Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Summary

The reading this week brought to my attention that historic events have a way of repeating themselves. In Folklore of the Freeway, Eric Avila explains that during the “Freeway Revolt” there were different ways that communities organized and the types of issues they were fighting against. These issues and organization structures mirror current day protests. Likewise, the connections between how women were treated with respect to protests during the “Freeway Revolt” and the recent Women's match are astounding. In the context of these two events, white women are seen as saints for fighting a fight that doesn’t affect them, while women of color as ridiculed for making a big deal out of nothing.

This paper will discuss, what was the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)? The Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee was an organization that was formed to give young blacks a platform to have their voice heard during the civil rights movement. The SNCC was an organization that was founded by black college students, which was started in Greensboro, North Carolina, by Ella Baker, in 1960. Ella Baker helped to form the SNCC because she thought the leaders of the Southern Christian Leaders Conference (SCLC) led by Dr. Martin Luther King, was out of touch with black youth.

Hamer was an informal bridge leader for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. When activists Annelle Ponder and Septima Clark came to Mississippi to teach people about voting registration, Hamer’s attention was sparked. A few weeks later, Hamer and a few other citizen of Mississippi set off to Charleston, South Carolina to share what they learned. They planned on teaching classes on voter registration. The group consisted of John Brown, Bernard Washington, Euvester Simpson, June Johnson, Rosemary Freeman, James West, Annelle Ponder, and Hamer herself.

Since it’s very beginning the United States has been a nation founded on the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, a system of segregation existed in the states that denied these basic principles to the African American population. So organizations such as Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) were created in order to combat this inequality. Yet, as the civil rights movement changed so too did SNCC; transforming itself from a local grass-roots project to an organized nation-wide project.

In the paper, The Black Panther Platform: “What We Want, What We Believe” the militant civil rights organization, the Black Panthers, outline their goals. Ranging from communal self-governance to government entitlements, the group focuses on the issue of racism in the United States and places the weight of the problem on the shoulders of White capitalism. The group prescribes militant self-defense as the tool African-Americans can use to further their societal position. Prior to the Black Panthers, no mainstream civil rights organization set forth a doctrine of militancy as opposed to non-violent protest and civil disobedience. Focusing on a broad definition of all forms of discrimination Black people face, de facto and de jure, the Black

I plan to pursue researching how the radical shift from the philosophy of nonviolence to Black Power caused the downfall of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. I want to further research how SNCC’s shift to Black Power led to a rift within the organization, lack of funding, loss of members, and loss of influence. Supporters quit providing SNCC with money because of disagreements on Black Power. SNCC lost annual income and members after ejecting white members from the organization. SNCC was eventually overshadowed by other organizations such as the Black Panthers.

Both the struggle of black women mentioned in the Combahee River Collective and the struggle of Asian women mentioned in the Work, Immigration, and Labor were not only affected by sexual oppression but racial oppression as well. One major difference that is noticed is how black women struggled with a lack of resources which made it challenging to organize, but Asian women were supported by organizations that provided resources that encouraged them to organize. In the Combahee River Collective, the black feminists worked on projects that supported black women in many different aspects. In Work, Immigration, and Labor, Asian women worked on projects that supported labor rights and fought against labor exploitation. It is interesting to see the differences between movements being pushed by black women and Asian women.

During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans were seeking the right to gain equal rights. This movement was a pivotal point in black history and helped black Americans realize how powerful their voices were. Various methods were utilized in gaining equal rights: a non-violent approach as demonstrated by such leaders as Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Thurgood Marshall and a more violent approach as displayed by Malcom X and the Black Panther Party. The question is what approach was most effective with achieving equality. This could be determined by examining their beliefs towards the Civil Rights Movement, any significant contributions and positive effects on equality for the future.

Emmett Louis Till was brutally murdered after he whistled at a twenty-one year old white woman, named Carolyn Bryant in Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market in Money, Mississippi. When Emmett Till was murdered it became the primary cause that sparked the Civil Rights Movement. The murder of Emmett Till can be viewed as culturally, politically, and socially and can be related to the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the aftermath protests that occurred. On August 24, 1955 Emmett Louis Till was allegedly bragging to his friends that he had relationships with white girls and was dared to flirt with a white woman running into the store.

One of the two most prominent fights for civil rights for specific communities in the 20th century in the United States were the Women's Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. The Women’s Suffrage Movement advocated for the right to vote for women living in the United States of America. The Civil Rights movement faced the systematic suppression and oppression of African-Americans and utilized various different techniques of non-violent in order to overcome the system set against them. While there are many similarities and differences of both movements that were instrumental in the correct way to fight oppression, both utilized non-violent intentions and techniques to overcome their obstacles.

In 1964, the white women of SNCC started to speak out about the bias they faced while working for SNCC by anonymously writing the “SNCC Position Paper: Women in the Movement. " The authors used several examples of discrimination from day to day interactions, to promotions and more. For example there was a woman that worked for SNCC for two years in two different states and was a veteran in the group, but she was asked to do clerical work for others in her committee. Another example was when a new position was available, where both a man and women were equally qualified, the man received the organizational and leadership position while the woman was relegated to secretarial work. During meetings, women were often asked to take minutes, regardless

From the antebellum period through the Civil Rights Movement and beyond, Black women have fought against racism, discrimination, and inequality in a variety of ways. One common thread among these efforts is the willingness of Black women to take bold and courageous actions in the face of oppression. Whether through acts of defiance and resistance, political organizing, or community building, Black women have consistently demonstrated a willingness to put themselves on the line for the sake of justice and equality.

Leaders of the American Feminist Movement began to draw parallels between the struggles of women and the plight of slaves, and pressed the boundaries of “acceptable” female behavior. The Seneca Falls Convention was organized to discuss the question of women’s right, and out of the meeting came the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. This declaration stated that “all men and women are created equal,” and women no less than men are endowed with certain inalienable rights (Doc 6). In demanding the right to vote, they launched a movement for woman suffrage that would survive until the battle was finally won in 1920. Yet, during this time, women who were black faced an even greater struggle.

It either includes all women, or it’s not feminism” (Makers). She frequently reminds individuals that it was disproportionately women of color, especially black women, who created the feminist movement. She contends that erasing black women’s integral contributions disgraces the founders of the movement and eradicates the efforts of feminism’s true founding

Kareen Harboyan English 1C Professor Supekar March 15, 2018 Word Count: Crenshaw’s Mapping the Margins: The Marginalization of Women of Color Analyzed Through Generalization and A Feminist Lens Crenshaw's Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color expands on the multifaceted struggles of women of color and the generalizations ingrained in society that limit women of color and keep them in a box. In this text, Crenshaw builds on the concept of intersectionality which proposes that social categorizations such as gender and race are intertwined and have great influence on one another.