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Transcript of Hist 498-SNCC Freedom Summer
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Erickson
Anna Erickson
5/11/2011
Hist 498
White Influence on 1964 Freedom Summer
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, better known as SNCC, was created
in the Spring of 1960 to fight peacefully for African American Civil Rights. SNCC was
created by African American students in an era of growing unrest, and quickly became a
place of refuge for young activists that had a passion to overthrow the deep-seeded
American tradition of segregation and racism. SNCC prided itself on the level of black
leadership within the organization that kept the organization purely the result of its
members, and their ideas. The beginnings of SNCC especially were filled with the desire
to send a strong message that justice will be pursued. Their original statement of purpose
said, “By appealing to conscience and standing on the moral nature of human existence,
nonviolence nurtures the atmosphere in which reconciliation and justice become actual
possibilities”.1 During the summer months of July and August of 1964, SNCC planned a
large-scale movement called the Freedom Summer in Mississippi that brought white
northern college students into the Deep South to work alongside SNCC workers to
establish Freedom Schools, and a large scale voter registration campaign. SNCC used
their belief in nonviolence to focus on projects to benefit communities, and the Freedom
Summer in Mississippi was a way that SNCC was able to fight for civil rights through
nonviolent channels. Others within SNCC believed that the inclusion of the White college
students would add to the effectiveness of the Freedom Summer despite its risks. The
1 Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, Statement of Purpose, 1960.
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incorporation of white college students both male and female, a controversial decision
within SNCC, helped the movement to garner a greater degree of national attention with
the work on the Freedom Vote and the Freedom Schools. These white college student
volunteers were drawn to the movement because of its emphasis on nonviolence, and the
emphasis on education and civics, all of which they were already quite familiar with.
However their inclusion it was a divisive element of the nonviolent movement, which was
not always beneficial to the community nor the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. The
large-scale inclusion of white students into the Freedom Summer was a topic of dissent
within SNCC. Some SNCC workers wanted to keep the movement run by African
Americans due to issues such as escalated violence, and a desire to keep the organization
true to its original establishment as an African American led group.
The uncertainty that permeated every aspect of the Freedom Summer was if the
inclusion of white activists was the right decision. Howard Zinn, a white university
professor involved with SNCC, asked a pivotal question in his book, which was written in
1964 soon after the Freedom Summer, and in the midst of the civil rights era. He wrote in
his book The New Abolitionist , “ Can white people and black people truly live together as
friends in the United States?”2 This question completely embodied the sentiments of the
time, and was a reflection of the feelings harbored by many Americans, especially
southerners, and the answer to this question frames the outcome of the Freedom Summer.
In such a stratified and dichotomous culture prone to violence and racial segregation racial
equality and friendships between whites and African Americans seemed like a fictitious
idea, not possible in the near future if ever. This movement was the first time a large scale
2 Zinn, SNCC, 167.
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collaboration between African Americans and white had taken place, and probably not
surprisingly resulted in mixed feelings. It is understandable that Howard Zinn, who saw
first hand the violence and hate directed towards SNCC and other activists in the South
would ask this question, which was the same question being asked by SNCC leaders when
the inclusion of white college student volunteers into the Freedom Summer was being
discussed. Initially more positive sentiments were held when activists still were hopeful
for Howard Zinn was dismissed from his teaching post at Spellman College, a historic
black college for too aggressively pursuing the role a an activist.3 For his belief’s in
change, and a world in which whites and African Americans could indeed be friends, and
live harmoniously. Zinn was personally affected by racial tensions that ensued, as were
countless other people.
Even thought the Freedom Summer was marked by the large-scale inclusion of white
summer volunteers, and SNCC was created by African American college students for the
advancement of African Americans. The statement of purpose mentioned above was
created by SNCC as their founding statement, and spoke about their dedication to love,
nonviolence, and justice. SNCC promised to fight for justice through nonviolent means.
Their official statement said, “Justice for all overthrows injustice. The redemptive
community supersedes immoral social systems,”4 these words which were written in 1960.
The statement was created a mere four years before the large of the Freedom Summer.
