The 1960s were an important period in the American history, because there were many fundamental positive changes in the American society. The issue of racism was not completely resolved, but there was a significant shift in the public opinion that later provided the basis for the eradication of the racial discrimination in the USA. One of the most successful and influential organizations in the 1960s was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. This organization was established in 1960 in order to promote a non-violent sit-in movement in the Deep South, but later its scope of activity was extended due to the cooperation with the other organizations and politicians that had similar political views. However, this unique organization did not exist very long. In just 7 years after its founding, the SNCC became unpopular and too radical. The unusual organizational structure and inability to find a compromise with the other civil rights organizations resulted in the SNCC’s unforeseen failure in the late 1960s.
The SNCC was founded in 1960 for the purpose of coordinating the non-violent protests that were organized by the African American people in the Deep South. Thanks to the SNCC sit-ins were organized in all kinds of public places including bus stations, cafes, etc. (Stoper 13). One of STCC’s main goals was to teach the activists from around the USA how to organize the non-violent protests and increase their multiplier effect. Very soon the SNCC decided to work on the issue of the voter registration, because very few African Americans were able to vote or participate in the development of their communities. There were also no representatives in the delegations at the Democratic National Convention. Undoubtedly, such practices were very unfair taking into account the racial demographics of the USA. Therefore, the SNCC decided to change this state of affairs by implementing a very large civic project in Mississippi that attracted a large number of white volunteers from the northern states (Stoper 14).
In 1964, the SNCC published a brochure in which one could read how the organization viewed its future and what goals it pursued. The SNCC wanted to rely on the educated and determined young people that would like to work in the Deep South where the situation with the human rights was the worst. Therefore, contacts with the college students were of great importance for the SNCC’s projects. The SNCC intended to concentrate on the voter registration projects and to continue to organize a large number of workshops and conferences on the effective techniques of nonviolent community action and political engagement (SNCC). In 1964 a lot of highly capable members joined the organization and in 1966 the organization became famous at the national level when organization’s chairman Stokely Carmichael introduced the political slogan “Black Power” that later became very controversial. Even within the SNCC there were many members that did not support the change in the organization’s political ideology (Churcher 132).
Stokely Carmichael was a prominent civil activist in the 1960s. At first he supported the non-violent movement despite the fact that SNCC’s members were often beaten and some of them were murdered for their political views. In his autobiography Carmichael wrote that for him nonviolence meant “a philosophy of life” and “a strategic approach for struggle” (Churcher 132). However in the late 1960s when he was elected to head of the SNCC his ideology very quickly changed. He was arrested “for the 27th time” during the rally and later he admitted that the previous 6 years of the non-violent political struggle had brought very few positive results to the African Americans (Churcher 133). In addition, in 1965-1966 two popular civil rights activists Malcolm X and James Meredith were killed. So for Stokely Carmichael the concept of black power became the new source of hope. He worked with the SNCS and simultaneously became the leader of the radical Black Panther party which was especially popular in the big cities. This party’s ideology relied on the concepts of self-protection and revolutionary nationalism (Churcher 135). In just one year after being elected the head of the SNCC, Stokely Carmichael decided to resign from the organization that had no power and credibility anymore. Next, he travelled around the world meeting the political leaders in Africa, Asia and South America that introduced very undemocratic political regimes in their countries (Churcher 144).
In the other brochure that was published in 1966 one can read the SNCC’s history starting from 1960 when the first conference at Raleigh, North Carolina was organized. The peak of the organization’s activity was probably 1964 when the SNCC organized the Mississippi Summer Project that led to the creation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the establishment of the Freedom Schools, which were alternative free schools for the African Americans. In 1966 the SNCC was present in 5 states – Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Arkansas and North Carolina and the main office was located in Atlanta. All projects were concerned with voter registration, political education and organizing (The Story of SNCC 3-5). Moreover, in 1966 the SNCC issued a statement in which SNCC’s workers opposed the Vietnam War. The SNCC also participated in the anti-war demonstrations (The Story of SNCC 3-5).
