case that 1966 was a turning point in the civil rights movement. With a novelist’s eye for detail and personalities, Whitaker traces across the year Black activists’ growing frustration with nonviolence and halting progress in North and South and the turn toward Black Power and radicalism—as epitomized by SNCC’s expulsion of white staffers, the founding of the Black Panther Party, and the rise of Black campus activism—as well as the white backlash that followed, including Reagan’s election as California governor, declining nationwide support for even peaceful civil-rights protests, and the failure of LBJ’s housing-focused civil rights legislation.
Fascinating and timely, Whitaker’s “Saying It Loud” provides important background for many of the same challenges and fault lines we face today in the world of Black Lives Matter.
Fascinating and timely, Whitaker’s “Saying It Loud” provides important background for many of the same challenges and fault lines we face today in the world of Black Lives Matter.
February 1, 2024
This is an excellent book that shows how the Black Power Movement grew in 1966 to become a strong voice in opposition to the Civil Rights Movement led by MLK. It tells an interesting series of stories that begins with the SNCC and the SCLC working together, along with the NAACP and CORE, but they grew apart over the year. Part of that was the lack of success by MLK when he took the movement north. Many northern whites turned against the movement as its targets got closer to home. But another reason for SNCC turn was the frustration of its young members at the moderation of the SCLC as well as the SNCC president John Lewis. Stokely Carmichael was able to rest the position from Lewis by playing on that frustration among SNCC staffers. Carmichael was much more outspoken and combative than Lewis, which played well to blacks but further turned whites against the Civil Rights Movement and against SNCC itself. Fundraising dried up and SNCC started on the road to irrelevance as a source of social change. Black Power, a term popularized by Carmichael, continued to gain steam as it spoke to the experiences and aspiration of many African-Americans. The author finishes by suggesting that the assassination of Malcolm X in the previous year left the movement without a strong leader (Carmichael might have seemed a logical choice, but he wasn't up to the job) which undermined its effectiveness although not its relevance.
I would highly recommend this for anyone interested in the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement or just modern American history. It is interesting and insightful.
I would highly recommend this for anyone interested in the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement or just modern American history. It is interesting and insightful.
July 7, 2024
Whitaker's book is relevant today, where we face a backlash against Black civil rights and diversity-related studies comparable to the backlash he documents in 1966. Many events will be familiar to most interested readers (the formation of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, the expulsion of white staff from SNCC), but Whitaker alerts us to the important roles of people we might not have heard of: notably Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, but also Bill Ware, Donald Warren, and others. The civil rights movement of the 60s, like other events taking place in a revolutionary situation (I think it's fair to use that label) had very short generations of leadership: two or three years and a whole new cadre could take prominence.
Whitaker shows us how important decisions were often made improvisationally, even impulsively. He reminds us of the important cultural and political achievements that came from the call for Black Power and that remain even in the wake of the backlash.
If there were one thing more I'd want from Whitaker, it would be to explain the intellectual trends in Europe and the U.S. that led to so many leftist ideas from Mao, Fanon, etc. being in the air, and why these ideas were so important to young African-American leaders. Perhaps that could be another book.
Whitaker shows us how important decisions were often made improvisationally, even impulsively. He reminds us of the important cultural and political achievements that came from the call for Black Power and that remain even in the wake of the backlash.
If there were one thing more I'd want from Whitaker, it would be to explain the intellectual trends in Europe and the U.S. that led to so many leftist ideas from Mao, Fanon, etc. being in the air, and why these ideas were so important to young African-American leaders. Perhaps that could be another book.
March 4, 2023
Having been in junior high in 1966, I only got the white/Walter Cronkite version of what was going on in civil rights. So this book was an interesting and inside look at various pieces of civil rights from a Black perspective. The author did some great research and I enjoyed his writing. The downside to this book was the number of typos that never got corrected in the editing process. Surely Simon and Schuster could do better.
April 3, 2024
Mark Whitaker's work highlights the pivotal moments of 1966 and the lasting impact the year had on the culture. Throughout this read I found myself gaining a new perspective of the development of black culture in America, and an increased understanding of the generational divides. There is indeed a cyclical nature of it, as even today one can observe a tone shift in approach and outlook of black culture within my parent's generation (GenX), Millennials and Gen Z. I understand how my parents and grandparents hold the views they do currently hold as children and young adults of the cultural revolution, working to understand the meaning of this new-found collective black consciousness, while also finding meaning in the unraveling of the militant leaders of the movement.
I began reading this book after watching the FX Series MLK/X. The series did a great job capturing the triumphs and challenges of two of the most famous figures of the Civil Rights movement and revealed how despite media depictions of opposing views, MLK and Malcolm X were more aligned than opposed. Within the first few chapters of this book I quickly wished the series would've featured MLK & Stokely Carmichael (but I guess MLK/Carmichael doesn't have the same ring). Stokely, very much a disciple of MLK, Bayard Rustin and Malcom X, would've been a much more interesting figure to study because of his connection to the pivotal leaders of the movement and his power gained as the youth became more involved. Also, profiling a character such as Stokely would've been more effective in capturing the mood and tone and informing readers how the movement transitioned from the plea for Civil Rights, to the demand for power and embrace of a separate and unique culture.
