Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee collection, 1960-1965

  • IdentificationMSSNCC67
  • TitleStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee collection MSSNCC67
  • PublisherSpecial Collections
  • LanguageEnglish
  • RepositorySpecial Collections
  • Physical Description1.0 linear foot
  • Date1960-1965
  • AbstractThe collection consists of the records of the Chicago SNCC Freedom Center, a local branch which was developed in order to establish programs attacking poverty and poor housing conditions, and to create community action projects and youth council programs. It includes mimeographed correspondence, statements, reports, articles, memoranda, press releases, minutes, programs, newsletters, bulletins, and speeches pertaining to the purposes, objectives, and activities of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of Chicago, Illinois, Georgia, Mississippi, California, and Arkansas including reports on voter registration and living conditions of African Americans in the North and South, racial segregation and low income housing projects, and civil rights activities in Mississippi and Georgia, statements on Vietnam, United States imperialism, freedom schools for black children, the development of black power in American politics since 1900, employment discrimination, and the purpose of the African-American Heritage Association.
  • OriginationStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.).

Old Resource ID was SNCC

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was formed by African-American students in April 1960 on the campus of Shaw University. Led by John Lewis and inspired by the famous lunch-counter sit-in by African-American college students at Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960, SNCC sought to coordinate other sit-ins to protest segregated services throughout the United States. Relatively small in number with only 200 students, the SNCC nonetheless had a deep impact on race relations in the Deep South. The group formed alliances with other civil rights organizations such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to conduct freedom rides in 1961 and was later active in voter registration drives.

The Freedom Summer of 1964 organized by the SNCC drew around 600 students of diverse backgrounds to Mississippi to register minority voters. The SNCC helped to establish the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as an alternative to the official Democratic Party then dominated by white racists. The group organized local clergy, teachers, and other community leaders as part of their political effort to combat racism in the Deep South. SNCC was at the forefront of many of the more difficult and dangerous Civil Rights efforts, e.g., three civil rights activists: Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner were slain in Mississippi in the summer of 1964.

SNCC took a more radical turn in 1965 and 1966. The group began to clash with Dr. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC). Some SNCC leaders were dubious of King's nonviolent approach and many believed that King was too quick to take credit for the success of activities conducted by SNCC. Stokely Carmichael, a proponent of "black separatism," took over leadership of the group in May 1966 and ejected white members. The group then stressed "Black Power" and the need for racial dignity, self-reliance, and the use of violence when necessary. Close cooperation with the Black Panthers in the late 1960s drew increasingly negative attention from law enforcement agencies and the SNCC was essentially defunct by 1970. Some of the leaders of SNCC from its early integrationist phase became prominent office holders such as U.S. Congressman John Lewis of Georgia and the former Mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Collection includes reports, statistics, articles, bulletins, clippings, notes, and minutes. Related materials from affiliated organizations and opponents of SNCC, e.g., a broadsheet of the Ku Klux Klan, also form part of the collection.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee collection, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago

  • Names
    • Chicago SNCC Freedom Center. -- Archives
    • Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.). -- Archives
  • Subject
    • African American student movements.
    • African Americans--Civil rights.
    • African Americans--Social conditions.
    • Chicago African American History.
    • Community-based social services.
    • Race relations.
  • Geographic Coverage
    • Illinois--Chicago.
    • United States.