Tape 13, 2000 April / Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 40th anniversary conference videocassette tapes, 2000 / Duke Digital Repository

(audience talking)

0:03

♪ I ain't gonna make it shine ♪

3:07

♪ Well, I'm gonna let it shine ♪

3:10

♪ I ain't gonna make it shine ♪

3:14

♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪

3:17

♪ My god, I ain't gonna make it shine, yeah ♪

3:19

♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪

3:24

♪ Let it shine ♪

3:26

♪ Let it shine ♪

3:28

♪ Let it shine ♪

3:29

♪ Well, I aint gonna let nobody turn me round ♪

3:31

♪ Oh Lord, turn me round ♪

3:36

♪ Turn me round ♪

3:39

♪ Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round ♪

3:40

♪ I'm gonna keep on walkin' ♪

3:44

♪ And keep on talkin' ♪

3:46

♪ Marchin' up to freedom's land ♪

3:48

♪ Yeah, don't you let nobody ♪

3:50

♪ Turn you round ♪

3:53

♪ Turn you round ♪

3:56

♪ Turn you round ♪

3:57

♪ Ain't gonna let nobody ♪

3:58

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:01

♪ Keep on walkin' ♪

4:03

♪ Keep on talkin' ♪

4:05

♪ Marchin' up to freedom's land ♪

4:07

♪ Don't you let injustice ♪

4:10

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:12

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:14

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:16

♪ Don't you let injustice ♪

4:17

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:20

♪ You gotta keep on walkin' ♪

4:21

♪ Keep on talkin' ♪

4:23

♪ Marchin' up to freedom's land. ♪

4:25

♪ Don't you let no thoughts ♪

4:28

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:30

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:32

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:34

♪ Don't you let no thoughts ♪

4:35

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:37

♪ You gotta keep on walkin' ♪

4:39

♪ Keep on talkin' ♪

4:41

♪ Marchin' up to freedom's land ♪

4:43

♪ Don't you let nobody ♪

4:46

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:48

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:50

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:52

♪ Don't you let nobody ♪

4:53

♪ Turn you round ♪

4:55

♪ You gotta keep on walkin' ♪

4:56

♪ Keep on talkin' ♪

4:59

♪ Marchin' up to freedom's land. ♪

5:00

(applause)

5:08

-

Someone's walking round here with extra set of glasses

5:20

and they don't know. I suppose they might be wearing it.

5:22

-

I'm sure if they're wearing it they'd know it,

5:24

they probably can't see out of them either.

5:26

-

Are you gettin' our picture here?

5:28

Hey, please you're aiming the wrong way, right here.

5:29

-

Mrs Victoria Gray-Adams will--

5:39

-

Shhhhh!

5:44

Thank you.

5:48

(laughing)

5:49

-

Okay, Mrs Victoria Gray-Adams will lead us

5:50

in the invocation.

5:55

Victoria

I am person who fully believes.

6:08

Audience

No.

6:10

Victoria

How 'bout that?

6:14

-

Put the microphone up by your mouth.

6:16

Victoria

Well, it is by my mouth, is it not?

6:19

Okay, can you hear me, now?

6:22

Audience

Yeah!

6:23

-

-[Victoria] As one who believes fully in participatory

6:26

involvement, I'm going to invite all of us

6:30

to join in this grace.

6:35

I think it's one that is probably very well known

6:38

by most of us, and those that don't know it

6:42

it shouldn't be too hard for you to

6:45

catch in or chime in. In the meantime, let us bow.

6:49

Most gracious

6:55

Father, Creator,

6:57

Sustainer of us all,

7:00

We thank you for this opportunity to come,

7:03

to be in fellowship with each other,

7:08

as we take this food which has been prepared for us,

7:12

and thank you, O Lord, that from this food,

7:20

will come strength to do those things

7:23

that we are called to do,

7:27

on behalf of peace and freedom everywhere,

7:31

now and always,

7:35

♪ Praise God from whom all ♪

7:39

♪ blessings flow ♪

7:42

♪ Praise him all creatures ♪

7:45

♪ here below ♪

7:50

♪ Praise them above ye ♪

7:53

♪ heavenly ghost ♪

7:57

♪ Praise Father, Son ♪

8:01

♪ and Holy ♪

8:04

♪ Ghost ♪

8:08

♪ Amen. ♪

8:10

(audience talking)

8:19

-

Okay.

8:43

Welcome to the conference on--

8:46

-

You gotta get right up to it, Walter; almost kiss it.

8:50

Walter

We have a number

8:52

of folk who want to welcome you to Raleigh

8:53

and to this conference.

8:56

Okay, thank you.

9:00

I'd like to recognize a few special guests before

9:02

we have some welcoming remarks.

9:05

First of all, Mrs Lucile Pain, the mother of

9:08

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox of North Carolina State University

9:12

is visiting us and is at one of the front tables.

9:15

(audience applause)

9:19

Walter

Welcome Mrs Pain.

I'd also like to recognize two of the former chairs of SNCC

9:24

Who are with us, Marion Barry and Chuck McDew.

9:29

(audience applause)

9:34

Walter

And, you've already heard

9:40

one Executive Secretaries of SNCC

9:47

but we have two here with us,

9:48

Jim Forman and Cleveland Sellars.

9:50

(audience applause)

9:54

Walter

Okay, well our first welcoming remarks

10:04

will be given by Dr James West who is

10:07

the member of the Raleigh City Council from District C.