As a history nerd and someone who is determined to share his love and appreciation for black history with his future family, I am always amazed at how certain stories are told or not told. The characters of the 1966 Black Power movement, while less effective, are arguably the most relatable to modern society. Like the socially aware thought leaders of today, the Black Power leaders were more disillusioned with traditional means and lacked the patience of the "old guard". The lack of patience produced positive and negative impacts on the movement but more accurately captured the emotions of the black masses. And this is why these characters should be told more as their impact is still presently felt. The climax of the movie "They Cloned Tyrone" is a direct call out to Ruby Doris Robinson and the impact she had on black identity. The, most online, disappointment of Obama and Biden's presidencies resemble the rejection of LBJ and Malcolm's infamous "chickens coming home to roost". We even see parallels with the anti-war movement intertwining with the on going fight for civil rights. Highlighting the Black Power era and its leaders also provides context to MLK and Malcolm X. When you recognize the impact "Black Power" had on MLK, it makes it difficult to squarely position him in the aura of passivity that is too commonly presented every January.
TLDR: This book is amazing and reveals the mood of the times while also explaining the cultural realities of the present.
I began reading this book after watching the FX Series MLK/X. The series did a great job capturing the triumphs and challenges of two of the most famous figures of the Civil Rights movement and revealed how despite media depictions of opposing views, MLK and Malcolm X were more aligned than opposed. Within the first few chapters of this book I quickly wished the series would've featured MLK & Stokely Carmichael (but I guess MLK/Carmichael doesn't have the same ring). Stokely, very much a disciple of MLK, Bayard Rustin and Malcom X, would've been a much more interesting figure to study because of his connection to the pivotal leaders of the movement and his power gained as the youth became more involved. Also, profiling a character such as Stokely would've been more effective in capturing the mood and tone and informing readers how the movement transitioned from the plea for Civil Rights, to the demand for power and embrace of a separate and unique culture.
As a history nerd and someone who is determined to share his love and appreciation for black history with his future family, I am always amazed at how certain stories are told or not told. The characters of the 1966 Black Power movement, while less effective, are arguably the most relatable to modern society. Like the socially aware thought leaders of today, the Black Power leaders were more disillusioned with traditional means and lacked the patience of the "old guard". The lack of patience produced positive and negative impacts on the movement but more accurately captured the emotions of the black masses. And this is why these characters should be told more as their impact is still presently felt. The climax of the movie "They Cloned Tyrone" is a direct call out to Ruby Doris Robinson and the impact she had on black identity. The, most online, disappointment of Obama and Biden's presidencies resemble the rejection of LBJ and Malcolm's infamous "chickens coming home to roost". We even see parallels with the anti-war movement intertwining with the on going fight for civil rights. Highlighting the Black Power era and its leaders also provides context to MLK and Malcolm X. When you recognize the impact "Black Power" had on MLK, it makes it difficult to squarely position him in the aura of passivity that is too commonly presented every January.
TLDR: This book is amazing and reveals the mood of the times while also explaining the cultural realities of the present.
April 17, 2023
There is wealth of information in this book about a period of the civil rights movement I wasn't too familiar with. For that I appreciated the book. The rise of Stokley Carmichael, beginning of the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King's attempts to focus on the racism of the North and the Backlash vote of 1966 are all covered here.
Unfortunately I wish Whitaker would've structured the book a little better. At first, readers are offered numerous different events and battlegrounds of the civil rights movement in 1966 across the United States. The middle of the book slows down, and it's hyper-focused on Carmichael and the SNCC. It seemed like Whitaker should have chosen to write specifically on the post-Lewis SNCC, where he had a wealth of detailed information; or he should have expanded his scope to include more factors on the other campaigns he attempted to include. His coverage of the Oakland Black Panthers felt rushed compared to the meticulous detail he provided on the Meredith March. Malcolm X's absence in 1966 (due to his murder in 1965) was always in the back of my mind reading this book, yet Whitaker shoehorns that point in on the last page, and it just didn't have the impact it could have. If Carmichael is to be criticized for his youthful inexperience during his meteoric rise, why aren't established leaders like Wilkins, Lewis and MLK not critiqued for failing to address the shift? What was the NAACP doing in the second half of 1966? While King's reactions are recorded, others are notably absent.
Still, overall this is a solid read. It introduces us to important, yet not-as-famous movers and shakers from the 60's. I'm glad I read it, just wish it espoused a more forceful opinion on what Whitaker thought the impact of these pivotal events were; and even better, how our understanding of them can help us address racial inequalities of today.
