Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Kiran Laurens

(P) The SNCC was officially founded in 1960 and was a leader in the Civil Rights movement (Sturkey).

(Q) (Primary Source) In the SNCC's founding statement, they state that "Through nonviolence, courage displaces fear. Love transcends hate. Acceptance dissipates prejudice; hope ends despair. Faith reconciles doubt. Peace dominates war. Mutual regards cancel enmity. Justice for all overthrows injustice. The redemptive community supersedes immoral social systems" (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: Founding Statement (1960)).
On the right, a black student is isolated from the white students in school (School Segregation, 1948)

(P) The SNCC's biggest project was called "Freedom Summer" and was started in 1964. It brought together whites and blacks to end racism in Mississippi, one of the most racist states during that time. They protested and created Freedom Schools, along with many other smaller projects (Tondeur).

(S) One of the SNCC's most important contributions was creating 41 'Freedom Schools' across the nation as a part of "Freedom Summer". These Freedom Schools provided an opportunity for blacks to have education and for them to have better jobs and social status (Nichols).

President Eisenhower meets with black leaders (D.D. Eisenhower)
Students protesting segregation (Mississippi: Segregation)

(P) The LCFO a project whose goal was to create a third independent party in Lowndes County, Alabama. The county had a higher population of blacks than whites but the blacks had no government representation. However, with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the SNCC disbanded the party.

(Q) Beginning in 1961, the SNCC used a new way of protesting, which involved filling up the city jails. "SNCC leaders knew that they would be arrested for sitting at the segregated lunch counters...but did so anyway in order to fill the city's jails. This would apply pressure on city officials who would have to use a vast amount of resources to arrest and detain large numbers of protesters" (Sturkey). This was very successful and helped bring attention to the racism in the South.

(Q) "On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 demonstrators from all across the country descended on the nation's capital to participate in the March on Washington..." (Hamlet), making it one of the biggest protests in U.S. history. The SNCC helped support the march by sending their members and leaders and funding it.

(Q) (Primary Source)-The chairman of the SNCC makes a speech to encourage those gathered at the March on Washington. He says, "By the forces of our demands, our determination and our numbers, we shall send a desegregated South into a thousand pieces, put them together in the image of God and Democracy. We must say wake up America, wake up! For we cannot stop, and we will not and cannot be patient" (John Lewis Speech).
A black student being escorted to school in Athens, Georgia (Athens, Georgia, 1961)
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Kiran Laurens
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