10:11

Mr West represents an area of South East Raleigh

10:15

which the Raleigh Citizens Association, building on

10:20

the momentum of The Sit-In Movement registered 1,600 voters

10:23

in the summer of 1962 with the help of John Fleming,

10:28

Vivian Irving, John Witters, and SNCC Volunteer,

10:33

Dorothy Dawson-Burlage, so.

10:35

We would like for Mr West to please come forward.

10:43

Thank you.

10:48

Mr West is a retired Professor of Agricultural Extension

10:49

at North Carolina State University.

10:53

(audience applause)

10:57

Mr West

Good afternoon to each of you.

11:01

I guess, in terms of a little side note I would like to

11:03

say that I was actively involved in the Civil Rights

11:06

Movement at North Carolina ENT in the early 60s,

11:10

working with Reverend Jesse Jackson at that time.

11:14

We layered a march on the theater down town

11:17

and desegregated the theaters, so I feel

11:21

a real part of this

11:25

efforts and the importance of the struggle that

11:26

we have been in and the challenges that we have

11:29

for the future.

11:32

To our distinguished head table,

11:33

as well as our distinguished guests and audience

11:35

and to all of you, on behalf of the Raleigh City Council

11:38

and more than 280,000 citizens of our capital city,

11:41

we are certainly proud to welcome you to our great city.

11:45

We are very proud to celebrate the 40th anniversary

11:49

of the founding of the

11:52

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

11:54

As you all know, working with the

11:56

Southern Christian Leadership Conference,

11:58

SNCC was a powerful force in the struggle for racial

12:00

equality during the 60s.

12:03

SNCC members fought that battle using nonviolent tactics.

12:06

It is very fitting, that we honor the legacy of

12:10

Miss Ella Baker, John Lewis and the young people

12:14

at that time that came together to found SNCC.

12:16

However, we cannot rest on their accomplishments of the past

12:20

and let that legacy become just a footnote in history.

12:23

We cannot leave it to others to see that these ideals

12:27

continue to become a reality.

12:31

We must not stand mute when justice is often denied

12:34

and opportunity is deferred.

12:38

Your efforts remind me of a question once posed

12:40

to a great Greek historian. The question was;

12:43

"When will justice come to Athens?"

12:47

He thought deliberately and replied,

12:49

"Justice will never come to Athens until all those

12:51

who are not injured are just as indignant as those who are."

12:55

All of us here today - no matter our birth,

13:01

our genetic cloth, the color of our skin - we must

13:04

become indignant and continue to undo racism

13:08

in any form that it may come.

13:12

When we are told that we must wait for tomorrow,

13:15

the next tomorrow, for the next generation,

13:18

or even the next election; we must reply as the

13:22

Reverend Martin Luther King did from that old Birmingham

13:25

jail that, "Now is the time and today is the day."

13:28

Through the grassroots efforts of this great organization,

13:32

we can achieve the goals set forth 40 years ago.

13:38

We must get everyone involved to finish the work

13:42

that began here in Raleigh and never settle for anything

13:45

less than the best for creating a social order

13:49

where justice and equal opportunity are the supreme ruler.

13:53

Thank you for this opportunity to welcome you all

13:57

to Raleigh, and my salute to SNCC for what you have

14:00

done in the past, so lets keep the legacy alive.

14:04

Thank you and God be with ya.

14:07

(audience applause)

14:09

Walter

We also have welcoming remarks from

14:17

Dr Marye Anne Fox, the Chancellor of North Carolina

14:20

State University. A native of Canton, Ohio, Dr Fox

14:24

received her PhD from Dartmouth in 1974.

14:29

She established a distinguished vocation record in Chemistry

14:33

as a Professor at the University of Texas from 1976 to 1998,

14:36

and served a Vice President for Research at the

14:42

University of Texas.

14:45

Since 1998, she has been Chancellor,

14:47

the highest administrative officer, at North Carolina

14:50

State University; Chancellor Fox.

14:53

(audience applause)

14:57

Dr Fox

Thank you for your invitation

15:01

to participate today and for your willingness

15:02

to accept us into this community.

15:05

We have been very pleased to participate in a partnership

15:08

in helping Shaw sponsor this activity.

15:12

We have believed in partnership for a long time

15:15

and I'm particularly happy to acknowledge several members of

15:17

the African-American Citizens Advisory Council

15:21

at North Carolina State who've been instrumental

15:24

in making today's events happen.

15:26

In particular, the Chairman Mr Everitt Ward back here.

15:28

Thank you so much, Everitt, for your leadership.

15:32

(audience applause)

15:34

Dr Fox

North Carolina State University was a very

15:40

different place when some of you were organizing SNCC

15:42

were here in the early 60s.

15:45

I'm proud to say its a very different place, now.

15:47

It's one which has embraced diversity and tries to

15:51

nurture our cultural differences and our similarities.

15:54

I think I'm very proud to say that, we would be joining

15:57

with all of us in the community, and as Langston Hughes once

16:01

said, "We all want America to be America again. Let freedom

16:04

and justice ring." Thank you, very much.

16:09

(audience applause)

16:12

Walter

Thank you, Chancellor Fox.

16:21

Before I introduce our next speaker,

16:23

I should've mentioned earlier that we are very grateful

16:26

to have with us Mrs Marlene Shaw,

16:29

the wife of Dr Talbert O. Shaw, who is seated next to

16:32

Dr Fox's mother on the first table here. Thank you.