Unfortunately I wish Whitaker would've structured the book a little better. At first, readers are offered numerous different events and battlegrounds of the civil rights movement in 1966 across the United States. The middle of the book slows down, and it's hyper-focused on Carmichael and the SNCC. It seemed like Whitaker should have chosen to write specifically on the post-Lewis SNCC, where he had a wealth of detailed information; or he should have expanded his scope to include more factors on the other campaigns he attempted to include. His coverage of the Oakland Black Panthers felt rushed compared to the meticulous detail he provided on the Meredith March. Malcolm X's absence in 1966 (due to his murder in 1965) was always in the back of my mind reading this book, yet Whitaker shoehorns that point in on the last page, and it just didn't have the impact it could have. If Carmichael is to be criticized for his youthful inexperience during his meteoric rise, why aren't established leaders like Wilkins, Lewis and MLK not critiqued for failing to address the shift? What was the NAACP doing in the second half of 1966? While King's reactions are recorded, others are notably absent.
Still, overall this is a solid read. It introduces us to important, yet not-as-famous movers and shakers from the 60's. I'm glad I read it, just wish it espoused a more forceful opinion on what Whitaker thought the impact of these pivotal events were; and even better, how our understanding of them can help us address racial inequalities of today.
August 25, 2023
Whitaker’s Saying It Loud is a massive undertaking. There are so many internal and exogenous forces prevalent to the Civil Rights Movement covered within these pages! This book predominantly covers the 1960s and the activism behind the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The narrative does an ok job following chronologically, making it difficult for me to give it a perfect score. While challenging to follow along at times, Whitaker humanizes many of the people within the fight for Black Consciousness, making this an essential read.
“The real issue isn’t violence versus non-violence; it’s self-defense versus accepting anything white people want to do to you - including death.”
-quoted in the book by Ralph Abernathy
The theme of this book aside from Black Consciousness, is the clash of ideology between multiple Black activist groups. Some challenging questions addressed by activists throughout this work:
•Should Blacks continue the non-violent activism by Dr. King, or should they challenge white supremacy head-on with weapons as a means of self-defense?
•Should Blacks assimilate and integrate into a society constructed by the legacy of colonialism or should they embrace their powerful ancestry, culture, and language to create a new space for and built by Blacks?
•Should whites be allowed to contribute or join Black organizations in the fight for Civil Rights?
So much of this book really has you thinking about how these struggles of the past have shaped the world today. It also confirms how little progress has been made, as white supremacy, police brutality, and corrupt political forces continue to plague Blacks today. Stokely Charmichael and Malcom X had convincing arguments for dismantling/ toppling white-America and striving for Black liberation. Excellent historical piece that is relevant to our future!!!
“The real issue isn’t violence versus non-violence; it’s self-defense versus accepting anything white people want to do to you - including death.”
-quoted in the book by Ralph Abernathy
The theme of this book aside from Black Consciousness, is the clash of ideology between multiple Black activist groups. Some challenging questions addressed by activists throughout this work:
•Should Blacks continue the non-violent activism by Dr. King, or should they challenge white supremacy head-on with weapons as a means of self-defense?
•Should Blacks assimilate and integrate into a society constructed by the legacy of colonialism or should they embrace their powerful ancestry, culture, and language to create a new space for and built by Blacks?
•Should whites be allowed to contribute or join Black organizations in the fight for Civil Rights?
So much of this book really has you thinking about how these struggles of the past have shaped the world today. It also confirms how little progress has been made, as white supremacy, police brutality, and corrupt political forces continue to plague Blacks today. Stokely Charmichael and Malcom X had convincing arguments for dismantling/ toppling white-America and striving for Black liberation. Excellent historical piece that is relevant to our future!!!
December 15, 2024
Brilliant investigation and reporting centered around 1966 and the Black freedom struggle. This is a page turner. The lasting question, whether contemplating Black Power, Dr King’s nonviolent movement, Black Panther Party, Freedom Riders and the original SNCC beloved community, or the Black Lives Matter Movement is: is it possible to have a decentralized national movement where leadership is distributed throughout an organization rather than centralized in one place, person, or even a few people; or does the only lasting change from social and political movements around the world demand more than a decentralized army of young foot soldiers? Is it both? Young foot soldiers who hold visible leaders of exceptional charisma, maturity, and vision to account? Leaders who can channel the demands and energy of youth-led movements on a “constructive” course? How do we channel/guide fierce urgency forward? Towards what vision? Visions?
Also, deeply appreciate the centering of the often unseen work of the women in these Movements. The figuring of Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ruby Doris Robinson, Dottie Miller, and many, many more women in this telling of radical Black politics, is seen by this reader.
Highly recommend!
Also, deeply appreciate the centering of the often unseen work of the women in these Movements. The figuring of Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ruby Doris Robinson, Dottie Miller, and many, many more women in this telling of radical Black politics, is seen by this reader.
Highly recommend!
April 20, 2024
Not only were Carmichael and Dr. King mentioned in this detailed historical narrative, there were several people that rarely make the history books. I was excited to learn new things about this era even though its been 60 years. Who knew 1966 was such a big year!
