Students Role In The Civil Rights Movement

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the student national coordinating committee started as just a group of like-minded college students trying to end segregation and racism once and for all. This group knew the power of the average college student, and did all in its power to utilize this. Starting in 1960, students came together in North Carolina, to sit inside of a department store, this beginning the SNCC. From this point on the group would go on to be vital in many pivotal points in the Civil rights movement. The very first sit-in that the SNCC ever participated in was in Greensboro, North Carolina. The students were all black and were denied service because they were black, instead of lashing out, the students sat peacefully, further enraging the department store owners. This sit in was vital in "spark(ing) a wave of sit-ins" that would all come together in a larger puzzle that was The Civil Rights Movement. …show more content…

A woman named Ella Baker would assume the position as head of the SNCC, her leadership formed the SNCC into a much more centered group, a democratic entity, all while keeping the leadership local. Many "executives" in the SNCC had ties to much larger organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), The Southern Christian Leadership Conferences (SCLC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). SNCC's reach extended much further than just Greensboro, it extended all way to a second branch in Atlanta, Georgia. Ella Baker stressed the power in college students. She recruited men and women from not only black but white colleges as well. Some of the earliest white students that joined the SNCC were named Jane Stembridge, Connie Curry, Casey Hayden and Bob Zellner. The black executives of the SNCC were trained by the NAACP, giving SNCC a much needed edged over the white supremacists of the