The Freedom Summer was one of their attempts to overthrow racial injustice and replace
it with a new system of equal education, voting rights for all regardless of race while
3 Howard Zinn, "Finishing School for the Pickets." The Nation (1960).4 Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee , Statement of Purpose.
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practicing SNCC tenant of nonviolence.
SNCC was dedicated to reach these goals of the organization, which included the
Freedom Summer by completely being nonviolent even when violence was bestowed
upon them. The white college student volunteers were also committed to the nonviolent
movement. These students who were often from affluent families, and attended top tier
northern universities would not have flocked to Mississippi in such strong numbers had
the Freedom Summer not been committed to achieving its goals through nonviolent
measures. The northern students were familiar with nonviolent activism, and had the
movement not been committed to it, the support by these students would not have been
nearly as widespread. Nonviolence was a key element of the Civil Rights Movement and
its major proponent was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. SNCC was no exception at its
founding to the main elements of the Civil Rights Movement, and stayed that way-despite
minor dissent within the organization- through the 1964 Freedom Summer. Permanent
SNCC workers, and the Freedom Summer volunteers and all strove to practice
nonviolence. A statement regarding nonviolence, which was included in SNCC’s
statement of purpose, went as followes, “Nonviolence, as it grows from the Judeo-
Christian tradition, seeks a social order of justice permeated by love. Integration of human
endeavor represents the crucial first step towards such a society.”5 The Civil Rights
Movement was heavily influenced by religion and Christian teachings, and many of its
ideals were deep rooted in Christian tradition. It was important for SNCC to remain
completely nonviolent to keep with the teachings of the Civil Right Movement.
The university professor Howard Zinn understood the divisive element that the
5 Statement of Purpose. Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee.
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inclusion of white college student volunteers experienced the Freedom Summer and the
proceedings of SNCC first hand. He believed in the premise of SNCC, and its goals for
the Freedom Summer. As a university professor, activist, and historian Howard Zinn was
the former professor of many of SNCC’s young student leadership, and acted as an
advisor to SNCC. In his book about the Civil Rights Movement and SNCC The New
Abolitionists, Zinn stated his beliefs as to what the Civil Rights Movement had
represented until that point in 1964. His observation went as follows, “ What the civil
rights movement has revealed is that it is necessary for a people concerned with liberty,
even if they live in an approximately democratic state, to create political power which
resides outside the regular political establishment [his emphasis].”6 This statement
corresponds with SNCC seamlessly. In essence, the purpose of the Freedom Summer was
to create spheres outside the regular establishment to promote a more democratic process
and greater liberty in the state of Mississippi. These establishments were the Freedom
Schools and the freedom Vote. Through this avenue, the Civil Rights Movement would
be propelled from the very base, of children and poor, often significantly under educated
citizens of Mississippi.
The Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964 was education based and acted as a
pivotal turn in the Civil Rights Movement because of the vast number of Mississippi
natives it was able to touch through the avenues of teaching and voter registration, and
because of the unprecedented mass partnership between African Americans and whites.
The Freedom Summer was composed of two parts. They were the Freedom Schools and
the Freedom Vote. Both of which were to be administered by the summer volunteers
6 Howard Zinn, SNCC: The New Abolitionists (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964), 220.
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during the months of July and August. The emphasis that the Freedom Summer placed
upon education, having the white students create small Freedom School, and schools
educating adults about voter registration was important because it was an area of
familiarity for the volunteers. These well educated volunteers were comfortable in an
academic setting and felt comfortable in the classroom. Therefore, The Freedom Schools
were to be a place for white involvement that did not grade, beat or humiliate the students,
but instead worked to narrow the education gap between Mississippi’s white students and
the African American students who were receiving an inadequate education. The Freedom
Vote was a program where the volunteer college students would hold a civics and voter
registration class for adults to prepare them to register for the opportunity to become a
voting citizen of Mississippi.
The Freedom Summer was a turbulent period in Mississippi that brought about
important changes in communities, and focused on the empowerment of the black citizens
by focusing on education and preparing students to be involved in the Civil Rights
Movement. One such change was in the way that SNCC helped to equal the playing field
in terms of education. One of the goals for the Freedom Summer was to establish
Freedom Schools in which children could meet with the SNCC summer volunteers and
learn in a non-threatening environment. The schools in Mississippi in 1964 were some of
the worst school sin the nation, if no the worst, and the African American schools were
still worse than the white schools. Students of color were unable to attend white schools
and were forced into schools with improper materials and ill prepared teachers. The
Freedom Schools were an opportunity to work outside the establishment to better African
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American children, and the Freedom Summer workers were all trained to empower these
children through knowledge.