Whitaker wrote beautifully, making this a page turner that I enjoyed immensely. I felt like I was there in Missouri, Alabama, California, and Africa. I cheered and was equally horrified by every event written about.
Whitaker wrote beautifully, making this a page turner that I enjoyed immensely. I felt like I was there in Missouri, Alabama, California, and Africa. I cheered and was equally horrified by every event written about.
September 10, 2024
Very good! Incredibly interesting and has a great focus on the creation of the black power movement and what lead up to it as well as the white backlash that came behind it and the political results from it. History is cool
February 14, 2024
Great book, 4.5 for sure. Powerful, sad, hopefull, hopeless, perseverence. I've been studying the Civil Rights movement for years, and I have to ask: what is wrong with white people( I am white)? Mr. Whitaker does a fantastic job of connecting the early years of the nonviolent movements with the Black Panthers and the numerous riots later on.
August 7, 2024
Great read. Mark Whitaker does w good job portraying the figures of the struggle for racial justice, how it's evolved, and what we might expect.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 3, 2023
It’s interesting to read a book about the Civil Rights movement that doesn’t focus on or lionize MLK. In fact, King often appears in this book as a diminished figure - one who tries (and fails) to tackle systemic inequalities found outside the South as part of the Chicago Freedom Movement. Two years before his assassination, it’s clear how difficult it is for him to keep a fraying civil rights movement aligned.
Instead, this book primarily (and perhaps to a fault) focuses on Stokely Carmichael’s rise to power and takeover of SNCC in 1966. Sections about Huey Newton and Bobby Seale’s creation of the Black Panther Party and Ron Carenga’s creation of a larger Afro-American identity through the Kwanzaa holiday (and his own black nationalist group, US Organization) feel tacked on - each is deserving of a book in itself.
SNCC itself begins as a rebuke to the top-down nature of King’s SCLC - a more populist, action-oriented youth wing distinct from the more respectable organizations, like CORE, the NAACP, and the Urban League. It quickly gained prominence through the leadership of John Lewis and James Forman, whom Carmichael and his allies would remove in a (literal) midnight coup. One can understand their frustration with the old guard - at this point, Lewis was spending his time on the speaking and fundraising circuit, much of it in Europe, while Carmichael was in the trenches doing voter registration drives in rural Alabama. On a march in Mississippi in 1966, Carmichael coined the phrase ‘Black Power’, which became a Rorschach test for the movement itself. The movement’s enemies said it was a revolutionary mantra - Stokely Carmichael liked the opaque nature of the phrase (if you had to ask what it meant, you wouldn’t get it), and did little to dissuade those who didn’t understand.
Carmichael was a better firebrand than a leader, and better at both than serving as an administrator. Within months, the organization was functionally bankrupt, and Carmichael would leave the chairman role within a year. Carmichael’s interests in the struggle had become more universal and more quixotic - he traveled to Cuba, China and North Vietnam at this time. From then on, the organization trudged along, mostly beset by infighting and with a short-lived merger and acrimonious split with the Black Panthers, before disbanding in 1969.
In Whitaker’s telling, the story is pretty clear - a group of hotheads take over a once proud cornerstone of the civil rights movement, and after a few rounds of witch hunts, circular firing squads and needless diversions into more and more revolutionary politics, the organization becomes a shadow of its former self.
But in the back of my mind, the question repeatedly came up: would the movement as a whole have been better served by the continuation of a forceful and focused SNCC that was less revolutionary, more universal in its support and more popular across America - in other words, by John Lewis’ SNCC? Or was this rupture inevitable, as the civil rights movement of the early 1960s was overtaken by events - with Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale merely as their avatars?
Instead, this book primarily (and perhaps to a fault) focuses on Stokely Carmichael’s rise to power and takeover of SNCC in 1966. Sections about Huey Newton and Bobby Seale’s creation of the Black Panther Party and Ron Carenga’s creation of a larger Afro-American identity through the Kwanzaa holiday (and his own black nationalist group, US Organization) feel tacked on - each is deserving of a book in itself.
SNCC itself begins as a rebuke to the top-down nature of King’s SCLC - a more populist, action-oriented youth wing distinct from the more respectable organizations, like CORE, the NAACP, and the Urban League. It quickly gained prominence through the leadership of John Lewis and James Forman, whom Carmichael and his allies would remove in a (literal) midnight coup. One can understand their frustration with the old guard - at this point, Lewis was spending his time on the speaking and fundraising circuit, much of it in Europe, while Carmichael was in the trenches doing voter registration drives in rural Alabama. On a march in Mississippi in 1966, Carmichael coined the phrase ‘Black Power’, which became a Rorschach test for the movement itself. The movement’s enemies said it was a revolutionary mantra - Stokely Carmichael liked the opaque nature of the phrase (if you had to ask what it meant, you wouldn’t get it), and did little to dissuade those who didn’t understand.
