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Kwame Ture | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Kwame Ture | |
| Born | Stokely Carmichael June 29, 1941 Port of Spain, British Trinidad and Tobago |
| Died | November 15, 1998 (Age 57) Conakry, Guinea |
| Cause of death | Prostate Cancer |
| Nationality | Guinean |
| Political orientation | Communsim Nkrumahism (developed what is now known as Nkrumahism-Toureism-Cabralism) Scientific Socialism Pan-Africanism |
| Political party | Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Black Panther Party Democratic Party of Guinea - African Democratic Rally All-African People's Revolutionary Party |
Kwame Ture, born Stokely Carmichael, was a prominent civil rights organizer and founder of the Black Power movement.[1]
Early Life
On June 29th, 1941; Stokely Carmichael was born in his father's house in the city of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. His father, Adolphus Carmichael, was a carpenter and had built the house in which he and his family resided in. His mother, In 1944, his mother, Mabel Carmichael, who was born in the US Panama Canal Zone, would move to the United States due to tensions with her in-laws. Two years later his father would join her in Harlem, leaving Stokely to be raised by his grandmother and aunts in the house at Oxford Street for 6 years.
Now 11 years old, Stokely and his siblings then moved to his parents to New York; where the Carmichaels lived as one of the few Africans in a predominantly white community in the Bronx populated by Italian, Irish and Jewish folk. His father was able to purchase the home in the white community due to it being cramped and ugly, making it undesirable for most buyers. Because of the building's state, Adolphus Carmichael worked tirelessly to renovate and improve the house, thus gaining respect from the locals. After being integrated with the locals, Stokely would engage in petty theft due to peer pressure from his friends, but would later leave the Morris Park Dukes street gang after they started producing zip guns.
Carmichael later enrolled at the Bronx High School of Science, an elite school in his area. While in High School, Stokely would consistently excel beyond his peers despite their affluent backgrounds and would become an exotic attraction to some due to his race and high intelligence. During these years, Stokely would go on to be good friends with Gene Dennis, a member of the Young Communist League (YCL) and son of high-level Communist Party USA operative Eugene Dennis. This friendship would introduce the young Carmichael to a series of YCL meetings and study sessions. His introduction to Marxism would heighten his interest in politics, which over time making him familiar to names like Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. Despite this, he didn't join any Marxist organizations due to his religiosity. He would later turn to authors like C. L. R. James and George Padmore to greater understanding of the Black experience.
Graduating in 1960, Carmichael would enroll at Howard University where he would receive his degree in Philosophy.[1]