16:37

(audience applause)

16:42

Walter

And, on behalf of the conference

16:47

I'd like to express my deep gratitude to Shaw University

16:49

for making possible this dialogue between

16:52

the returning members of the Student Nonviolent

16:55

Coordinating Committee and student, teachers, and

16:58

scholars today.

17:01

During the past three days we've learned much

17:03

about the founding of Shaw in 1865, as the first university

17:05

in the south for freedmen.

17:10

It's roll in nurturing Miss Ella Baker and so many other

17:11

activists of the Civil Rights Movement.

17:16

And, its proud history of the University that made possible,

17:19

the first national meeting of the students from

17:23

The Sit-In Movement on Easter Weekend, 1960, 40 years ago.

17:25

It's my privilege to introduce the man

17:31

who's been President of Shaw since 1987,

17:33

and who has led the University into the 21st Century.

17:36

Dr Talbert O. Shaw earned his PhD degrees from the

17:40

University of Chicago.

17:44

His years as a Professor and Administrator have been spent

17:46

at Howard University, Catholic University,

17:49

Bowie State College, Federal City College,

17:52

Princeton University, and Morgan State University.

17:55

His publications include Theological and Philosophical

17:58

Monographs, as well as, educational writings.

18:02

During Dr Shaw's tenure, student enrollment has increased

18:08

from 1,400 to 2,500. The University has expanded its

18:11

physical plans and renovated two historic buildings,

18:15

Estey Hall and Leonard Hall.

18:19

And, in 1993 President Shaw led a reform of the curriculum

18:21

making courses in Ethics and Values central to the general

18:26

education of all it's students in order to emphasize

18:29

Shaw's commitment to high personal standards

18:33

and citizenship in its graduates.

18:36

Ladies and gentleman, Dr Talbert O. Shaw.

18:39

(audience applause)

18:42

Dr Shaw

Thank you very much, Dr Jackson.

18:50

Let me welcome all of you to this historic campus.

18:53

We are very proud that you chose

18:58

to have this celebration here.

19:00

And, as Dr Fox said, we're delighted of the partnership

19:02

that she has forged with us as we

19:05

establish this celebration. I am tempted to,

19:10

of course my assigned task is to introduce the speaker.

19:15

But, I am tempted to introduce him the way the

19:22

President of the United States is introduced.

19:23

People get up and say,

19:29

"Ladies and Gentleman, the President of the United States."

19:30

The man that I'm about to present to you,

19:35

indeed, earned that type of profile.

19:39

Very few people here don't know

19:44

the honorable, Julian Bond.

19:49

You know, the dialogue continues regarding the times

19:53

and the leaders.

19:57

Does the time

20:01

provide the leader or the leader produce the time?

20:03

Dialogue continues.

20:07

Well, while you're speaking about that,

20:11

let me give you some ideas,

20:14

that place this man

20:18

in the times.

20:20

I believe the conference has streams

20:23

that prepare the speaker today for what he has done

20:26

and what he'll continue to do.

20:29

First of all, his father was a college President.

20:32

And, by the way he expressed his condolences to me

20:37

as President of Shaw University since he lived

20:42

on two college campuses; Fort Valley State

20:45

and Lincoln University.

20:48

And, when I asked him if it were the Lincoln in Missouri,

20:50

he said, "No, the real Lincoln!"

20:53

(audience laughing)

20:55

Dr Shaw

So, he has grown up on a college campus.

20:58

He knows the nervous atmosphere on the college campuses.

21:04

He's sat at the feet of Dr Martin Luther King.

21:09

It was a time when the acidity of racism was so corroding,

21:14

that there were movements across the country to change

21:19

American history.

21:25

So, the times and the preparations

21:28

produced the man today. I have a few things here

21:32

I could bring with me the biography

21:35

and it's a very long one

21:38

but I'll reduce it. He said, "Please, don't do that!"

21:40

And, by the way, those of you who are meeting me

21:45

for the first time, each time I stand before an audience

21:48

that doesn't know me fully,

21:52

I have to throw in a disclaimer.

21:54

And, that is although the University and I have the same

21:57

name, I don't own the place.

21:59

(audience laughing)

22:02

Dr Shaw

Julian Bond has been an active participant

22:06

in the movements for civil rights, economic justice,

22:09

and peace for more than three decades.

22:12

As an activist who has faced jail for his convictions,

22:16

as a veteran of more than 20 years service

22:21

in the Georgia General Assembly,

22:23

as a University Professor and a writer

22:25

who raises hard questions and proposes difficult solutions,

22:28

he has been on the cutting edge of social change since 1960.

22:32

I recall, very vividly, when this young man in his late 20s

22:38

had gotten on the civil rights path.

22:44

I was Dean of the students at a little college in the south.

22:46

And, we saw this young man, there was a refreshing contrast.

22:53

A young man with much more hair at the time.

22:58

(audience laughing)

23:01

Standing there, speaking with such maturity.

23:02

A beautiful voice, refreshing contrast.

23:09

Youth and maturity.

23:12

I still remember those days.

23:15

He was a founder in 1960, while a student

23:17

of Morehouse College, of the Atlanta Student Sit-In and

23:20

Anti-Segregation Organization, and of the

23:24

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and was a SNCC

23:27

Communicator/Director.

23:32

He was active in registration and campaigns throughout

23:35

the south.

23:38

Elected in 1965 to the Georgia House of Representatives,

23:40

Mr Bond was prevented from taking a seat by members

23:44

who objected to his expression, or opposition,

23:47

of the Vietnam War.