Carmichael was a better firebrand than a leader, and better at both than serving as an administrator. Within months, the organization was functionally bankrupt, and Carmichael would leave the chairman role within a year. Carmichael’s interests in the struggle had become more universal and more quixotic - he traveled to Cuba, China and North Vietnam at this time. From then on, the organization trudged along, mostly beset by infighting and with a short-lived merger and acrimonious split with the Black Panthers, before disbanding in 1969.
In Whitaker’s telling, the story is pretty clear - a group of hotheads take over a once proud cornerstone of the civil rights movement, and after a few rounds of witch hunts, circular firing squads and needless diversions into more and more revolutionary politics, the organization becomes a shadow of its former self.
But in the back of my mind, the question repeatedly came up: would the movement as a whole have been better served by the continuation of a forceful and focused SNCC that was less revolutionary, more universal in its support and more popular across America - in other words, by John Lewis’ SNCC? Or was this rupture inevitable, as the civil rights movement of the early 1960s was overtaken by events - with Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale merely as their avatars?
September 9, 2023
This is a very eye-opening book on a key year in the civil rights movement. 1966 was the year that Stokely Carmichael succeeded John Lewis as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the year that the Black Panther Party of Oakland, CA was founded. It was also the year that support of northern whites for the civil rights movement and for Black protest began to fray and that the last white activists were dismissed from SNCC. In addition, while the phrase "Black Power" had been used before, it achieved mass exposure, to both Black and white Americans, in 1966, largely due to Carmichael.
The book is almost a series of biographical sketches of leading figures in the movement. Names such as Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, John Lewis, Julian Bond, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale have become (at least to whites), more symbols than actual human beings, but Whitaker discusses how these people thought (as far as we can know), how they behaved, what they really advocated for, and what influenced them. One major theme is how these individuals, as well as the concept of Black Power, were portrayed in the white-controlled press which, of course, was a huge influence in how they are remembered today. Whitaker also discusses the relationship of the key players to more well-known civil rights figures, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, of the NAACP, Whitney Young, of the Urban League, and Malcolm X, who had been murdered in 1965, but whose influence on the Black Power movement was enormous; the paperback edition of his autobiography was published in 1966.
I make no claim that Whitaker has it all "right," in this book; no interpretation of historical events and people, especially those within living memory can or will go unchallenged. But the book seems very well-researched and supported. As a white American (who was born in 1966), I believe that the book improved what little understanding I have of the Black liberation movement. I recommend it highly.
The book is almost a series of biographical sketches of leading figures in the movement. Names such as Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, John Lewis, Julian Bond, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale have become (at least to whites), more symbols than actual human beings, but Whitaker discusses how these people thought (as far as we can know), how they behaved, what they really advocated for, and what influenced them. One major theme is how these individuals, as well as the concept of Black Power, were portrayed in the white-controlled press which, of course, was a huge influence in how they are remembered today. Whitaker also discusses the relationship of the key players to more well-known civil rights figures, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, of the NAACP, Whitney Young, of the Urban League, and Malcolm X, who had been murdered in 1965, but whose influence on the Black Power movement was enormous; the paperback edition of his autobiography was published in 1966.
I make no claim that Whitaker has it all "right," in this book; no interpretation of historical events and people, especially those within living memory can or will go unchallenged. But the book seems very well-researched and supported. As a white American (who was born in 1966), I believe that the book improved what little understanding I have of the Black liberation movement. I recommend it highly.
December 31, 2025
My favorite ever!
March 13, 2024
Mark Whitaker has wonderful journalistic sense. He does an excellent job tying different story lines together.
May 24, 2024
A very interesting and well-written account of the Black Power movement. Enjoyed it. 4 stars.
April 27, 2023
Fascinating book with soooo much history. While some of what was discussed is fairly well known, putting it together in this manner was very powerful. Excellent non-fiction discussion of 1966 that could probably be read several times due to all the detailed exploration of this point in time.
4.5 ⭐️s.
4.5 ⭐️s.
July 15, 2023
This is a great look at the year where the civil rights movement became divided between the traditional non violent stance to a more militant conformation, and how that split affected America, and the society, politics, and the culture of that year.
May 7, 2025
I can't sing this book's praises enough. The entire history is almost entirely contained within the year 1966, a decision that I think helps pace the book well and may prove an interesting hook for anyone interested in reading history but may be daunted by the usual forms of biography or sweeping tome. Tons of great material for both newcomers to Civil Rights Era history and for knowledgeable readers. It contains one of the best explanations I've read yet for how in such a short time the face of, and momentum behind, Black politics in America shifted from the lawyers & Christian leaders pushing for assimilationary equality to the radicals & revolutionaries associated with the militant movements of the 1970s.
June 17, 2024
Wow! New-to-me stories and connections between stories of the early black power movement as it was in transition from the nonviolent methods of Dr King and his generation of freedom fighters. The arrangement of stories was a little confusing for me, not already having a perfectly clear framework into which I’d place the non-chronologically ordered tales. (They’re arranged more by the personalities they track and the intertwining pathways those folks took than by chronology.)
Highly recommend anyone wanting to learn more about everything from MLK to SNCC to X to the panthers and their southern origins.
