SNCC

Coined by Diane Nash from Fisk University

1st February 1960 - ignited by 4 black students in Greensboro, Carolina

Planned the night before- sat at a whites-only Woolworth's lunch counter

Stayed there until the store closed

30 students at the next sit in "a group of well-dressed ***** college students who ended their sit in with a prayer"

By the 4th day, hundreds of African-Americans and a few whites have joined

Northern white liberals travelled South to participate

Negative white response provoked further media attention

by mid-April, the movement had attracted around 50,000 participants

passive resistance by students in the face of white violence

Established in October 1960

Ghandian theory of nonviolent direct action

student-led and nationwide

ethos of group-led activism established by Baker, and calmed down militant rhetoric

Baker walked out of SCLC meeting when a merger was proposed

SNCC activists undertook the most direct and dangerous work in the South

SNCC activists worked for the organisation full time

Important move away from the southern black male clergy

SNCC was initially culturally and ethnically varied

Baker ''the development of the individual to his highest potential for the benefit of the group''

Boynton vs Virginia case of 1960 ordered the desegregation of interstate bus terminals

picked up the Freedom Rides after they were abandoned by CORE for being too dangerous

rode interstate buses into segregated areas to challenge the Supreme Court ruling on segregated public transport

Resulted in hundreds of arrests

Freedom Riders were interracial - blacks would sit in the front and whites at the back. Blacks would enter white waiting rooms at rest stops and vice versa

Began in May 1961 - but incredible wave of violence, particularly in Mississippi and from the KKK

brought the SNCC support from local Southern blacks and the media

JFK asked that the rides be halted because they were provoking violence, but SNCC finished

In Mississippi before the SNCC, 23,000 out of 500,000 blacks were registered to vote - just 4.6%

organised Freedom Days in Miss where activists mobilised black residents to travel to their county courthouses and register to vote in Miss

relatively few black Mississippians actually managed to get registered but

• raised consciousness about voting
• broke down barriers of fear and apathy
• helped to collect evidence for future lawsuits
• helped to mobilise and unify communities

3 basic steps

• door-to-door canvassing
• workshops designed to prepare residents for the registration attempt
• actual registration attempts which brought them face-to-face with the hostile power structure

Organised mock elections and initiated Voting Rights Campaign 

80,000 unregistered blacks and whites cast their votes for mock candidates

Intended to prove that blacks would participate with politics if given the chance

led by Bob Moses

brought together the SCLC, SNCC, CORE and NAACP

Brought 700 educated whites down South to help blacks to register. The presence of white students from affluent families caught media attention

Registration is Miss involved an extremely complex literacy test

White volunteers were billeted out to black families- this was not without tensions

by the end of the summer, 80,000 blacks were registered in the MFDP

Fanny Lou Hammer was the representative for these voices in the MFDP

Failed to gain seats in the Mississippi Democratic Delegate - shut out by the Southern white Dixiecrats

Idea that SNCC maintained middle ground between the two

moved towards militancy under Stokely Carmichael- philosophy of nonviolence was revoked

SNCC was based around education and organisationr rather than oppositional politics

developed paralell structures to portray its own views without interference

devloped a more closed approach to white people in the face of continuous violence and rejection - e.g MFDP being excluded from the Mississippi Democratic Delegation

SNCC was flexible and changing, with a variety of leaders with different approaches

Move to black-only limited funding and scope

Shift to advocating self-defence was a response to working in increasingly dangerous conditions e.g in Mississippi

Advocated bottom-up rather than top-down organising

SNCC on the 1964 CR Bill "too little too late"

denounced black moderates and Christian leaders as ''Uncle Toms''

Focused on working within communities of working class Southern blacks

Gave a voice to young people who were tired of the slow pace of the CR Movement

tried to create an ideal rather than work towards an ideal

focus on group-centred leadership rather than charismatic leadership

considered the controversial risk-takers of the movement "shock troops of the revolution"

focus on long-term activism rather than short term protest

fought for black people to be able to look after themselves

staff preferred tactical over philosophical interpretations of nonviolence

aimed to increase black visibility in American life

tested the limits of nonviolent protest and were willing to provoke perilous confrontations with southern segregationists 

established a model of community mobilisation that emphasised the nurturing of grass-roots leaders and organisations

