Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was a pivotal organization in the American civil rights movement, founded in April 1960 by southern African American students in response to the Greensboro sit-ins that began with a lunch counter protest in North Carolina. The group emerged to coordinate and amplify the efforts of students engaging in nonviolent protests against racial segregation and discrimination, particularly in the South. SNCC focused heavily on voter registration drives during the 1960s, which played a crucial role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and significantly influenced southern political dynamics.
Throughout its existence, SNCC experienced internal turmoil and leadership changes, reflecting debates over its strategies and goals. Initially led by figures like John Lewis, who endorsed nonviolent integration, the organization eventually shifted under Stokely Carmichael's leadership towards a more militant stance that embraced the concept of "black power." This shift, while resonating with many young African Americans, alienated some of its previous supporters and caused friction with more traditional civil rights organizations. By the early 1970s, SNCC had declined significantly and ceased operations, marking an important, albeit tumultuous, chapter in the struggle for civil rights in America.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The insistence of four African American students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College that they be served at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, in February of 1960 sparked the student sit-ins of the 1960s. The students’ sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter precipitated similar protests in more than sixty-five cities. The need to coordinate what began as spontaneous and haphazard events resulted in the establishment of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
SNCC was founded in April of 1960 by a group of southern African American students, many of whom participated in the sit-ins. They were assisted by long-time civil rights leader Josephine Baker, who insisted that the new student organization pursue its own path. SNCC concentrated its efforts in the South, as its leadership determined that the more immediate problems of racial discrimination and the denial of constitutional rights were occurring there. SNCC spent most of its early years, especially in 1964 and 1965, attempting to register African Americans to vote. The voter registration campaign that SNCC and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) carried out, along with the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, proved to have a tremendous impact on southern politics, especially within the Democratic Party.
Despite its various successes, SNCC appeared to be an organization that was in constant turmoil. It was continually struggling over which direction it should take as an incipient social justice organization. SNCC’s uncertainty was reflected in the group’s frequent changes in leadership. James Farmer, a former Chicago teacher and the first executive secretary of SNCC, attempted to mold it into a highly structured and formal organization. He was replaced by John Lewis, who was committed to nonviolent integrated struggle. In 1966 Lewis was replaced by Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure), who advocated total black membership and would later initiate the move toward “black power.” SNCC officially adopted “black power” as its slogan at its 1966 convention. Under Carmichael, SNCC decided to stop using integrated teams of field-workers. He took the position that if whites really wanted to help, then they should organize whites in their communities. By 1969 Carmichael had been replaced by H. Rap Brown, who was perceived to be even more militant and changed the group’s name to the Student National Coordinating Committee.
SNCC’s new philosophy alienated whites, but more important, it put SNCC (along with CORE) at odds with the more traditional civil rights organizations, especially the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). While its new philosophy was embraced by many young African Americans, it moved SNCC further from what many perceived to be the paradigm of the civil rights struggle. Consequently, much of the group’s financial support dried up, and the young people who were committed to nonviolent integrated struggle slowly deserted its ranks. By 1970, SNCC had ceased to exist.
Bibliography
Edmonds, Michael, ed. Risking Everything: A Freedom Summer Reader. Madison: Historical Soc., 2014. Print.
Levy, Peter B. The Civil Rights Movement in America: From Black Nationalism to the Women's Political Council. Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2015. Print.
Marshall, James P. Student Activism and Civil Rights in Mississippi: Protest Politics and the Struggle for Racial Justice, 1960–1965. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2013. Print.
Morgan, Iwan W., and Philip Davies. From Sit-Ins to SNCC: The Student Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Gainseville: UP of Florida, 2012. Print.
Street, Joe. "Spreading Ripples: SNCC and Social Capital in the Civil Rights Era South." European Journal of American Culture 30.3 (2012): 195–215. Print.