The Freedom Schools in which the white student volunteers worked in had many
goals, but the three main goals were to supplement the lack of learning that went on in the
classroom that students were in all year long. It was also to prepare students for their civic
duties such as voting and how to become a responsible citizen. Finally it will prepare
students for a life of activism.7 Students would learn about African American history,
something that would have never been taught to them in public schools. This was to be
taught in an effort that students would be able to understand their culture better, and be
able to claim a sense of pride in their heritage. The curriculum for the Freedom Schools
was to be modeled after a few themes they included leadership, remedial education and
finally the skills to prepare students for activism in the community. Leadership
development was a major part of the curriculum and would include many aspects of
leadership such as public speaking, learning how to keep financial records, developing
communication skills, and handling press and publicity. Remedial academic programs
were aimed at reading and writing, mathematics, American history and sociology, and
teaching the scientific method. Contemporary issues were used in teaching how to
research and look critically at current events and issues. Finally, non-academic curriculum
worked to encourage friendships between students so that networks could be made.
Additionally, students were able to experience mock voter registration, student
publications and student government.8 The Freedom Schools were carefully formulated in
7 "Adopt a Freedom School." Council of Federated Organizations, SNCC, The Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972. Reel 20. 1963.8 "Adopt a Freedom School," Reel 20.
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order to create a comfortable atmosphere for the students to explore and catch up to their
privileged white peers. The Freedom Schools were a great success, SNCC papers give the
statistics that, “By July 26, 1964, there were 41 functioning Freedom Schools in twenty
communities across the state, with an enrollment of 2,135. That was twice what had been
projected for the summer.”9 The large turnout shows that the Freedom Summer was a
victory, and that the volunteers were well trained and prepared in order to teach a
successful class.
Education was vitally important to the success of the Freedom summer due to the
native Mississippians need for better education, and the draw that it had on the white
summer volunteers. The Freedom Summer’s second main goal was to register as many
African American voters in Mississippi as possible. This was a necessary goal for SNCC
because the vast majority of African Americans in Mississippi were not registered to vote,
or even unaware of the fact that they legally had the right to vote. The fifteenth
amendment in the United States constitution prohibited that any United States citizen be
denied the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” in 1870.
Yet, almost 100 years later fewer than two percent of African American citizens of the
state of Mississippi were registered to vote.10 The Freedom Vote was planned to show the
nation that black individuals did in fact desire to vote. This was important because, “Polls
at the time showed that forty percent of white southerners did not think Negroes really
wanted to vote.”11 This is a staggering statistic, and points to the great degree of racial
9 SNCC, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972 (Sanford,
NC: Microfilming Corporation of America, 1982) Reel 67, File 340, Page 1183.10 Charles M. Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: the Organizing Tradition and the
Mississippi Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 1.11 Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom, 294.
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segregation and subordination that consumed the state of Mississippi. African Americans
within Mississippi had many reasons not to register to vote, the most important being the
fact that many people simply were unaware of the fact that they were legally allowed to
register to vote. One Mississippi man was quoted in the SNCC newspaper The Student
Voice as saying, “I didn’t’ know colored people could vote.”12 This statement shows the
lack of opportunity and information that Mississippi’s African Americans had to vote
before the Freedom Summer.
The summer volunteers and SNCC workers were forced to overcome many
obstacles during the Freedom Vote because African Americans were kept from voting in a
variety of ways. Some were kept from voting by sheer ignorance; just as the man who
was unaware of his legally right to vote. Other citizens were kept from voting because of
violence. Southern whites would not hesitates to make arrests or even resort to violence if
they felt that the African American citizens were overstepping the segregationist norms.
The third way many African Americans were kept from voting was through legal means.
