Fund-Raiser to Help Pay Medical Expenses of Ailing Black Activist

A fund-raising dinner to help pay the medical expenses of Kwame Ture, known to a generation of activists by his former name Stokely Carmichael, will be held tonight at the Pan African Art Studio in Long Beach.

Ture, suffering from inoperable cancer, has been living in Guinea, West Africa. He is the co-author, with Charles V. Hamilton, of the book “Black Power: The Politics of Black Liberation.” He is credited with popularizing the phrase “black power.”

Akinsanya Kambon, a friend of Ture since both were members of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, and his wife, Tamasha, organized the dinner to pay what they said were Ture’s mounting medical expenses.

“It will provide a rare opportunity to dialogue with and give back to an individual who has made a tremendous impact on our lives,” Tamasha Kambon said.

Ture, suffering from prostate cancer, has received medical treatment in Guinea, New York and Havana.

A native of Trinidad, Ture, then known as Stokely Carmichael, rose to national prominence during the 1960s as head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He participated in sit-ins, freedom rides and other demonstrations of civil disobedience.

He moved to Guinea in 1968. His current name is a marriage of the names of two African political leaders he admired, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea.