SNCC's Stories: The African American Freedom Movement in the Civil Rights South

Abstract

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was an instrumental wing of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. This grassroots organization was organized by young college and university students that were committed to manifesting political change. Monteith's SNCC's Stories represents a meaningful extension to the robust scholarship already chronicling the important history and the freedom fighters who participated in the movement. SNCC's former executive director, James Forman, states that “all of us are a book” in his description of SNCC members (1). In his estimation, the membership of SNCC do not tell a singular story, instead their perspectives reflect a complex narrative and should be understood in this way. Monteith interrogates this claim in her book by affording critical attention to creative works that discuss the organization. Monteith argues that SNCC's membership's skills extend beyond politicizing the problems of the South through hands-on tactics such as boycotts, sit-ins, and voting registration drives. Their collective strength is revealed in the writing they produced. However, Monteith suggests there is a gap in the publishing history surrounding SNCC. In particular, she asserts the creative writing contributions of SNCC's members is often overlooked in scholarship about the organization. She contends that the memoirs and political essays from the activists receive wide critical attention, whereas other creative works such as fiction and poetry fail to garner analysis. She seeks to fill this gap in the critical conversation through her book project.Her book is organized into nine chapters including a preface, introduction, and epilogue. Her introduction includes a comprehensive historiography of texts about the movement, figureheads, and the organization. This chapter represents a helpful resource for any scholar interested in expanding their knowledge of the history of SNCC. Chapter 1 connects James Forman's unpublished novel Thin White Line with Michael Thelwell's short story “Direct Action” and Peter de Lissovoy's autobiographical novel Feelgood. She contends that the writers used their personal experiences on the ground to craft dynamic works that show the complex reality of freedom fighters. Chapter 2 investigates the use of folklore in the characterization of figures Supersnick and Junebug Jabbo Jones whereas chapter 3 explores the syntax used in field reports as an inventive style that eventually makes its way into the personal writing of the reporters. Chapter 4 represents a departure from Monteith's stated aim. She explores figures closely associated with SNCC such as Howard Zinn, who taught students in the organization. This chapter examines professional writers affiliated with the organization but who were not members of SNCC. Chapter 5 focuses on writers who composed during the movement and their continued creative writing exploits. Chapter 6 examines SNCC's connection to the Black Arts Movement and Black popular writers and presses of the era whereas chapter 7 connects SNCC to Pan-Africanism and the stylistic connections to BAM writers. Chapters 8 and 9 consider novelists’ fictionalization of the movement in texts like Julius Lester's All our Wounds Forgiven, William Mahoney's Black Jacob, and Long George Alley by Richard Hall.Monteith's text is ambitious in its aim to extend the critical conversation surrounding SNCC to published and unpublished creative writing texts from writers of the era. What is lacking is a clear focus on the members of SNCC and a collective critical literary framework to understand the historical and political agenda of the literature. Although the writing is connected to a specific moment in history, it is also a part of a cannon of African American writers committed to creating social criticism both didactic and compelling. Nevertheless, Monteith's contribution is her ability to expose readers to lesser-known texts and writers from the Civil Rights Movement.