It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.

The first need of a free people is to define their own terms.

An organization which claims to be working for the needs of a community - as SNCC does - must work to provide that community with a position of strength from which to make its voice heard. This is the significance of black power beyond the slogan.

One of the tragedies of the struggle against racism is that up to now there has been no national organization which could speak to the growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghetto.

Seems to me that the institutions that function in this country are clearly racist, and that they're built upon racism.

Black power can be clearly defined for those who do not attach the fears of white America to their questions about it.