23:51

He was re-elected to his own vacancy and seated again,

23:53

and seated only after a third election.

23:57

But, the anonymous decision of the United States

24:00

Supreme Court that said that Georgia House

24:02

had violated its Civil Rights.

24:06

He was co-Chair of a challenge delegation from Georgia

24:09

to the 1968 Democratic Convention.

24:13

The challengers were successful in unseating Georgia's

24:16

regular democrats, and Bond was nominated for Vice President

24:20

but had to decline because he was so young.

24:25

In the Georgia Senate, Bond became the first Black Chair

24:31

of the Fulton County Delegation - the largest and most

24:36

diverse in the upper house - and Chair of the

24:39

Customer Affairs Committee.

24:43

During his legislative tenure, he was a co-sponsor

24:45

of more than 60 bills that became law.

24:50

Today, Mr Bond is the Chairman of the NAACP.

24:55

He holds 19 honorary degrees.

25:00

He's a distinguished Professor at the American University,

25:07

and also teaches in the University of Virginia.

25:11

So, today we have an activist,

25:16

an academician,

25:21

a father,

25:23

a husband, and a man for the times.

25:24

And, just before I present him,

25:30

I'd like Mrs Bond, who is here, to stand and be recognized.

25:31

(audience applause)

25:37

So, while the dialogue continues does the time produce the

25:45

man or the man the times.

25:48

Let me present to you a man of the times.

25:49

Dr Bond.

25:52

Dr Bond

Thank you, thank you.

25:55

(audience applause)

25:58

Dr Bond

Thank you a great deal Dr Shaw,

26:19

for that kind introduction.

26:22

And, unfortunately some of these people already know me

26:24

too well.

26:27

(audience laughing)

26:28

Dr Bond

And, like many of my colleagues here,

26:31

I am older than I was when I came to this campus

26:34

in April of 1960.

26:37

But, we're all reminded that just because

26:41

there's snow on the roof doesn't mean the fire is out below.

26:43

(audience laughing)

26:46

Dr Bond

Ella Baker said strong people

26:49

don't need strong leaders.

26:53

I'm gonna talk about some of the things

26:56

the strong people did.

26:58

You know, in early 1960s, Freedom song,

27:01

which has probably been sung this weekend before I arrived,

27:03

described the student movement of the early 1960s

27:08

in this way.

27:11

The time was 1960, the place the USA, February 1st

27:13

became a history-making day from Greensboro across the land.

27:16

The news spread far and wide as quietly and bravely

27:20

youth took a giant stride.

27:24

Heed the call, Americans all side-by-equal-side.

27:26

You know I'm not gonna sing this, Betty.

27:29

Sisters sit in dignity and brothers sit in prime.

27:31

But, this organization was described another way

27:36

by former president, Jimmy Carter, who told Mary King,

27:38

"If you wanna scare white people in Southwest Georgia,

27:43

Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership

27:46

Conference wouldn't do it. You only have to say one word;

27:48

SNCC!"

27:53

(audience laughing)

27:54

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

27:55

was founded in 1960 by southern student protesters

27:57

engaged in sit-in demonstrations against lunch-counter

28:02

segregations.

28:04

Within a year, the organization had evolved

28:07

from a coordinating to a hands-on agency

28:08

helping local leadership and rural and small-town

28:12

communities.

28:15

Participated in a variety of protest and political

28:16

and organizing campaigns.

28:19

All of which set SNCC apart from the Civil Rights

28:21

mainstream of the 1960s.

28:24

By 1965, SNCC fielded the largest staff of any

28:26

Civil Rights organization operating in the south.

28:31

It had organized nonviolent, direct action against

28:35

segregated facilities and voter registration campaigns

28:38

in Alabama, Arkansas, Marilyn, Missouri, Louisiana,

28:41

Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois,

28:44

North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi.

28:46

It had built two independent political parties.

28:50

It had organized labor unions and agricultural cooperatives.

28:53

It gave the movement for women's liberation new energy.

28:58

It helped expand the limits of political debate

29:01

within Black America.

29:04

And, it broadened the focus of the Civil Rights Movement.

29:06

Unlike mainstream Civil Rights groups, which merely sought

29:09

the integration of Blacks into the existing order,

29:13

SNCC sought structural changes in American society itself.

29:16

In 1960, the dominant organization fighting for Civil Rights

29:21

was the National Association for Advancement of

29:25

Colored People.

29:27

Its preferred method was litigation.

29:29

It achieved its greatest victory in 1954

29:31

with Brown versus Board of Education.

29:34

The NAACP lobbies Congress and Presidents to adopt

29:36

anti-segregation measures.

29:40

Its local branches were often the main Civil Rights outpost

29:42

in many communities.

29:45

And, the NAACP and multiple similar

29:47

local groups and individuals fought against what

29:50

Alden Morris calls a tripartite system of racial domination.

29:54

A system which protected the privileges of white society

29:59

which generated tremendous human suffering for Blacks.

30:02

One consequence of this segregation system

30:06

was the development of institutions

30:10

of close-knit communities, churches, schools,

30:12

organizations which nurtured and encouraged

30:15

the fight against white supremacy.

30:18

The young people who began the 1960 Sit-In Movement

30:21

lived and learned among such institutions.

30:24

The goals of the young student movement were described

30:29

to the Democratic Conventions Platform Committee

30:32

by its first Chair, Marion Barry, as seeking a community

30:35

in which man can realize the full meaning of self

30:39

which demands open relationships with others.