See also: Revolution in our time, the black panther party: a graphic novel history.
Highly recommend anyone wanting to learn more about everything from MLK to SNCC to X to the panthers and their southern origins.
See also: Revolution in our time, the black panther party: a graphic novel history.
March 9, 2025
This book learn a lot I didn’t know about 1966 and what a pivotal year it was and about what happened after it. These topics weren’t covered in my history classes except at a very surface level if at all. I liked that this book made me think and understand the US a bit more and differently.
April 7, 2023
A great way to introduce readers to the dynamics of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, particularly 1966. This book has encouraged me to dig deeper, and read more.
December 29, 2023
An excellent, thoughtful, and balanced work on the key turning point of the Civil Rights movement. I have often found the discussion around black power/nationalism frustrating and polarized. Scholars and pundits too often are either enamored of these subjects or too fearful and dismissive. MW strikes the balance of empathy and critique in this book, showing how the shift to BP reflected key figures personal experiences and emotions as much as their ideas. I think one key message of this book is that if you had experienced what many of these activists had, you might have radicalized too.
MW explores SNCC, Stokely Carmichael, King, CORE, the Black Panthers, Newton, Cleaver, Hamer, and other figures who straddled the shift from mainstream civil rights (CRM) to black power. For people like Carmichael, the shift was rooted in his personal experience as a SNCC organizer in the Deep South. Stokely's friends were murdered, he was imprisoned and beaten, and he faced violence and racist abuse constantly all at a very young age and became pushed toward black pride and black power as the answer to white racism. Indeed, Carmichael and other activists were sick of going into virtual war zones like Mississippi unarmed, which seemed to them like a death sentence.Other folks like Cleaver and Newton were more medium-level criminals looking for meaning and manhood who gravitated to the black power aesthetic and to local organizing. As white violence continued and change to poverty and discrimination proved slow, many black people asserted the uniqueness of their own culture and the need for a more militant approach to change.
Black power also built on the CRM's loss of momentum. After its huge victories of the mid-60s, the movement fragmented to some degree. MLK shifted focus to racial discrimination and poverty in the North by moving to a Chicago slum, but he was outfoxed by Mayor Daley and unable to rally as much attention to the more impersonal racial inequality of CHicago. He remained a hero, but he didn't quite
retain full credibility with a younger generation looking to assert their pride and defy white culture and power more directly. Thus Malcolm X, despite being assassinated in 1965, became the hero, primary thinker, and inspiration of black power.
I couldn't help feeling a sense of tragedy in this book. I have always felt like the shift to black power was a completely reasonable human response to oppression and degradation. But it also was not all that productive politically and might have even backfired by fueling white backlash. It never had a realistic political program beyond local organizing and, to some extent, supporting local and city political candidates. It was, in many ways, about vibes more than strategy (which, again, is understanable). But it also gave up on the CRM's vision of the interracial pursuit of justice, and in pragmatic terms, a minority of about 12% cannot achieve all that much without white allies.
The radicalization of SNCC illustrates this point. In the mid-60s, SNCC radicals led by Carmichael removed the relative moderate JOhn Lewis from their leadership and eventually purged white members, including longstanding activists who had put their lives on the line to advance civil rights. THe organization became riven by feuds, drugs, a funding crisis after alienating white donors, and unrealistic political demands, and it eventually became defunct. Violent and erratic figures like H Rap Brown and Eldridge Cleaver ascended to the leadership of the Panthers and other BP groups, further radicalizing them without making them any more effective (of course, relentless FBI harassment did not help). In some places, virtual cults formed around some leaders. Others aligned themselves with foreign extremists and dictators in Africa and Asia, further pulling the movement into radical and illiberal territory.
Black power and nationalism gave birth to tremendous innovations in culture, music, thought/criticism, and so on, but as a political movement it was a failure. What made it a tragedy, in my view, was that this path was so understandable. Whitaker shows you the anger and sorrow of people like Carmichael, and you can feel how these experiences would make someone embrace this creed. But Whitaker does not excuse or sugarcoat the sexism, anti-white sentiment, and incompetence of these groups as political movements. This is a judicious history that deserves to be widely read. It offers its readers no easy answers, which is what good history should do.
MW explores SNCC, Stokely Carmichael, King, CORE, the Black Panthers, Newton, Cleaver, Hamer, and other figures who straddled the shift from mainstream civil rights (CRM) to black power. For people like Carmichael, the shift was rooted in his personal experience as a SNCC organizer in the Deep South. Stokely's friends were murdered, he was imprisoned and beaten, and he faced violence and racist abuse constantly all at a very young age and became pushed toward black pride and black power as the answer to white racism. Indeed, Carmichael and other activists were sick of going into virtual war zones like Mississippi unarmed, which seemed to them like a death sentence.Other folks like Cleaver and Newton were more medium-level criminals looking for meaning and manhood who gravitated to the black power aesthetic and to local organizing. As white violence continued and change to poverty and discrimination proved slow, many black people asserted the uniqueness of their own culture and the need for a more militant approach to change.