SNCC worker's jobs were to work themselves out of a job

decentralised structure meant it was responsive to local needs

650 white women worked in the Freedom Summer movement

SNCC worker Ruby Doris Smith Robinson attempted to address the issue of sexism in her paper at the November 1964 staff retreat "SNCC Position Paper: Women in the Movement"

vooiced concerns over women being excluded from decision-making, being held responsible for office work and being identified as 'girls' instead of people

Stokely Carmichael is supposed to have responded to the paper by saying "The position of women in the SNCC should be prone"

Black women often remained bitterly divided from white women when there were sexual problems - white women were accused of ''stealing their men''

''the ***** girls feel rejected because the white girls get the attention. The white girls are misused"

Before 1964, beatings, bombings and economic intimidation had kept the CR movement in Miss small and dangerous

SNCC, CORE, NAACP and SCLC all came together in Miss to create COFO

Registration drive in McComb in 1961

Established 'nonviolent high' in McComb until much of the staff were jailed for contributing to the delinquency of minors

Struggled with the nonviolent ethos in Miss due to death threats

Freedom School staff orientation week was dominated by preparing volunteers for the realities of Miss - including role plays of racist beatings

murder of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman

entered into every facet of black life in Miss - and created a new self-awareness and generation of leaders

1954 - 1,000 SNCC arrests, 35 shootings, 8 beatings and 6 murders

94% of the 1965 Freedom Summer volunteers were white

A high proportiion from prestigious universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Yale

the presence and competence of white students proved inhibiting to the development of indigenous black leadership

Whites carried with them genuine unintentional racism

Most white students were radicalised and returned north determined to organise for change- often against the Vietnam war draft and educational reform

Expulsion of white from SNCC in 1966- grounded in interracial tensions and practical black needs

Early interracialism was the results of a careful balance between inclusion and preservation of black independence

staffers feared that educated and trained white volunteers would undermine fledgling rural black leadership

white staff members  leapt from 76 to 161 after the Freedom Summer

Forman and Moses were initially keen to use whites in the Freedom Summer because of the mass media attention and sympathy it would attract

network of alternative schools over the summer of 1964

offered young black Mississippians intellectual stimulation and alternative history

hoped to transform isolated students into a force of activists who could fill an intellectual vacuum

SNCC drew on the Highlander model of participatory education - responses to oppression had to grow out of the experiences of the oppressed

staff asked questions in order to kindle exchanges

worked with the Citizenship Schools which sought to enable blacks to pass voter literacy tests

an initially planned 20 schools and 1000 students became 41 schools and over 2000 students

student/teacher ratio ended up higher than initially planned

teachers were intended to provoke and discuss, not to dominate or dictate

Integrated cultural events- Mississippi Caravan of Music toured with over 25 musicians and singers

Free Southern Theatre undertook a 3 week tour of Freedom Schools

enabled southern blacks to imagine a life unmarked by racial oppression and removed the mental block

pushed the black community to a deeper and more radical level of understanding

started young Miss' thinking about how they could change their society

taught them to ask questions and challenge the authority of whites

sought to encourage self-reliance

SNCC's vision of self-effacing leadership inhibited the institutionalisation of the schools

its success enabled poor young southern blacks to demand integration into American polity - and signalled the need for other kinds of organising

Freedom Schools after the Freedom Summer increasingly rejected the use of white volunteers and relied on SNCC staff, as well as being unlikely to seek outside expertise

Freedom Schools became a forum for community art

Free Southern Theatre performances resonated with poor southern blacks - Len Holt "they were telling my story on that stafe... and telling it like it really IS"

The Freedom Schools

''Nonviolent High'' in McComb, Miss

the Photography Agency

the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Agency

SNCC's Communication Section had 5 full-time staff members by 1965 - hid the growing acceptance of self-defence amongst staff

created its own journalism such as the Student Voice newspaper

"education: facts to use and the freedom to use them: Is the basis of democracy"

studied essays on the origins of segregation, slave revolts, the Reconstruction Era etc.