The state was not allowed to outright deny an African American citizen from voting, but
local districts and towns could enact laws, which made it more difficult to obtain
registration. One popular way was to have registration tests. These tests had the
registration candidate interpret a clause of the Mississippi state constitution. This clause
was picked by the registrar had to be interpreted to the satisfaction of the registrar.13 Not
only was this a highly subjective process but it was also unfairly difficult for African
Americans who were forced to attend subpar schools. With the lack of education, the
12 Clayborne Carson, The Student Voice 1960-1965 (Westport, Conn.: Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, 1990), 153. 13 Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom, 35.
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African American applicants would often fail at the whim of the registrar, if they got to
that point at all. The entire process was stacked to promote the white dominance, and to
keep the African Americans out of politics where they were unable to create real change
by representing themselves in government.
The Freedom vote campaign seemed to be a success at first glance. On the surface
it seemed that the white student volunteers had been a great addition to the movement.
SNCC leader Ivanhoe Donaldson said, was excited about the outcome of the Freedom
Vote because he felt that for the first time, the project was able to reach the people in a
real and tangible way.14 There were 83,000 votes for the African American candidate
Aaron Henry who was a NAACP activist and was on the ballot for governor in 1964. The
number seems great, but the distribution was very uneven throughout the state meaning
that there were still areas that SNCC had yet to penetrate. There was much intimidation
and violence met by volunteers and local African Americans attempting to register.
The success of the Freedom Vote was due in part to the cooperation between
African Americans and whites during the Freedom Summer, but the integration of the
movement was not completely seamless and caused considerable conflict within SNCC.
SNCC had always had a partnership with progressive whites that believed in the Civil
Rights Movement. SNCC was created by, African American students, and run as an
African American organization. Historically, there was white participation within SNCC
but that was kept to a minimum, and only included a select few trusted whites. The few
white workers that worked within SNCC, always were aware that SNCC was an
14 John Dittmer, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1994), 205.
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organization for the Advancement of African Americans created and run by African
Americans. The concept of the Freedom Summer’s large-scale involvement of white
students was revolutionary to SNCC for two reasons. First, there had never been a
number as large as the proposed number of volunteers for the Freedom Summer working
within SNCC at any other time. Secondly, although there was some white participation
within SNCC, the magnitude of white participation within the Freedom Summer was an
unprecedented level of white participation for SNCC. Within SNCC, not all of the
leadership agreed on the inclusion of Northern white college students into the Mississippi
Freedom Summer. The dissenting opinions were present in SNCC meetings, but in the
end, the white northern college student volunteers were invited to join the Freedom
Summer.
Bob Moses, a Harvard University graduate, was a staunch advocate for the
incorporation of white college students into the movement prior to the Freedom Summer,
he saw the potential that a greater national attention could bring to the movement, and was
wiling to bet that the answer to Zinn’s question was yes, African Americans and whites
could work together during this time. He was one who believed that the risks of bringing
in the white students outweighed the risks, and was part of the reason white volunteers
were included. He said, “is to have white people working along side of you, so then it
changes the whole complexion of what you’re doing, so it isn’t any longer Negro fighting
white, it’s a question of rational people against irrational people.”15 This quote is
important because it shows the moving away from superficial race blaming, and the
15 Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981), 99.
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looking deeper into he root of the problem, which was the way that people were taught to
believe. Bob Moses, along with many other SNCC leaders believed that it was time to
move past racial tensions between whites and African Americans if they wanted the
movement to be as successful as possible it was pertinent to avoid looking like hypocrites.
Since SNCC was fighting for the equality of African Americans to the rest of society, it
was important to give white volunteers that same level of equality.
Even though controversy followed the inclusion of white students into the
movement, the white Freedom Summer volunteers were a benefit to the Freedom Summer
in many ways. Sixty percent of the Freedom Summer’s 2,000 volunteers were white and
this meant that the new volunteers were predominantly different from the people whose
communities they were assigned to.16 The sheer influx in the number of bodies had a large
effect on the communities in which they worked, both because of race and geographic
differences. Although at first skeptical of the white volunteers, Ivanhoe Donaldson
testified to the help that the white students, especially male volunteers were able to
provide to the tired, and overworked small group of SNCC workers. He appreciated the
way that the men and women were able to provide a great deal of “legwork” which
included “legwork” the large group provided, they were bale to go out and canvass areas,
and just added a great deal of manpower.17 Not only did the white volunteers provide
labor and manpower in the Freedom Schools they also created lasting relationships with
the people of the communities that they were placed into. Some volunteers even kept into
contact with the families they met in Mississippi long after the completion of the Freedom
