The friend I mentioned referred me to Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Turé)'s autobiography. I don't have a copy handy, but here is a review that briefly discusses the infamous "quotation." I suggest that people check the book out, rather than relying on hazy 40-year-old memories. --PG

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Mar2004/engler0304.html

Book Review

Ready for Revolution
By Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)
Scribner, 2003, 848 pp.

Review by Mark Engler & Paul Engler

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Many would dispute the idea that nonviolence had been exhausted in 1964. But within a few years, a new generation of civil rights activists would move to the forefront, advocating a distinctly un-Gandhian brand of militancy. Chief among them was Stokely Carmichael, whose autobiography, Ready for Revolution, was just published-five years after his death-with the help of his friend, writer Michael Thelwell.

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Even the stories that have defined his image within activist circles are often off-base. On the organizer's behalf, Thelwell convincingly argues that Carmichael's infamous sexist remark (answering "prone" to a question about the place of women in the movement) was a joke taken out of context. Mary King and Casey Hayden, the supposed targets of the quip, defend Carmichael as being one of the men in SNCC most sympathetic to their criticisms of patriarchy within the organization.

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