Floyd B. McKissick was the National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). He had been one of the first integrated students to attend the University of North Carolina where he obtained a degree in law in 1951. On October 12, 1966 he came to UCLA to share his views, hopes and concerns for the Civil rights Movement. He said that past leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. (who was assassinated two years later in 1968) had done good for integration, but that integration was not enough. As a student who had been integrated he told the audience that integration favors only the mobile 10% of the black population. Many could simply not afford to attend school. He placed emphasis that the Civil Rights Movement was not split, but headed in a new direction, that it was not waning, but reaching its climax. The old ideas of integration or tokenism (having one black man in a law firm because it was the thing to do) did not help the masses. He spoke of the ideals of Black Power and how they would revolutionize black society.
He asked for the white students to help, saying that they could make a difference in this world. That they would help the blacks become equal. But, he fought in an entirely new direction from King. King had sought unity among the races and brotherhood with all men. McKissick and the more radical leaders such as Malcolm X wanted black only communities. They wanted the monetary means to control their societies, their government, their schools, their lives. McKissick said that blacks should control the ghetto "lock, stock and barrell." He and his followers had grown disillusioned with King's dream and were now willing to take much more violent and radical measures to get what they wanted. They felt that only through force, not diplomacy, could they take the lives they wanted. McKissick helped form the next movement in the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power. They would help bring respect and equality to the black community, just in a different manner than Martin Luther King Jr.
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