16 The Student Voice 1960-1965, 163.17 Dittmer, Local People, 206.
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Summer. 18 The closeness that resulted from the relationships created across the races
showed that African Americans and the white volunteers were able to learn from one
another and get to know each other in a personal and deeper manner. Both sides learned
from the other, stereotypes were broken, and there was even expressions of love, the
concept that SNCC was founded upon.
As previously argued by opponents of integrating the Freedom Summer’s
volunteers, the white volunteers did in fact garner the majority of news coverage, and this
posed a problem for the leadership of SNCC who had worried that this would happen. As
feared by some of the SNCC leadership, much of the media attention that the Freedom
Summer gained nationally was often filled with information on the white volunteers.
Much of the work being done in Mississippi was overshadowed and belittled by the press.
It was said within SNCC that the white students from Stanford and Yale were the reason
behind the vast news coverage. They were not getting publicity for what the movement
has done, but rather the strange partnership that was created between blacks and whites.
Emphasis was taken from the political goals. Articles that were supposed to be about the
events of the Freedom Summer including the elections would end up having a majority of
the article focused upon the white volunteers. One such article that attempted to shed light
on the violence that the white opponents of the Freedom Summer were causing spent a
great deal of its time discussing the white worker’s blonde hair and graduate studies at
Yale University.19 It was disheartening for the SNCC leadership to see much of the
positive publicity of the Freedom Summer directed towards the white volunteers
18 Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom, 307.19 Dittmer, The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, 207.
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overshadowing all of the important work being done. However, without the presence of
the white volunteers, the Freedom Summer would have attracted much less attention and
therefore would not have been as successful. The problem of the white workers gaining
the majority of publicity was a necessary evil that, although discouraging, brought
national attention to Mississippi in the summer of 1964.
The second school of thought was a way that the role of white volunteers could be
limited within SNCC and the Freedom Summer, therefore relieving some of the problems
being created by the inclusion of the white college students. There were many reasons
present for the limitation of the role or white workers. Arguably, the most important
argument was one of safety. The impact of a large-scale inclusion of white volunteers was
likely to lead to a greater degree of violence brought onto SNCC. Many of the black
SNCC project leaders had been working in Mississippi since 1961 and did not want their
efforts to have been in vain if heavy violence were to ensue. It was thought that the influx
of white workers could create an escalation of violence towards those workers, the already
established black project leaders, and just to the communities in general. SNCC, who had
already been subject to great amounts of violence, did not want to add to the brutality that
there were experiencing at the hands of the southern whites. The SNCC newspaper The
Student Voice that was published every Monday included a section called “Mississippi
Harassment” that listed harassment violence and threats all committed in Mississippi,
mostly upon African American SNCC workers. Some of the weeks the harassment cases
took up an entire page or even went onto the second page of the newspaper. There
included a diverse list of grievances which included, “The Hold Ghost church outside
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Clinton was set on fire,” “Cars driven by whites circled the Negro community, throwing
bottles at cars and homes,” and even, “A Negro man was hit twice in the head while
following a car driven by two white men who had fired into a Negro Café.” 20 These were
listed among a group of twenty-five reported cases of harassment, which range from
verbal harassment and threats to arson and even physical attacks. The latter was a common
occurrence experienced by SNCC workers, and also the Freedom Summer volunteers.
According to the Student Voice Newspaper put out by SNCC, “the first group, numbering
223 arrived in Mississippi on June 21. Three are missing already, and are presumed to
have met foul play”,21 and this article was published five days later on June 30, 1964. This
shows the legitimacy of the concerns voiced by some SNCC leaders that there would be
serious if not escalated violence towards white volunteers.