Of course there were numerous successes in the SNCC activity, but all of a sudden the organization could no longer sustain its growth. Stoper (1977) carried out 50 in-depth interviews with the former members of the SNCC and came to the conclusion that the SNCC suffered from “unique organizational ethos and tension between that ethos and SNCC’s pursuit of purposive goals” (Stoper 14). The SNCC belonged to the type of redemptive organizations that required from the members to show moral and political enthusiasm in the private and professional lives. There was no centralization in the organization and therefore leadership was carried out at the local level or by means of the collegial decisions (Stoper 15). The SNCC had no official membership and preferred to be called “an agency” that stimulated the local movements in different states (The Story of SNCC 15). In 1966 there were 130 full-time staff workers and approximately 100 volunteers (The Story of SNCC 10). The workers had to spend a lot of time on the SNCC and Stoper (1977) even compares this organization with the religious sect in which “spirituality and grace is something to be lived” (Stoper 17). Later this approach led to the activity decay and quarrels between the members of organization.
The majority of the SNCC’s members were young people 15-22 years old. They had a lot of free time and enough energy to work on the difficult projects often facing violence from the conservative people (Stoper 18). In the meantime, the SNCC failed to address many organizational challenges that included influx of the white members, inability to find a compromise with the other civil rights organizations, loss of financial support and failure to move operations from South to North (Stoper 19). In 1964 many white Americans came to Mississippi in order to participate in the advocacy campaign before the Democratic National Convention. When the campaign was over, approximately 100 people decided to officially join the SNCC, but the organization was not ready for that. There were many heated debates that could last several days and even weeks. A lot of the SNCC’s workers had to resign and join the moderate civil rights organizations that did not have so many requirements for their members (Stoper 23).
The lack of cooperation with the other organizations also led to the SNCC’s isolation and loss of credibility. For example, the SNCC decided not to participate in all three marches that were organized in Selma, because they thought that Martin Luther King and his supporters wanted to gain benefits from the work that they had been doing for years (Stoper 23-27). Martin Luther King became eventually a popular public figure and the Voting Rights Act was passed. On the contrary, the SNCC failed to achieve their main goal of the alternative politics, because the Voting Right Acts basically saved the old two-party system. In the north, the SNCC could not be competitive because there were many strong local organizations and working in the large cities required new approaches that the SNCC was unable to apply. As the result, the SNCC could not attract sufficient financial resources and eventually disappeared from the political landscape.
In conclusion, the SNCC contributed to the development of the civil rights movement in the Deep South. In this part of the USA 90% of the African Americans were poor and did not have any influence on the communities in which they lived. The SNCC was able to gather a large number of young and uncompromising people that at first promoted the non-violent sit-in protests. They organized workshops for the civil rights activists and taught how to organize sit-ins. When the SNCC became popular, there were a lot of new members and volunteers that wanted to help the SNCC in their political struggle. However, the organization was unable to cope with the quick growth. There were no leaders in the SNCC and the decision making process depended on a large number of people within the organization. In 1964-1965 the SNCC could not function effectively, because there were too many debates about the organization’s development strategy. As the result, the SNCC lost many donors and its reputation among the civil rights activists was tarnished. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the SNCC was a vital civil rights organization that represented the interests of the African Americans in the 1960s. The SNCC was “a hardliner” that tried to apply the non-violent approach to all of their projects when everyone was against them – this is why the SNCC was a unique organization that is worth studying.
Works Cited
Churcher, K. Stokely Carmichael, "Black Power". Voices of Democracy 4 (2009): 132‐148.
Web. 10 May 2016
Stoper, E. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: Rise and Fall of a Redemptive
Organization. Journal of Black Studies, Volume 8, Issue 1, 13-34, September 1977.
Web. 10 May 2016.
SNCC. SNCC Brochure 1964. August 1963. Web. 10 May 2016
SNCC. SNCC Brochure: The Story of SNCC. 1966. Web. 10 May 2016