30:43

Barry and others declared southern students wanted to

30:46

end the racial discrimination in housing and education

30:49

and employment.

30:51

And, the goal were similarly broadly described

30:53

by James Forman in 1961 as "working full time against the

30:55

whole value system of this country, and working

31:00

towards revolution."

31:03

And, in 1963 as a program of developing, building,

31:05

and strengthening indigenous leadership.

31:09

And, by the third SNCC Chair, John Lewis set the marge

31:12

on Washington as, "Building a serious social revolution."

31:15

Well, SNCC pioneered first time races by Blacks

31:19

in the 1960s deep south.

31:22

It added foreign policy demands

31:25

to the Black political agenda

31:27

and it broadened the acceptable limits of political

31:29

discourse.

31:31

SNCC was on the vanguard in demonstrating that

31:33

independent Black politics could be successful.

31:35

Its early attempts to use Black candidates to raise issues

31:39

in races where victory was unlikely

31:42

expanded the political horizon.

31:45

SNCC's development of political parties mirrored

31:48

the philosophy that political form must follow function

31:50

and the non-hierarchal organizations

31:54

are demanded to counter the growth of personality cults

31:57

and of self-reinforcing leadership.

32:00

While organizing grassroots voter registration drives,

32:03

stick workers offered themselves as a protective barrier

32:06

between private and state-sponsored terror in the local

32:09

communities where SNCC staffers lived and worked.

32:13

SNCC workers were often more numerous and less transient

32:16

than those from other Civil Rights Organizations

32:19

and their method of operation was very different as well.

32:22

The NAACP was outlawed in Alabama in 1956

32:26

and didn't begin operating there again until 1964.

32:29

Although, NAACP activists continued under other sponsorship.

32:33

In 1962, the NAACP had one field secretary, each in

32:37

South Carolina, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi

32:41

and had regional staff headquartered in Atlanta.

32:44

Of SCLC, one historian writes, "The organization had to

32:47

adopt the strategy of hit and run. Their willingness to run

32:51

as well as hit provoked consistent criticism.

32:56

(audience laughing)

32:58

Dr Bond

SCLC mobilized, someone said. SNCC organized.

33:00

By spring of 1963, SNCC had 11 staff members

33:04

in Southwest Georgia, 20 staff in six offices

33:08

in Mississippi.

33:11

By August, SNCC had projects and had permanent staff

33:13

in a dozen Mississippi communities.

33:16

In Selma, in Danville, in Pinebluff Arkansas.

33:18

12 workers in the Atlanta headquarters.

33:21

60 field secretaries.

33:24

And, 121 full time volunteers.

33:25

Typically, SNCC began a campaign by researching

33:29

the economical and political history of a community.

33:32

Field workers would be supplied with detailed information

33:35

on a community's economic and power structure,

33:39

tracing corporate relationships from local bankers

33:42

and business leadership in a local white citizens council to

33:45

the largest American banks and corporations.

33:48

And, in one instance, to the Queen of England herself.

33:51

Remember, Jack Minnis drew this chart

33:54

from the Delta of Mississippi,

33:57

to the Queens Palace in London.

33:59

The Queen a shareholder in one of those devil places

34:01

in Mississippi.

34:04

What was it?

34:07

-

Delta Pinelands

34:08

Dr Bond

Delta Pinelands, the Queen of England.

34:09

Other research provided the economic and political

34:12

status of a state's Black population.

34:14

SNCC organizers would spend their first weeks

34:17

in a new community meeting with local leadership,

34:19

formulating with them an action plan for more aggressive

34:22

registration efforts.

34:25

Recruiting new activists through informal conversation.

34:27

Through pain-staking house-to-house canvassing

34:30

and regular mass meetings.

34:32

And, the organization's broader definitions

34:35

of the Civil Rights Movement purposes

34:37

was obvious from its very beginnings here on this campus.

34:39

Here, in April 1960, Charles Jones declared,

34:43

"This movement will affect other areas beyond

34:48

lunch counter services such as politics and economics."

34:50

A report from the conference concluded with a warning

34:54

about America's false preoccupation in early 1960s.

34:56

It said civil defense and economic power alone will not

35:01

ensure the continuation of our democracy.

35:05

Democracy itself demands the great intangible strength of

35:08

the people, able to unite in a common endeavor

35:11

because they are granted human dignity.

35:15

Within four months of these declarations,

35:18

SNCC volunteer, Robert Moses, was planning a student-staff

35:21

voter registration project in all-Black, Mound Bayou in the

35:24

Mississippi delta for the summer of 1961.

35:28

The work actually began in Southwestern Mississippi.

35:31

But, when its workers were driven from the area

35:35

by violence, by state suppression

35:37

and by federal indifference, the organization regrouped

35:39

in Jackson and the delta counties in early 1962.

35:42

Earlier in '61, SNCC's Nashville affiliate

35:46

had continued the freedom rise.

35:49

When Alabama violence threatened to bring them to an end.

35:51

After they were released from Parchman Penintentiary,

35:54

many of the jailed rioters joined the McComb Movement.

35:57

Several became part of the organizing cadres for the

36:00

Mississippi Movement which quickly followed.

36:03

Unencumbered by allegiances

36:06

to the National Democratic Party,

36:08

which frequently constrained older other organizations.

36:10

SNCC encouraged two black candidates to run for Congress.

36:14

Robert Moses served as the official campaign manager.

36:17

And, then to demonstrate that disenfranchised

36:21

Mississippi blacks really did want to vote,

36:23

SNCC mounted a freedom vote campaign in November '63.