Skepticism regarding white participation in the Freedom Summer was felt by some
of the SNCC leadership, and came form the past experiences of some of the SNCC
workers who were often divided on the role that white should play within SNCC. Some of
the African American workers felt that white workers had come in and at times taken over
leadership. SNCC was founded on, among others, the principal that the organization was
for the advancement of African Americans by African Americans. Before the Freedom
Summer, white participation was present, but it was not a dominating force. A white
woman who was involved with SNCC named Casey Hayden spoke on white involvement
within SNCC. She understood the importance of SNCC remaining an African American
run organization. Belinda Robnett who compiled her book How long? How long?:
20 The Student Voice 1960-1965, 163.21 The Student Voice 1960-1965, 164.
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African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights which was an account about the
Civil Rights Movement discussed the racial and gendered complications within SNCC
during the Freedom Summer. She argued that the white SNCC workers, and the white
college student volunteers were not one and the same. This argument by Robnett is
important. She felt that it was important to distinguish between the seasoned white SNCC
workers who had been submerged in the movement and the well-off white college
students that went through minimal training and who were from a completely different
background. Being form a privileged state they could have a sense of entitlement or be
inclined to expect a leadership position. The former SNCC worker Casey Hayden was a
white woman who worked with SNCC prior to the Freedom Summer. Casey Hayden
discussed the mentality of women workers before 1963 when she said, “The White
women who came to SNCC prior to 1963 tended to respect the position of SNCC as a
Black organization in which they, as well a White males, could provide support as
mainstream bridge leaders”.22
In other words, the original white women understood the
power dynamics of SNCC, and were culturally conscience and sensitive to the movement.
This finding by Casey Hayden is correct in that the position of whites was to be in more of
a back role within SNCC. African Americans had risked so much and invested
themselves so fully into SNCC, that many ff the members did not want to loose the
identity that they had created. Through their efforts, they were able to prove that African
American leadership could be very successful and make a significant impression.
SNCC was historically Black, and therefore mass white inclusion was a strict
22 Belinda Robnett, How long? How long?: African-American Women in the Struggle for
Civil Rights, (New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1997), 118.
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diversion from the history of the organization. The organization was formed and operated
by African Americans from the very beginning. Ivanhoe Donaldson who was a prominent
SNCC worker was proud of that fact and said that It feels good to see Negros running
SNCC and the movement.23 Through her involvement with SNCC, Hayden was able to
understand the importance that African Americans felt that by their taking ownership of
the organization, they were really able to take ownership and have a stake in the
movement. She said, “this was really the coming to the fore of Black men-young Black
men….Black women had always been strong in the local community … Now men could
come forth….It was a rising up of the Black men.”24 This quote introduces another
element of gender stigma, but more importantly it also shows the importance that she
assigns to the involvement of the African American men in the SNCC organization. The
predominance of leadership positions held by African Americans within SNCC was a new
concept. African Americans were suddenly playing a role that they had previously not had
the privilege of holding. Jeanette King, a white woman who volunteered with SNCC
during the freedom summer always was acutely aware of many tensions within SNCC.
She was a delegate for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the
1964 Democratic National Convention. Not only did she feel like an outsider as a white
individual, but also as a woman. Ms. King briefly addressed the mixed sentiments felt by
some SNCC workers when the northern white college students were brought into
Mississippi to work on the movement in 1964. She also stated that some were worried that
the large population of white volunteers would take over the authority of the suddenly
23 Dittmer, John. Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi. Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1994. Pg, 209.24 Robnett, How long? How long, 118.
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outnumbered black leadership. King said, “I could identify with black staffers who did
not want to be submerged by white volunteers swarming into the state to ‘save the
situation,’ even though I often felt insulted by the condescension directed at me by certain
male movement heavies”.25 She said that she was torn about the debate, and it made her
reflect upon herself. Often being the only white woman fighting “for black people” made
her very aware. She said, “ This position had always made me feel like an outsider taking
on someone else’s burden”.26 Although she believed in the movement and was willing to
fight for Civil Rights, King understood that SNCC had a strong African American identity
that was of the utmost importance to its members.
In the end, SNCC came to the conclusion that the answer to Zinns’s question was,
not yet could African Americans and whites work together. The risks of involving the
large-scale inclusion of white volunteers outweighed the benefits. Despite the gains
achieved with the participation of the Northern white volunteers whites were limited in
their role through the rest of SNCC’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.