Black power also built on the CRM's loss of momentum. After its huge victories of the mid-60s, the movement fragmented to some degree. MLK shifted focus to racial discrimination and poverty in the North by moving to a Chicago slum, but he was outfoxed by Mayor Daley and unable to rally as much attention to the more impersonal racial inequality of CHicago. He remained a hero, but he didn't quite
retain full credibility with a younger generation looking to assert their pride and defy white culture and power more directly. Thus Malcolm X, despite being assassinated in 1965, became the hero, primary thinker, and inspiration of black power.
I couldn't help feeling a sense of tragedy in this book. I have always felt like the shift to black power was a completely reasonable human response to oppression and degradation. But it also was not all that productive politically and might have even backfired by fueling white backlash. It never had a realistic political program beyond local organizing and, to some extent, supporting local and city political candidates. It was, in many ways, about vibes more than strategy (which, again, is understanable). But it also gave up on the CRM's vision of the interracial pursuit of justice, and in pragmatic terms, a minority of about 12% cannot achieve all that much without white allies.
The radicalization of SNCC illustrates this point. In the mid-60s, SNCC radicals led by Carmichael removed the relative moderate JOhn Lewis from their leadership and eventually purged white members, including longstanding activists who had put their lives on the line to advance civil rights. THe organization became riven by feuds, drugs, a funding crisis after alienating white donors, and unrealistic political demands, and it eventually became defunct. Violent and erratic figures like H Rap Brown and Eldridge Cleaver ascended to the leadership of the Panthers and other BP groups, further radicalizing them without making them any more effective (of course, relentless FBI harassment did not help). In some places, virtual cults formed around some leaders. Others aligned themselves with foreign extremists and dictators in Africa and Asia, further pulling the movement into radical and illiberal territory.
Black power and nationalism gave birth to tremendous innovations in culture, music, thought/criticism, and so on, but as a political movement it was a failure. What made it a tragedy, in my view, was that this path was so understandable. Whitaker shows you the anger and sorrow of people like Carmichael, and you can feel how these experiences would make someone embrace this creed. But Whitaker does not excuse or sugarcoat the sexism, anti-white sentiment, and incompetence of these groups as political movements. This is a judicious history that deserves to be widely read. It offers its readers no easy answers, which is what good history should do.
December 12, 2023
A very comprehensive and commendable account of the Civil Rights movement of the late 1960s (specifically, the year 1966, as clearly stated by the book's title).
Whitaker draws from a vast range of historical sources, explicitly referencing autobiographical accounts of the leaders he mentions (most of which who were taken too early, or simply passed from old age) along with interviews conducted with those still here to witness the effects the movement has had on the lives of Black Americans today.
I literally have no idea where I first heard of SNCC, only that I knew immediately the organization that was being referenced, because it was often called a shorthand of what its acronyms sounded out like ("snick", as in "snickers", lol). The author concentrates a lot on the rise of SNCC and its young leaders, and how their ideals changed the issue of black em(power)ment in America, especially in comparison with the more moderate and racially integrated SCLU (Martin Luther King Jr.'s organization).
It's interesting because while you've obviously heard of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and John Lewis, they don't play as big of a role within the context of this book. Of course they are given their due praise and it is mentioned how when a young organizer was walking with MLK, Jr., an extremely excited Black female bystander of the marching route ending up plowing the organizer down (accidently, of course) to hug Dr. King. After apologizing, it was agreed that "that's what happens when you get in the way of Dr. King and his people."
Other reviewers have also mentioned that perhaps Malcolm X and the Black Panthers don't get quite as large as a mention as they should, and I definitely agree with that sentiment. There was a lot more time spent on the Meredith March and often on petty feuds between the organizers that didn't involve the racial politics of the time (nor bring about any meaningful change. We're talking about someone getting a bit too cocky and keeping the organization's car long after he was supposed to turn it in, that type of pettiness).
If you want white people to grasp an inkling of what it was like in those times (and still sadly is), it's probably better to have them read accounts like these, where atrocities of how white people treated nonviolent Black protesters showcased who the "savages" really were (JMHO, but I feel actual accounts of this sickening behavior - and we're talking about only 55-60 years ago! - are more effective in changing attitudes than books simply telling people they're racist just because).
Overall, an excellent book that gave us a lot more insight into important figures such as Stokely Carmichael (maybe a little too much Stokely? lol), Huey Newton, Bob Moses, Mark Comfort, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, John Hulett, Bob Seale, Ron Karenga (creator of Kwanzaa, but also a big "ick" to his personality cult in later years - where he encouraged the men who followed him to take up polygamy) James Meredith, Ella Baker, Jimmy Garrett, and so on and so forth. It is important for these names to be known and preserved throughout history, and Whitaker did an excellent job in doing so.
My only complaint reads much like other reviews: that he often spends too much time on topics, delving into minute details, when instead he could be using that time in the book to focus on the more important issues like the divisiveness between the older and younger generations and their tactics, their nonviolence vs. "by any means necessary" stance, integrating with whites, using whites in their organizations at all, "Black Power" and its actual consequences (rather than just its question).
