1966

SNCC chairman Stokely Carmichael, arrested for the 27th time during the Meredith March in Greenwood, Mississippi, told the crowd: 'What we gonna start saying now is Black Power!' The crowd took up the chant, igniting a national debate on the direction of the movement.

SNCC chairman Stokely Carmichael, arrested for the 27th time while on the Meredith March in Greenwood, Mississippi, told the crowd: 'We been saying freedom for six years and we ain't got nothin'. What we gonna start saying now is Black Power!' The crowd took up the chant. The phrase ignited a national debate on the direction of the movement.

NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, offered to pay poll taxes for Black residents unable to afford them. KKK members firebombed his home early January 10. Dahmer died later that day from severe burns sustained while returning fire to allow his family to escape. KKK Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers was convicted in 1998 of ordering the murder.

The Black Panther Party's founding Ten-Point Program, drafted by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, demanded 'land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace.' Point 7 called for an immediate end to police brutality. Point 10 demanded a UN-supervised plebiscite for Black Americans to determine their 'national destiny.'

SNCC's Stokely Carmichael helped organize the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama — an all-Black independent political party with a leaping black panther as its symbol. In Lowndes County, no Black person had voted in the 20th century despite an 80% Black population.

By 1966, the Chicago Housing Authority had constructed nearly all high-rise public housing — including the Robert Taylor Homes and Cabrini-Green — in existing Black neighborhoods, deliberately refusing sites in white areas. A federal court (Gautreaux v. CHA, 1966) found the CHA and HUD had maintained a racially segregated system since the 1950s as a matter of deliberate policy.

SNCC's Stokely Carmichael helped organize the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama — an all-Black independent political party with a leaping black panther as its symbol. In Lowndes County, where no Black person had been registered to vote in the 20th century despite a 80% Black population, the LCFO ran candidates for sheriff and other offices.

Navy veteran and Tuskegee Institute student Samuel Younge Jr. was shot and killed by white gas station attendant Marvin Segrest in Tuskegee, Alabama, after an argument over use of a segregated restroom. Younge was an active SNCC worker. Segrest was acquitted by an all-white jury in December 1966. SNCC called Younge's death the first murder of a civil rights worker in 1966.

James Meredith was shot and wounded by Aubrey James Norvell with a shotgun on day two of his 220-mile March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson. Meredith survived. Continuing marchers included MLK, Stokely Carmichael, and Floyd McKissick; Carmichael made his public 'Black Power' declaration at Greenwood.

James Meredith was shot and wounded by a sniper on the second day of his solo 220-mile 'March Against Fear' from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. He survived. Civil rights leaders including King, Carmichael, and Floyd McKissick took up the march in his name, drawing national attention to continuing terror against Black Mississippians.

James Meredith was shot and wounded by a sniper on the second day of his solo 220-mile 'March Against Fear' from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi. Civil rights leaders including King, Carmichael, and Floyd McKissick continued the march in his name.

James Meredith was shot and wounded by Aubrey James Norvell with a shotgun on the second day of his 220-mile March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi. Meredith survived. Civil rights leaders including MLK, Stokely Carmichael, and Floyd McKissick continued the march, during which Carmichael made his public 'Black Power' declaration in Greenwood.

Martin Luther King Jr. and open housing marchers were attacked by white mobs throwing rocks and bottles in Marquette Park, Chicago. King was struck in the head by a rock. He said he had never seen mobs 'as hostile and as hate-filled' as in Chicago.

Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of open housing marchers were attacked by white mobs throwing rocks, bottles, and cherry bombs in Marquette Park, Chicago. King was struck in the head by a rock. He later said he had never seen mobs 'as hostile and as hate-filled' as in Chicago. Mayor Richard Daley refused to ban racial deed restrictions.

Under Stokely Carmichael's leadership, SNCC voted to remove its white members, arguing that Black liberation required Black-led organizations and that white members should organize in white communities. The decision was controversial within the movement and marked a formal break with the interracial coalition model that had defined early SNCC.

Huey Newton and Bobby Seale form the party for self-defense and community programs.

King takes the movement North to fight housing segregation in Chicago, meeting some of its fiercest white resistance.

After James Meredith is shot beginning a solo march, movement leaders continue it — and Stokely Carmichael raises the cry of "Black Power."

Stokely Carmichael popularizes the slogan during the Meredith March.