36:26

Over 80,000 cast votes in a mock election

36:30

for a Governor and Lieutenant Governor.

36:33

A hundred northern white students worked in the campaign,

36:36

attracting attention from the Department of Justice

36:39

and the national media as black registration workers

36:42

had never done, paving the way

36:45

for the Freedom Summer of 1964.

36:47

Freedom Somber bought nearly a thousand, mostly white,

36:50

volunteers to Mississippi.

36:52

They helped build the new political party,

36:54

the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

36:56

They registered voters and they staffed 28 freedom schools

36:59

intended by their designer, Charles Cobb,

37:03

to provide an education which will make it possible for them

37:06

to challenge the myths of our society, to perceive more

37:08

clearly its realities, and to find alternatives and

37:12

ultimately new direction for action.

37:15

Over the next several years, candidates back by SNCC,

37:18

ran for Congress in Albany, Georgia, in Selma, Alabama,

37:22

in Danville, Virginia, and in Enfield, North Carolina.

37:25

SNCC helped candidates for FSCS boards

37:29

in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina

37:31

and Mississippi.

37:33

SNCC aided school board candidates in Arkansas in 1965;

37:35

worked towards solving the economic problems

37:39

of the Mississippi negro; by organizing the Mississippi

37:41

Freedom Labor Union and the Poor People's Coorporation.

37:45

But, among other contributions to electro politics,

37:49

with the formation of two political parties

37:52

and the conception and implementation of my successful

37:55

campaign for the Georgia State Legislator.

37:58

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

38:01

challenges the seating of the regular all-white delegation

38:03

from Mississippi at the '64 Convention.

38:07

And, in 1965 Mrs Gray and others challenged the seating of

38:10

Mississippi's Congressional Delegation in Washington.

38:14

The Convention challenge ended when pressures

38:17

from President Lyndon Johnson erased promised support from

38:20

party liberals, an offer was made and then rejected

38:23

of two convention seats to be filled,

38:27

not by the Freedom Democrats, but by the National Party.

38:29

We remember Mrs Fannie Lou Hamer's declaration,

38:33

"We didn't come for no two seats coz all of us is tired."

38:36

(audience laughing)

38:40

(audience applause)

Both of these challenges served as an object lesson

38:47

for strengthening black political independence.

38:50

And, the organizing and lobbying efforts for each

38:53

laid the ground work for the Congressional passage

38:56

of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

38:59

Then in 1965, the McComb branch of the MFDP

39:02

became the first black political organization

39:07

to express opposition to the war in Vietnam.

39:09

State MFDP officials not only refused to repudiate

39:12

the statement, they reprinted it in the State newsletter

39:16

giving it wider circulation and laying the groundwork

39:19

for future black opponents of the war in Vietnam.

39:22

The MFDPs efforts against white resistance

39:26

to political equality proved important to black

39:28

political efforts throughout the south.

39:32

An MFDP-directed court suit resulted in the Supreme Court's

39:34

landmark 1969 decision,

39:38

Allen versus the State Board of Elections,

39:40

for the very first time the Supreme Court recognized

39:43

and applied the principle of minority vote dilution,

39:46

that the black vote can be affected as much by dilution

39:49

as by an absolute prohibition on casting a ballot.

39:52

The middle 1960s became a turning point in the

39:56

southern human rights struggle.

39:59

Federal legislation passed in '64 and '65

40:02

accomplished the goals of many in the Civil Rights Movement.

40:05

Cleveland Sellars wrote,

40:09

"When the federal government passed bills

40:11

that supposedly supported black voting and outlawed

40:13

public segregation, SNCC lost the initiative in these areas.

40:16

Northern urban riots in the late 1960s made the nation

40:20

and southern civil rights workers aware that

40:24

victories at lunch counters and ballot boxes

40:26

meant little to black people locked into northern ghettos.

40:29

SNCC had long believed that it work oughta be expanded

40:33

to larger cities of the south and outside the region.

40:35

Executive committee minutes from December '63 quote

40:39

Forman asserting,

40:42

"SNCC is going to have to go into the poorer sections

40:43

of large cities to work."

40:46

My campaign for the Georgia House of Representatives in '65

40:48

was, in part, an attempt to take the technique

40:52

SNCC had learned in the rural south into an urban setting,

40:54

and to carry forward SNCC's belief that grassroots politics

40:57

could provide answers to problems faced by America's

41:01

urban blacks.

41:03

In keeping with SNCC's style, a platform was developed

41:05

in consultation with the voters.

41:08

The campaign supported a $2 minimum wage,

41:10

repeal of the Right to Work law,

41:13

abolition of the death penalty.

41:15

With the legislator twice rejected me,

41:17

objecting to my support of SNCC's anti-war position.

41:19

The resulting two campaigns gave SNCC a chance to

41:23

successfully test its critique of American Imperialism

41:26

at the ballot box.

41:30

That campaign, like the MFDP, enabled SNCC to provide a

41:31

political voice for the politically impudent

41:36

and inarticulate black poor.

41:38

In 1966 in Alabama,

41:40

SNCC helped create a black political party

41:43

called the Lowndes County Freedom Organization.

41:45

An independent political party which would prove

41:48

to be a factor in Alabama politics for years to come.

41:50

It was formed in reaction to the racism of the local

41:54

and state Democratic Party.

41:57

Like the MFDP, the so-called Black Panther party,

41:59

was open to whites but no whites in Lowndes County

42:04

would participate in a black-dominated political effort.