began the curriculum by describing their public schools, followed by housing, employment and medical care

compared life between southern and nothern blacks and made clear that repression was nationwide

power structure created racial stereortypes and instilled irrational fears

nonviolent ethos and what a new society might look like

offered information on Afro-American history

aimed to get past student's ''scars of the system'' - cynicism, distrust and lack of preparation

included academic subjects, a cultural program, arts, and political and social studies

reintroduced ***** history to many who were ignorant of it

literature- a mixture of black and white authors

creative writing and journalism

hostel cultural events such as concerts by musicians (Peter Seeger) and performances of Martin Duberman's ''in white America''

began each day with Freedom Songs

Hope Franklin's "From Slavery to Freedom"

Bayard Rustin "advocating quite openly limited forms of violence" - July 1964

Overt CR abuses often failed to draw much needed media attention. the NY times assigned only 1 permanent reporter to all 11 Southern states before 1964

produced a ''Special Press List'' of journalists they considered to be sympathetic

early communication efforts served as an alternative wire press

used whites to gain more media coverage which would, in turn, reduce racist violence against staffers

matched northern white volunteers to their local papers and sent detailed reports when any of these were arrested, beaten etc.

exclusion of whites meant that the SNCC media changed its target audience and tone

Bob Moses overthrowing the non-white vote in November 1963 "I will not be part of a racist organisation"

Sellers "we don't have a copyright on protest, but we made it popular. We made it possible"

organises sit-ins at department store lunch counters from October 1962 in Little Rock

established SNCC projects across the Arkansas Delta

Hansen was morally obliged to ride the sit-in movement out with the students - long-term organising rather than short-term protests - if he left, the relationship would have deteriorated

called up the Arkansas Democrat and Gazette- they showed up to the sit-ins

enitre student body attended a mass meeting on the 28th November

SNCC efforts in neighbouring Pine Bluff - desegregation, black voter registration and Freedom Schools

Hansen resigned from the SNCC in 1966 after the white expulsion

descended on the Free Southern Theatre performance in Indianola - including 42 armed police

believed the whole summer project was ''Communist-infiltrated"

Fannie Lou Hammer's home was shot 21 times and she was evicted

1961 - murder of Herbert Lee of the NAACP and SNCC. Shot twice by E.H Hurst

by the time the SNCC's focus had changed to human rights, 18 of its 60 remaining members were under surveillance by the FBI

Voter registration classes continued in places such as Holly Springs, Itta Bena and Philadelphia after the SNCC left

after the Freedom Summer, young people organised a conference to develop a youth programme for the MFDP - proposed housing and health programmes and school boycotts

250,000 black Mississippians were registered to vote by 1968

students protested the deaths of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman and some boycotted their schools

convinced SNCC activists that black culture was a viable organising tool

Free Southern Theatre prolonged the experiment of protest theatre and settled in New Orleans

(on MLK's philosophy) ''the majority of the students are not sympathetic to the idea that they have to love the white people that they are struggling against"

''we try to send workers to communities where they can stay and live''

escaped the worshipful cult that had been gathered around him "Leadership is there in the people. You don't have to worry about where your leaders are"

BLM employs the lesson of localised organising and builds on it through social media connectivity

die-ins as an adaptation of sit ins

taking radical nonviolent action as a means to disrupt and elicit reactions

learned from SNCC's more inclusive, participatory and egalitarian structure

rejects the charismatic leadership model of MLK

group-centred model based on participatory democracy

SNCC later diverged on respectability politics, and these are deemed antiethical to BLM aims

Clayborne Carson "SNCC saw over the horizon before most other people of their generation"

"SNCC hastened its own decline by losing touch with its roots in the Deep South"

Black Power advocates often broke from their group's past rather than build upon previous achievements

left a legacy of racial consciousness, but engendered destructive competitiveness among leaders

black nationalist values, such as a reliance on authoritarian male leadership and pessimism over racial advancement contradicted values which made SNCC's more successful projects possible

scattered after their radicalism was no longer well-recieved in the Southern Struggle

after Carmichael published educational advertisements, the communities of Dallas, Lowndes and Green chose a black panther for their logo for a new political party - became knwon as the Lowndes County Freedom Organisation - known as the Black Panthers first as derogatory from Southern Democrats

taught the New Left how to organise for 'Freedom Now'

Curtis Hayes - black mississippian - went to Harvard and Michigan in 1962 to share his knowledge with northern white liberals to share knowledge about CR work

