Carmichael, then chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, used the slogan at a rally in Greenwood, Mississippi, on June 16, 1966, during the March Against Fear. After years of nonviolent protest met with beatings and murders, many young activists wanted to build independent Black power rather than seek white approval. In 1967, Carmichael and political scientist Charles V. Hamilton published Black Power: The Politics of Liberation, which introduced the idea of institutional racism.
The movement took many forms. The Black Panther Party, founded in Oakland in October 1966, ran free breakfast programs and monitored police. At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists on the medal stand. Student strikes at San Francisco State led to the first College of Ethnic Studies in 1969.
White officials and media often portrayed Black Power as violent, and the FBI targeted its groups through COINTELPRO. Its legacy includes Black studies departments, Black elected officials and the phrase "Black is beautiful."