In the 1960’s segregation was a major part of American History; this was a time when African Americans did not have the same rights as white men. During this time, change was enacted in American society in a considerable way. One of the major groups that contributed to this social change was called SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1960, this group helped enacted change of peaceful protest through sit ins, freedom rides, freedom schools, and other non-violent protesting tactics, which influenced major change during the Civil rights movement. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, had quickly become one of the Civil rights movement’s most important …show more content…
The first major leader of SNCC was Ella Baker. Ella Baker created SNCC in 1960, after the sit ins began taking place in North Carolina. She led regular meetings to discuss different means of protest, locations for sit ins, and organize different freedom rides at Shaw University. Ella Bakers believed that the youth would be better able to take the freedom movement into a different direction, and wanted to create an organization that strayed away from larger, older church based leadership organizations. She wanted to create a place where the youth could be taught the ideals and skills necessary to help fight segregation in the south. She would also later persuade SNCC to separate into two different wings, one focusing on direct action, through different forms of protest, and the second wing focusing on voter registration for African Americans. The second major leader for the SNCC was John Lewis. John Lewis became chairman for the SNCC for six years, and contributed in many ways to the organization, opening freedom schools, launching the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and organized voter registration rights during the 1965 Selma voting rights campaign. During his time as chairman of SNCC John Lewis was also one of the original and youngest “Big Six” leaders that organized the March on Washington, and was able to give a speech denouncing the Kennedy administration for …show more content…
An example of this is the Mississippi Summer Project, held in the summer of 1963. When many African Americans wanted to obtain the right to vote, the SNCC, as one of the major ways of peacefully protesting, began to establish Freedom Ballots. Freedom Ballots were mock elections held to get the vote of the poor African American man. The main goal was to gain the votes from African Americans separate of legal segregated voting or to show the influence that African Americans have on voting. “The freedom ballots set the stage for the Mississippi Summer Project… Which was an urgent call to action for the students in Mississippi to challenge and overcome the white racism in the State of Mississippi.”(Six Years of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) In the Mississippi Summer project, the SNCC wanted to help get as many African Americans registered to vote through Freedom Days, which is where large collections of African Americans would go to vote or get registered to vote, but had to face intimidation of the locals. The end goal of the Mississippi Summer Project was to establish Freedom Schools, where African Americans were taught to read and write, and to organize the Mississippi Summer Project, to gain more African American representation in the government. They were offered two spots next