SNCC taught students in northern campuses how Southern activism worked, asked for support, and provoked them into action

created a new kind of inclusive and participatory democratic culture whose legacy shaped political actions on campuses

women's rights, gay lib, fair trade, farm and immigration reform, healthcare, animal rights, all have the fingerprints of the SNCC: teach-ins and civil disobedience, language, tactics, ideology and rejection of silent suffering

created a sense of the ''beloved community''

existed between 1962 and 1964

aimed at audiences which were marginalised by major TV networks

Danny Lyon - first major photographer - white man from Queens

poster ''let us build a new world together'' sold 10,000 copies - taken in Cairo, Illinois

the poster was a series of at least 6, 5 taken by Lyon, which were produced between 1963 and 65

SNCC helped to rejuvenate posters after repressive McCarthyism of the 1950s

Lyon's images featured in the Student Voice, Life magazine and even the Soviet Pravda

by the time Lyon left in 1964, he was part of a team of 12 photographers

SNCC understood the importance of photgraphs in documenting and monitoring their image- and also overcame the national press ''whiteout'' of CR activities

August 1963 - Lyon travelled to Leesburg, Georgia, to photograph teenage girls detained after a protest- cramped and subhuman conditions

photos were sent to a congressman, who entered them in the Congressional Record - contributed to their release

''The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality'' - 1964 collaboration between Lyon and black playwright Lorraine Hansberry

''We'll Never Turn Back'' in 1963 and ''A Dream Deferred'' in 1964 - short films in collaboration with Harvey Richards

Bernice Johnson Reagon helped to found the Freedom Singers 

3 volunteers, Derby, O'Neal and Moses, created the Free Southern Theatre

helped to reframe dominant media narratives

showed police brutality and the vulnerability of Southern blacks e.g photos of police dogs in Greenwood, Mississippi

photography also offered protection as an insurance policy against excessive violence

conveyed that work was getting done, and that black communities were motivated, organised and competent

acknowledged and memorialised Mississippi as a state of persistent racial terror

envisioned the ''beloved community'' of black and white cooperation which was an important organising model until 1964

gave SNCC a face and gave form to the society they were risking their lives to create

''a vision of utopia as seen from the frontlines'' - Raiford

''IS HE PROTECTING YOU?'' poster - puts you in the shoes of James Meredith

poster ''let us build a new world together'' sold 10,000 copies - taken in Cairo, Illinois

the poster was a series of at least 6, 5 taken by Lyon, which were produced between 1963 and 65

SNCC helped to rejuvenate posters after repressive McCarthyism of the 1950s

''NOW'' poster conveys message of frustration and impatience with the glacial pace of ''all deliberate speed'' Brown verdict

FOR FOOD, FOR FREEDOM - dirty white child - bread and butter issues extended beyond race

1965 - reproduced lynching photograph with the caption MISSISSIPPI - originally a lynching of Bert Moore and Dooley Morton from 1935

''WE MARCHED''

philosophical ideal of nonviolence

''social order of justice permeated by love''

conscience + ''moral nature of human existence''

''genuine spirit of love and goodwill''

''white people cannot relate to the black experience''

should not continue to rely on white financial support

''collective white America'' (idea of collective guilt)

''***** citizenship is a myth perpetuated by the white elite''

whites must be excluded because of their ''intimidating effect''

Hypocrisy

• US elections are not free- why are they intervening in Vietnam on the basis of free elections?
• Freedom should not be linked to military aggression
• democracy should be built in the USA instead

• women asked to take minutes in meetings 
• women singled out as (girl) in brackets on lists instead of 'person'
• women still expected to defer to men for final decision making
• women hardly ever chaired meetings
• women too often assigned to typing, filing and telephone work
• women not given jobs which match their abilities- wasting talent and experience
• lack of discussion of the problem 

assumptions of male superiority parallel to white superiority

many women attempted to conform, like the ***** in white society

idea that whites diluted the strength and anger of the movement

• 'toning down' of 1963 March on Washington speech - the line from Lewis' speech ''which side is the government on?'' removed

became financially independent of whites yet underfunded - managed on a $150,000 a year budget in 1967 compared with $700,000 in 1964

only 135 ''paid'' members who took an oath of poverty - $20-35 a week

born in Trinidad in 1941, moved to New York and grew up in a white neighbourhood

debuted in activism as a Freedom Rider

degree in Philosophy

became the first charismatic leader of the SNCC

went against the tradition of fighting against the cult of personality

• Bob Moses had changed his name to Bob Parris

''Washington Clique'' around Carmichael in the SNCC

rhetorically baited whites - black power and 3 fingered salutes

''I am pro-black, not ant-white''

