The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had many similarities and critical differences in their approaches to civil rights. Ella Baker, executive director of the SCLC, assisted in organizing the SNCC. Baker advocated for students to form their civil rights activist group and advised the group on its motives to accomplish the justice they sought. Like the SCLC, the SNCC committed to nonviolence as their primary source of combating racism and addressing the concerns they identified to help the plight of African Americans. However, the group was adamant about not declaring a single person as the leader of their movement. Unlike the SCLC, where Martin Luther King Jr. was the clear leader, the SNCC wanted to keep the movement democratic. “The universality of …show more content…
King’s and the SCLC helped the movement gain traction. Another distinction was that the SNCC’s core members were those of a younger age. Due to being mostly students, the SNCC could garner support from youth who felt the SCLC’s approach to civil rights was too methodical and slow. One key frame of reference for this ideology was Baker. “She would leave her post as director of the SCLC to accept a job with the YWCA shortly after the April conference at Shaw. Her growing disenchantment with the cautiousness of the established civil rights groups led her to encourage black students to form their independent organization rather than affiliate with the SCLC.” (Carson #) Due to her influence, the organization was already diverging from civil rights older elements of approaches to justice. Although both adhered to nonviolence, the SNCC wanted a more confrontational approach, e.g., sit-ins and freedom rides. The SCLC wanted to engage with the political leaders of the time to achieve its mission. Dwight Eisenhower became the 34th president of the United States following the Harry Truman