Peniel Joseph on Stokley Carmichael

His is a name seldom remembered in the context of America's Civil Rights Movement, but he deserves a place alongside Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That's according to a new biography — the first -- about Stokley Carmichael's life.

Peniel Joseph is a history professor at Tufts University and the author of

Stokely: A Life

. The Trinidad-born, New York educated Carmichael spent his 20th birthday in jail in Mississippi, where he helped organize freedom rides. In 1966, he was head of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Two years later, he left this country to live in Africa.