''smash everything Western civilisation has created''

Praised the Revolutionary Armed Movement - urges negroes to arm themselves with Molotov Cocktails

SNCC's first white field secretary

• was arrested 25 times in 5 southern States
• granfather was in the KKK
• 1966 McComb meeting around the murder of a black voter registration activist - was beaten unconscious by a white mob

''in the first 3 years of my work with SNCC and Dr King, 5 of my colleagues were murdered by racists''

Albany State College - black college in Georgia

did not receive support from other CR orgs

targeted segregation in the bus centre

police decided no-one would be arrested and jailed

there were no 'martyrs' and less media attraction

authorities promised biracial council - movement lost momentum

recognised as a major defeat

SNCC failed to cooperate with SCLC and NAACP

political approach was less successful than financial (e.g boycotting)

February 1963

drive-by shooting in Greenwood Mississippi

was organising a voter education project there

SNCC field secretaries converged on Greenwood after the shooting 

reaffirmed SNCC's commitment to working in Mississippi

Joyce Ladner ''Jimmy's steel nerves...reassured us that we should allow nothing, not even the death of one of our fellow workers to slow down our work''

June 1963

group of activists were arrested for sitting at a whites only lunch counter at a bus rest stop in Winona, Mississippi

police placed them in separate cells

Beat 15-year old June Johnson with a studded belt

police forced two other black prisoners to beat Fannie Lou Hamer

police chief and Montgomery County sheriff were taken to federal court in Oxford, Miss in December 1963

all-white jury found them not guilty

12th June 1963

shot to death by Byron De La Beckwith on his own driveway

field worker for NAACP

WWII veteran

1964, first trial of Beckwith lead to deadlock by all white jury

Beckwith was only finally convicted and sentenced to life in prison in February 1994, at the age of 73

SNCC worker John Lewis gave a speech

was coerced into moderating his speech

felt the government was not doing enough - surprised audiences

Federal government policies had as yet barely touched the deep south

''this bill will not protect young children and old women from police dogs and fire hoses''

''I want to know, which side is the Federal Government on?''

''Mr Kennedy is trying to take the revolution out of the streets and put it in the courts''

Gloria Richardson (based in Maryland) was asked to speak at the March on Washington, but only if she wear a dress - and then not allowed to speak

helped organise the October 1963 Freedom Day in Selma

''the idea was to bring hundreds of people to register to vote, hoping that their numbers would decrease fear. And there was much to fear."

Zinn's autobiography ''you cant be neutral on a moving train''

250 blacks joined hands around the registration building

complete lack of Federal government intervention ''Forman told me that the night before he had wired the Justice Department for federal marshals...the JD had not replied''

From the Memo to Volunteer's parents June 1964

25th June - Williams Chapel's was firebombed in Drew - church was a centre for voter registration activity

23rd June - Marion Tarvin, 26, shot twice in the head in Jackson

letter to John Lewis, 16th June 1964 from Charles Benner

• ''These ''White Negroes'' are the rottenest of race-mixing criminals''

Unsigned postcard sent to the parents of Goodman (Chaney and Schwerner murders)

• ''you want to mix the whites with the colored; Your kid got it alright. Ha ha ha'''

Anti-leafleting law

anti-picketing law

curfew law

''refusal to comply with certain requests'' bill - outlawed passive resistance !!!!!!!!!!

anti-freedom school bill

bill to permit segregation of public schools by sexes (if racial integration is forced - to keep black boys away from white girls)

''the Communists are... behind the racial violence and unrest in our nation''

''We Knights are working day and night to preserve law and order here in Mississippi... by the strict segregation of the races, and the control...in the hands of the Christian, Anglo-Saxon White men, the only race on Earth that can build and maintain just and stable governments''

''the only thing inevitable (about integration) is mongrelization''

''it is just as wrong to lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, murder or integrate today as it was centuries ago.''

