S. N. C. C. and the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, 1963-64: A Time of Change

Abstract

I N 1963 A CONSORTIUM OF CIVIL RIGHTS organizations including S.N.C.C. (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), C. O.R.E. (Congress of Racial Equality), N.A.A.C.P., and the Urban Coalition began a drive to register black voters and form a political party that included Negroes in Mississippi. Of this consortium, S. N.C.C. was most responsible for the significant political transformation that would take place over the next year and a half. The story of the civil rights movement in Mississippi during this period is really the story of S.N.C.C.: it organized the movement, and through the Mississippi movement, came into its own as a poltical organization. However, while the Mississippi movement gave S.N.C.C. its identity, the effort caused a fundamental change in the basic philosophy of S.N.C.C. Before and during the Mississippi movement, S.N.C.C., as its name implied, used exclusively nonviolent tactics and tried to achieve change through the established channels of government and society. After the Mississippi movement, S.N.C.C. abandoned nonviolent tactics and attempted change without the blessing or help of the government. These changes, which represented a break from the mainstream black and white civil rights movements, can be traced directly to the voter registration movement from its inception in 1963 to the 1964 Democratic convention where the movement experienced what S.N.C.C. considered a major setback.l When investigating the civil rights movement in Mississippi, one must understand that going into Mississippi to organize was not like