42:06

Concurrently with these organizing efforts,

42:10

SNCC was reassessing its concentration on the south.

42:13

At a retreat in May of '66, Ivanhoe Donaldson

42:16

argued in favor -

42:19

it's not so odd to think about Ivanhoe and arguing

42:21

in the same sentence -

42:22

(audience laughing)

42:24

Ivanhoe Donaldson argued in favor of SNCC's replicating

42:26

it's successful southern political organizing efforts

42:30

in the north, and the staff agreed.

42:33

Donaldson and Robert Moses suggested

42:36

that techniques learned in southern campaigns

42:38

could be employed to ease SNCC's passage

42:41

into northern cities.

42:43

"Organizing for political power and community control

42:45

could mobilize northern urban dwellers", they contended.

42:48

And, Michael Thelwell proposed in 1966

42:52

that the organization should move

42:55

"to the ghetto and organize those communities

42:58

to control themselves. The organization must be attempted

43:00

in northern and southern areas,

43:04

as well as in the rural black-belt of the south."

43:06

So, projects were established in Washington D.C.

43:10

to fight for home rule in Columbus, Ohio,

43:13

where a community foundation was organized,

43:16

in New York City's Harlem where SNCC workers organized

43:18

early efforts at community control of public schools,

43:21

in Los Angeles where SNCC helped manage the local police

43:24

and joined an effort at creating a freedom city

43:27

in black neighborhoods,

43:29

and in Chicago where SNCC workers

43:31

began to build an independent

43:33

political party and demonstrated against

43:34

segregated schools.

43:36

In each of these cities, the southern experience

43:38

of the SNCC organizers helped to inform their

43:41

northern and western work.

43:44

As Chair, Marion Barry had written to members of

43:46

the Congress in 1960 to urge immediate action

43:49

to provide self-government for the voteless residents

43:53

of our nations capital, the District of Columbia.

43:56

Were you thinking about it then?

43:59

(audience laughing)

44:00

Dr Bond

In February 1966, Barry, then Director of

44:07

SNCC's Washington office, announced the formation of the

44:11

Free DC Movement.

44:14

He wrote then, "The premise is

44:16

that we wanna organize black people for black power."

44:18

He and the Free DC Movement conducted a successful

44:21

boycott of Washington Merchants,

44:24

who did not support home rule.

44:26

In New York, SNCC worker William Hall, helped a Harlem group

44:29

working for community control of Intermediate School 201

44:32

in the fall of 1966.

44:37

His work laid the groundwork for later successful protests

44:39

for community control of schools throughout the city.

44:43

In Los Angeles, SNCC worker Clifford Vaughs

44:46

described his work as, "a manifestation of self-help,

44:48

self-determination, and power for poor people."

44:52

So, as the focus of the southern movement had change,

44:56

so would the aim of the northern organizer.

44:59

Desegregation hd proven both illusive and insufficient

45:02

to the problems of American blacks, north or south.

45:05

Their ability to control their own communities

45:08

and to direct the community's elected officials

45:11

had become paramount, both in rural Mississippi

45:13

and in urban New York.

45:16

Just as concern for social change had never been limited

45:18

to the southern states alone,

45:22

SNCC's concern for human rights had long extended beyond

45:23

the borders of the United States.

45:27

From its first public statement, it had linked the

45:29

fight, plight of American blacks with the struggle

45:31

for African independence.

45:34

At its founding conference here at Raleigh,

45:36

it first announced its identification with

45:39

the African Liberation struggle.

45:41

We identify ourselves with the African struggle

45:43

as a concern for all mankind.

45:45

And, at SNCC's Fall 1960 conference in Atlanta,

45:48

a featured speaker was the brother

45:51

of Kenya Labor Leader, Tom Mboya.

45:53

SNCC Chairman, John Lewis, told the march on

45:56

Washington in 1963, "One man, one vote is the African cry.

45:58

It must be ours."

46:02

And, in December '63, SNCC workers in Atlanta conferred

46:04

with Kenya leader, Oginga Odinga.

46:08

And, in September 1964, an 11-member SNCC delegation

46:11

went to Guinea as guests of that country's President,

46:15

Sekou Toure.

46:17

Two members of the group toured Africa for a month

46:19

following the Guinea trip.

46:21

In October, two SNCC workers represented SNCC at the

46:23

Annual Meeting of the Organization of African Unity

46:26

in Ghana.

46:29

SNCC's January 1966 anti-war statement

46:30

claimed the United States was "deceptive in claiming

46:34

concern for the freedom of colored people

46:37

in other countries, such as the Congo, South Africa,

46:39

and the United States itself."

46:42

Singer, Harry Bellafonte, organized a supportive reception

46:44

at the UN with 15 applicant diplomats for SNCC personnel.

46:47

And, on March 22 1966, seven SNCC workers were arrested

46:52

at the South African Consulate in New York,

46:57

preceding by 20 years, the Free South Africa Movement

46:59

that later saw hundreds arrested at the South African

47:05

Embassy in Washington DC.

47:07

At a June '67 staff meeting, SNCC declared itself

47:10

a human rights organization dedicated to the liberation,

47:13

not only of black people in the United States,

47:16

but of all oppressed people, especially those of

47:19

Africa, Asia and Latin America.

47:21

SNCC Chair, Stokeley Carmichael, visited Algeria, Syria,

47:24

Egypt, Guinea, and Tanzania in mid '67.