Prominent SNCC worker Bob Zellner was among the first members of SNCC leadership,
and also happened to be white. After years of hard work alongside SNCC’s African
American leaders, enduring jail time and physical beatings in the name of the SNCC he
too was expelled from the organization in 1967.27 In the end SNCC’s desire to stay
strictly an African American organization won out, and continued on that way throughout
the rest of the Civil Rights Movement. Although the Freedom Summer ‘s experimentation
25 Faith Holsaert and others, Hands on the Freedom Plow, (Chicago: University of
Illinois Press, 2010), 228.26 Holsaert, Hands on the Freedom Plow, 228.27 Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom, 384.
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with large-scale white involvement had its positive aspects, the risks and negative aspects
of integration within SNCC caused the organization to move forwards as a purely African
American group.
The Freedom Summer remains to this day one of most complicated racial
interactions in the history of the United States. At a time when the South, especially
Mississippi was severely divided racially, SNCC worked to eliminate the division and
create one equal society. The inclusion of the white Northern college students into the
Freedom Summer proved to be a very contentious decision by the leadership within
SCNN. The risk taken by SNCC created a divide within the organization, and was the
cause of much debate. White students garnered much media attention, and at times had a
difficult time understanding their place both within SNCC and within the Mississippi
communities that were so vastly different from where they came from. Despite all of this,
the Mississippi Freedom Summer could safely be called a success, by teaching thousands
of children in the Freedom Schools and registering thousands of African Americans voters
in the state of Mississippi.
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Bibliography
"Adopt a Freedom School." Council of Federated Organizations, SNCC, The Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972. Reel 20. 1963.
Carson, Clayborne. In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Dittmer, John. Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi. Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1994.
Holsaert, Faith S., Martha P. Noonan, Judy Richardson, Betty G. Robinson, and Jean S.
Young. Hands on the Freedom Plow. Chicago: University of Illinois Press,
2010.
Payne, Charles M. I've Got the Light of Freedom: the Organizing Tradition and the
Mississippi Freedom Struggle. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
Robnett, Belinda. How long? How long?: African-American Women in the Struggle for
Civil Rights. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1997.
SNCC, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972 (Sanford,
NC: Microfilming Corporation of America, 1982) Reel 67, File 340, Page 1183
Statement of Purpose. Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, 1960.
The Student Voice 1960-1965: Periodical of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, Clayborne Carson, Westport, Conn.: Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, 1990.
Zinn, Howard. "Finishing School for the Pickets." The Nation (1960)
Zinn, Howard. SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Boston: Beacon Press, 1964.
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Corrections
After my final draft I had a chance to revise my paper, and really focus on making
is cohesive. Most importantly I revised my thesis so that it would encompass every aspect
of my paper, and as a result added to many body paragraphs so that its relation to my
thesis was as clear as possible. I tried to better connect my topic sentences with my thesis,
and keep my entire paper as relative to my thesis as possible. I also revised a number of
topic sentences to make them more specific. I took your suggestion, and used the Zinn
quote to help me frame my paper. I hope it worked out well, I really liked that suggestion.
I also changed some typos and some of the wording that could be seen as confusing. I also
moved my thesis in my intro paragraph per your suggestion, and added some words to
help it flow better.
Thank you for all of your help, your suggestions really helped me take this paper
to the next level, and I am really happy with it now. I hope you like it!
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Abstract
In 1964 the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized the
Freedom Summer in Mississippi. The goals of the Freedom Summer were to provide
adequate education to the children of Mississippi, and to register as many African
Americans as possible to vote. There were a large number of volunteers who came to aidin the Freedom Summer with sixty percent of them being white Northern college students.
Initially the question to include white student volunteers in the Freedom Summer was a
topic of dissent within the leadership of SNCC, however it was decided that the 2,000
volunteers would work in Mississippi during July and August of the Freedom Schools and
the Freedom Vote campaigns of 1964. I wish to show that the incorporation of white
college students, a controversial decision within SNCC, helped the movement to garner a
greater degree of national attention with the work on the Freedom Vote and the Freedom
Schools, however it was a divisive element of the movement, which was not always
beneficial to the community nor the Civil Rights Movement as a whole.