''now we would inject into the body of our own government the evil virus of race mixing''

''the responsibility of preserving our White Christian civilization for ourselves and generations of children yet unborn rests squarely upon our shoulders''

8th June 1964

• Black reporter Louis Lomax on the murder of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner on the 21st June 1964
• they were investigating a church bombing in Longdale
• police chase between their car and deputy sheriff Cecil Price - Price shot the right rear tire of their car
• car stops a mile east of Philadelphia
• Price and another sheriff, Snow, approach
• everything was being broadcast over shortwave radio between police etc. and WCC and the Klan
• Price arrests them
• Chaney charged with speeding and Schwerner and Goodman are held for arson
• Mississippi racists had already been planning murders of activists
• were released from Jail around midnight - but questionable whether he would have left - dangerous
• fell into a mob of at least 6
• Chaney tied to a tree and beaten with chains
• Goodman and Schwerner, the two whites, are shot in the chest
• remains found on 4th August

late June 1964

• ''the mood of Miss today is one of mounting tension''
• Itta Bena incident - FBI actually worked to protect volunteers and arrested 3 white men
• ''we are specifically avoiding any demonstrations for integrated facilities''
• ''all workers, staff and Summer Volunteers alike, are pledged to non-violence in all situations''
• ''all Summer Volunteers have gone through an intensive training session on conditions in Mississippi''
• ''contact local papers and radio an TV stations and make certain that the full story about Missippi is being carried in your community''
• ''contact the President, Attorney General, and your own state... and demand immediate Federal protection for all people in Miss''

distributed by Freedom Summer staff - extent of disenfranchisement

stats taken from the Congressional Quarterly, July 1963

Chickasaw county - 0%

Hinds county - 13.8%

9 counties where there was not a single ***** registered to vote

Established in 1961 to support jailed Freedom Riders

with the goal of maximising the efforts of the SNCC, CORE, NAACP

• focused on voter registration and education
• designed to be a coordinating body to avoid inter-organisational debate, bureaucracy and conflict
• meant to protect and nuture grassroots activism
• lead by Bob Moses as Program Director
• mostly staffed by the SNCC
• MLK on COFO workers ''our nation sen out Peace Corps Volunteers throughout the under-developed nationa of the world and none of them experienced the kind of brutality and savagery that these voter registration workers have suffered here in Mississippi''
• was a space where locals could hold leadership positions

''every ***** who attempts to register represents a victory''

''until a local leadership is developed, you, as the ''outside agitator'' are the leadership''

''be yourself, do your job, preach Freeodm, and the community will come''

''the essence of a Freedom Day is that it gives the entire ***** community a sense of solid achievement''

''see if you can find local people with leadership potential who might benefit from such (SCLC) training''

''soften them up through repeated exposure''

''if a person already knows what you are telling him, find out how he knows it''

''when canvassing try to have a single idea in mind''

''encourage people to speak up, to ask questions, to bring out their own ideas''

''whenever possible, use the local residents to lead the workshops, to answer the questions, to take charge''

had to write and copy out a section of the Mississippi Constitution

and then write a meaning/interpretation of this section

had to write a statement ''setting forth your understanding of the duties and obligations of citizenship''

David Steffernson and Paul Murphy - 2 northern white minister volunteers

walked in an integrated picket line in front of the courthouse each day - starting 10th April

''the 18th question is the kicker; It asks the applicant to read any section of the state constitution the registrar chooses and then to interpret it in simple language TO THE SATISFACTION OF THE REGISTRAR''

''he would sometimes add questions such as ''how many bubbles in a bar of soap?'' and disqualify anyone for the least error such as putting 'M' instead of 'Male' on the form

Holly Spring, Miss July 1964

by Robert Feinglass - white college student from Illinois

''murders of Negroes in Miss are not news. No one cares, and no one is surprised''

''there is not a lawman in the state who would arrest them for such an activity''

''very often Negroes know nothing about welfare or social securti. They have no insurance against misfortune''

''we talk about dignity. People listen, and they wonder''

''there is no such thing as a job finished. there is only progress

;;I had no ambition to be in the leadership. I was only interested in seeing that a leadership had the chance to develop''

;;I had no ambition to be in the leadership. I was only interested in seeing that a leadership had the chance to develop''