Introduction
The Jim Crow laws were formulated in America in order to segregate the African Americans. During the time of the Jim Crow laws, many African Americans were attacked, lynched or tortured by gangs of white people. This fact caused many African people to try to fight back. This caused the formation of the civil rights movements. Some of the notable African American people who were involved in the civil rights movement were Martin Luther king, W.E.B Dubois, Andrew Goodman, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks.
Given the deep and powerful roots of Jim Crow and racial exclusion in American history, how did the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) challenge American notions of racial exclusion, Jim Crow, and democracy?
Martin Luther King was among the first activists of the civil rights movement who was using non-violent means to achieve his goals. He encouraged many people to use this kind of method. The Students Nonviolent Coordination Committee has done a lot to fight against racial exclusions and the Jim Crow laws. This movement was made up of young African Americans. The leaders who started the sit-in protest formulated the movement in 1961 (Hogan). The four African Americans got courage and walked up to the Woolworths store located in Greensboro North California at a whites only lunch counter. The four young men sat patiently waiting to be served coffee. The workers refused to take their orders and were told to leave the premises. They however did not budge and continued to wait to be served. They were threatened and insulted by the people but they did not leave the place.
In looking at this courage, it shows that these young men were fighting for something without using their fists. In the first day, they sat in the restaurant until it was closed for the day (Robert & Paula). The following day they did the same thing but they were joined by other black youths. They sat in the restaurant for the whole day and they were still not served. The local news broadcasted the sit-ins and many people were able to learn about the courage of the boys. In the next few days, many more black youths went to the same restaurant and occupied all the sits. The Ku Klux Klan heard about this commotion and went there to taunt the students. The sit-ins were adopted to other restaurant in Greensboro. Throughout 1960 to 1964 there were many cases reported about defying the segregation order throughout the South in restaurants. The sit-ins were carefully planned and executed. The decisions made were through a consensus (Greenberg).
The Freedom Rides of 1961 was started because the people wanted to test the court ruling on the case of Morgan v. Virginia where it had ruled that the segregation on the bus seating was unconstitutional (Hogan). A group of thirteen people who were a mixture of white and black activist boarded buses and made trips throughout the South. Six of the people were whites while seven were African Americans. The Congress of Racial Equality was the one responsible in recruiting the people to take part in the bus rides. The African Americans tried a number of times entering lunch counters and restrooms meant for the whites. They were however, met with violence among the white protesters. The first incident of violence occurred in South Carolina when a member of (SNCC) called John Lewis together with a few people from the Freedom Riders were viciously attacked by white people (Zinn). The reason for the attack was because they were trying to enter a waiting area for the white people only.
The worst attack occurred in Aniston Alabama when a group of 200 white people surrounded a bus that had the freedom riders. They threw a bomb inside the bus when it was trying to escape. The people were able to get out of the bus only to be beaten by the awaiting mob. The activists were beaten while their bus burnt down. The Freedom Riders continued this action for a few more months. The attacks caused many bus drivers to fear driving the riders. A member of SNCC called Diane Nash assembled ten people who were able to continue with the ride. The Freedom Riders might have not been received well by the white Americans but the American problems were able to reach to other international nations (Powers). The attacks continued and it also showed that the police officers were not trying to help the freedom riders. They were abandoned especially in Montgomery Alabama where a group of white people began beating the riders using baseball bats. After this attack, that is when the attorney general ordered the federal marshals to go and help the riders and stop the violence. The attention the Freedom Rider’s received caused many more to want to continue with the fight. The riders who were comprised of the members of the SNCC movement were fighting for the end of segregation by defying the laws and even death.
John Lewis was considered to be the youngest of the big six of the SNCC movement. He was the chairperson of the movement for three years since 1963 to 1966. This was during the time when the civil rights movements were very active. While he was the leader of the movement, he was able to launch a number of freedom schools, was among the key members for the Selma to Montgomery marches and was the one that launched the Mississippi Freedom Summer (Robert & Paula). He was able to start the sit-ins in Nashville. He is claimed to have been very determined and focused. It is stated that he was among the thirteen Freedom Riders that travelled in most parts of the Southern state. While participating as a Freedom Rider they were attacked by a group of white men. He was hurt but managed to survive (Lewis). In looking at his profile as an activist for civil rights movement, it shows how determined and strong willed he was towards the fight for democracy and justice for all people in America. He was involved in a number of non-violent protests, boycotts, and sit-ins in order to fight for equality and voting rights of all people.
How did SNCC differ from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and why did the youth of the organizers matter?
The SNCC movement was made up of college students while the SCLC was made up of the church leaders such as Martin Luther King. The college students were the ones who began the sit-ins protests in Greensboro (Powers). The SCLC main aim was to get rid of the Jim Crow laws. The Jim crow laws was segregating the black people in a way that they had their own places and were not allowed to enter any place that was meant for the white people. They used the media to fight for what they believed in, in order to reach a large number of people in the world and gain support. The SNCC main aims were to ensure participatory democracy and voter registration (Hogan). Through all the boycotts, protests and sit-ins they were able to create international awareness of what was happening in America. The members of the SNCC were college students who believed that the college degrees they are getting are not what they want to get (Hagan).
The young people were very courageous in that they were able to enter areas that were meant for white people and were able to state their points. Problems between the two movements occurred when the young people from the SNCC started changing their views from non-violent tactics of fighting to violence. The young people were impatient because they believed that the changes were taking too long to be made through nonviolent means. The movement started affiliating itself with the Black Panther movement. The black panther were using violence to state their opinions. The use of violence went against the beliefs of SCLC movement. The reason that caused the SNCC youths to change views was that by late 1960s non violent means was losing popularity (Hogan).
Work cited
Greenberg, Cheryl Lynn. A Circle of Trust: Remembering SNCC. Rutgers University Press, 1998.
Hogan, Wesley C. Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
Lewis, John. Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
Powers, Roger. Protest, Power, and Change: An Encyclopedia of Nonviolent Action from ACT-UP to women's suffrage. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Robert Griffith & Paula C. Baker. Major Problems in American History Since 1945. Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
Zinn, Howard. SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Boston: Beacon Press, 1964.