47:28

In November '67, Forman testified for SNCC

47:32

before the United Nations Fourth Committee

47:36

against American investments in South Africa.

47:38

For many on the staff at the close of the decade

47:41

of the 1960s, nearly a decades worth of of hard work

47:44

at a regular subsistence level pay,

47:48

under an atmosphere of constant tension,

47:51

interrupted by jailings, beatings, official and private

47:53

terror, proved too much.

47:56

When measured by the legislate of accomplishments

47:59

of the '64 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act,

48:01

SNCC's efforts were successful.

48:06

But, the failure of the MFDP to gain recognition

48:08

in Atlantic City, predicted the coming collapse of

48:11

support from liberals.

48:14

The murders of four schoolgirls in Birmingham

48:16

and Medgar Evers in Jackson in '63,

48:19

of civil rights workers and others in Mississippi in '64,

48:22

of Martin Luther King and others in 1968,

48:26

argued that nonviolence was no antidote

48:29

in a violent society.

48:32

The outbreak of urban violence at the decade's end

48:34

further produced a sense of frustration

48:36

and alienation in many SNCC veterans.

48:38

Throughout it's brief history, NSCC insisted on

48:42

group-centered leadership and community-based politics.

48:44

It made clear the connection between economic power

48:48

and racial oppression.

48:50

It refused to define racism as solely southern.

48:52

To describe racial inequality as caused by

48:56

irrational prejudice alone,

48:58

or to limit it's struggle solely to guaranteeing

49:00

legal equality.

49:02

It challenged American imperialism while mainstream

49:04

civil rights organizations were quiet

49:07

or carried favor with President Lyndon Johnson.

49:10

They condemned SNCC's linkage of domestic poverty

49:13

and racism with overseas adventurism.

49:15

SNCC refused to apply political test

49:18

to its membership or its supporters,

49:20

opposing the red baiting which other organizations

49:22

and leaders endorsed and condoned.

49:25

It created an atmosphere of expectation and anticipation

49:27

among the people with whom it worked,

49:30

trusting them to make decision about their lives.

49:33

SNCC widened the definition of politics beyond

49:36

campaigns and elections.

49:39

For SNCC, politics encompassed not only electoral races

49:40

but also organizing political parties,

49:44

organizing labor unions, producing cooperatives

49:47

and alternative schools.

49:50

It initially thought to liberalize southern politics

49:52

by organizing and franchising southern blacks.

49:56

One proof of its success is the increase in black

49:59

elected officials in the southern states from 72

50:02

in 1965 to 388 in 1968.

50:06

But, SNCC also sought to liberalize the ends

50:11

of political participation

50:14

by enlarging the issues of political debate

50:16

to include the economic and foreign policy concerns

50:19

of American blacks.

50:22

SNCC's articulation and advocacy of black power

50:23

redefined the relationship between black Americans

50:27

and white power.

50:29

No longer would political equity be considered a privilege,

50:31

it had become a right.

50:34

Part of SNCC's legacy is the destruction

50:36

of the psychological shackles

50:40

which had kept black southerners in physical

50:42

and middle peonage.

50:44

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

50:45

helped to break those chains forever.

50:47

But, SNCC also demonstrated that a band of brothers

50:50

and sisters, young and unskilled,

50:53

could create social change.

50:57

And, they demonstrated for all time

50:59

something that is generally an objectionable features

51:01

of these kind of associations,

51:04

and that's when the old, grey-haired, stoop-shouldered,

51:06

generation, that's me, passes a symbolic torch

51:09

to these young bright-eyed children; that's them.

51:13

This happened at the 30th anniversary of the march

51:17

on Washington where there were more people on the podium

51:19

than there were in the audience.

51:22

(audience laughing)

51:23

Dr Bond

And, I was nauseated by it

51:24

because I thought back to the early days

51:28

when you were with the NAACP in Memphis.

51:30

When the rest of us were struggling,

51:34

nobody handed us a torch.

51:36

We had to reach out and grab that torch

51:38

and peel those fingers, one by one.

51:41

The people who had the torch

51:44

didn't wanna let it go.

51:48

If we hadn't taken it they'd be holding it now.

51:51

Now, I'm saying to these young people,

51:55

if you want these torches, you got to come get 'em.

51:56

This is not a relay race. We're not handing you any torches.

52:01

Thank you all, very much.

52:04

(audience applause)

52:06

Walter

I believe Martha Norman has a few announcements

52:30

to make. Where is Martha?

52:35

Martha Norman has a few announcements to make.

52:40

Okay.

52:44

Well, let me thank you Julian Bond.

52:47

I sat through his lectures at Harvard and they're all

52:50

just that inspiring.

52:54

He had the class in the palm of his hand the whole time.

52:56

Yes, okay.

53:06

Mr Bond.

53:08

Dr Bond

Is there a record of the conference?

53:15

(audience laughing)

53:18

Dr Bond

I'm sure it'll be and it's been video-taped.

53:31

There's other sessions here been video-taped

53:34

but I don't know what's going to come of the video tapes.

53:36

-

Don't throw away the tapes.

53:39

[Dr Bond] Yeah. No, I have it on disc.

53:41

(audience laughing)

53:43

-

Julian, have you made the award of recognition, yet?

54:16

Have you don the recognition, yet?

54:20

Oh, lets do that.

54:22

No, you first. Yes.

54:26

Is Bob Moses here?

54:40

We need Bob Moses and Diane Nash.

54:43

Tape 13, 2000 April

Transcript

Item Info

John Hope Franklin Research Center