I do agree with though that unlike the late 1950s through the early 1970s, Blacks no longer have significant leaders to fill the void left by their predecessors. They may have brought everlasting change to Black lives everywhere that people don't even fully understand today - but it will be difficult to continue the fight for equality unless the leadership vacuum is filled with new faces. Highly recommend.
(If this review seems a bit haphazard, it's probably because I'm extremely tired and feeling haphazard myself...however, I knew that if I delayed writing it, I would never get to it. lol.)
Whitaker draws from a vast range of historical sources, explicitly referencing autobiographical accounts of the leaders he mentions (most of which who were taken too early, or simply passed from old age) along with interviews conducted with those still here to witness the effects the movement has had on the lives of Black Americans today.
I literally have no idea where I first heard of SNCC, only that I knew immediately the organization that was being referenced, because it was often called a shorthand of what its acronyms sounded out like ("snick", as in "snickers", lol). The author concentrates a lot on the rise of SNCC and its young leaders, and how their ideals changed the issue of black em(power)ment in America, especially in comparison with the more moderate and racially integrated SCLU (Martin Luther King Jr.'s organization).
It's interesting because while you've obviously heard of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and John Lewis, they don't play as big of a role within the context of this book. Of course they are given their due praise and it is mentioned how when a young organizer was walking with MLK, Jr., an extremely excited Black female bystander of the marching route ending up plowing the organizer down (accidently, of course) to hug Dr. King. After apologizing, it was agreed that "that's what happens when you get in the way of Dr. King and his people."
Other reviewers have also mentioned that perhaps Malcolm X and the Black Panthers don't get quite as large as a mention as they should, and I definitely agree with that sentiment. There was a lot more time spent on the Meredith March and often on petty feuds between the organizers that didn't involve the racial politics of the time (nor bring about any meaningful change. We're talking about someone getting a bit too cocky and keeping the organization's car long after he was supposed to turn it in, that type of pettiness).
If you want white people to grasp an inkling of what it was like in those times (and still sadly is), it's probably better to have them read accounts like these, where atrocities of how white people treated nonviolent Black protesters showcased who the "savages" really were (JMHO, but I feel actual accounts of this sickening behavior - and we're talking about only 55-60 years ago! - are more effective in changing attitudes than books simply telling people they're racist just because).
Overall, an excellent book that gave us a lot more insight into important figures such as Stokely Carmichael (maybe a little too much Stokely? lol), Huey Newton, Bob Moses, Mark Comfort, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, John Hulett, Bob Seale, Ron Karenga (creator of Kwanzaa, but also a big "ick" to his personality cult in later years - where he encouraged the men who followed him to take up polygamy) James Meredith, Ella Baker, Jimmy Garrett, and so on and so forth. It is important for these names to be known and preserved throughout history, and Whitaker did an excellent job in doing so.
My only complaint reads much like other reviews: that he often spends too much time on topics, delving into minute details, when instead he could be using that time in the book to focus on the more important issues like the divisiveness between the older and younger generations and their tactics, their nonviolence vs. "by any means necessary" stance, integrating with whites, using whites in their organizations at all, "Black Power" and its actual consequences (rather than just its question).
I do agree with though that unlike the late 1950s through the early 1970s, Blacks no longer have significant leaders to fill the void left by their predecessors. They may have brought everlasting change to Black lives everywhere that people don't even fully understand today - but it will be difficult to continue the fight for equality unless the leadership vacuum is filled with new faces. Highly recommend.
(If this review seems a bit haphazard, it's probably because I'm extremely tired and feeling haphazard myself...however, I knew that if I delayed writing it, I would never get to it. lol.)
October 11, 2023
I did not finish reading, "Saying It Loud" by Mark Whitaker, because it was due back at the library.
Author gives vivid descriptions of all the players. He also gave their histories beginning with their parents and, at times, great grandparents, often back to slavery. Having lived through 1966, the transition from legal "Negro," colloquial, "Colored," to saying it loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud, I knew a lot of movers and shakers.
What I did not recall: SCLC, SNCC, and other acronyms, constantly used in the book. I used information from the book, about Julian Bond, in reply to a Yahoo shared article comment. I doubt I was ever aware of that incident.
If I had my own copy of the book, I would read it all, over a period of time. A wealth of information, especially for young people.
Author gives vivid descriptions of all the players. He also gave their histories beginning with their parents and, at times, great grandparents, often back to slavery. Having lived through 1966, the transition from legal "Negro," colloquial, "Colored," to saying it loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud, I knew a lot of movers and shakers.
What I did not recall: SCLC, SNCC, and other acronyms, constantly used in the book. I used information from the book, about Julian Bond, in reply to a Yahoo shared article comment. I doubt I was ever aware of that incident.
If I had my own copy of the book, I would read it all, over a period of time. A wealth of information, especially for young people.
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