The Black Power Fist became popular during the mid 1960s by young civil rights activists Stokely Carmichael and Willie Ricks. The chant of black power-with clenched raised fists-reverberated throughout the land & began a new approach to civil and human rights, which was based on the theory of self defense. Black power organizations, such as Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) & the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, made the chant of Black Power their slogan much like the Black Lives Matter mantra is the slogan of today.