Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Case Study

One of the most significant organizations during the time of the civil rights movement was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee because of their ideologies in altering the political climate during the 1960’s. The organization emerged from a group of students whom coordinated a nonviolent protest against lunch counter segregation. The initial sit-in was the “seeds of radicalism that would flower in SNCC” that would challenge not only Jim Crow laws but the political sphere in the United States. Throughout the time period of the Civil Rights Movement, SNCC transitioned from a campus based committee group to a staff organization in which they implemented their own projects in local communities. In addition, SNCC played a national role

However, the culmination of the lunch-counter protest in Greensboro, North Carolina was the initial start of the organization wanting to create a new social change in the United States. Although, there were some students whom were reluctant to expand the organization’s political agenda from a campus based committee to a regional movement in the South. With great leadership such as Ella Baker (executive director of SCLC), she was able to rally black students to participate in student activism while remaining independent from other third parties and adult control. Baker initiated sit in protests because she recognized the lack of leadership among the black students and how little they were prepared to demonstrate successful nonviolent

For example, the limitations of black education that closes the apathy of wanting to fight for a change, since she also had a similar background as the black students following her. Within months, SNCC went from a “loosely organized committee of part-time student activities” to a well-fortified organization with a concrete political agenda to fight for social change not only in the Deep South but for the entire nation of the United States. Although social change was needed so was change within the organization of SNCC. The interior of the organization was confronted with new tensions over gender relations. An example was the start of the emerging feminist consciousness. This new movement was influenced by the struggles in which blacks endured in the United States pushing forward a new political agenda for black women in the Civil Rights Movement. However, even with this new state of awareness by the mind, black women were restricted in participating in certain activities due to their