hist 498-sncc freedom summer

8/3/2019 Hist 498-SNCC Freedom Summer

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Anna Erickson

5/11/2011

Hist 498

White Influence on 1964 Freedom Summer

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, better known as SNCC, was created

in the Spring of 1960 to fight peacefully for African American Civil Rights. SNCC was

created by African American students in an era of growing unrest, and quickly became a

place of refuge for young activists that had a passion to overthrow the deep-seeded

American tradition of segregation and racism. SNCC prided itself on the level of black

leadership within the organization that kept the organization purely the result of its

members, and their ideas. The beginnings of SNCC especially were filled with the desire

to send a strong message that justice will be pursued. Their original statement of purpose

said, “By appealing to conscience and standing on the moral nature of human existence,

nonviolence nurtures the atmosphere in which reconciliation and justice become actual

possibilities”.1 During the summer months of July and August of 1964, SNCC planned a

large-scale movement called the Freedom Summer in Mississippi that brought white

northern college students into the Deep South to work alongside SNCC workers to

establish Freedom Schools, and a large scale voter registration campaign. SNCC used

their belief in nonviolence to focus on projects to benefit communities, and the Freedom

Summer in Mississippi was a way that SNCC was able to fight for civil rights through

nonviolent channels. Others within SNCC believed that the inclusion of the White college

students would add to the effectiveness of the Freedom Summer despite its risks. The

1 Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, Statement of Purpose, 1960.

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incorporation of white college students both male and female, a controversial decision

within SNCC, helped the movement to garner a greater degree of national attention with

the work on the Freedom Vote and the Freedom Schools. These white college student

volunteers were drawn to the movement because of its emphasis on nonviolence, and the

emphasis on education and civics, all of which they were already quite familiar with.

However their inclusion it was a divisive element of the nonviolent movement, which was

not always beneficial to the community nor the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. The

large-scale inclusion of white students into the Freedom Summer was a topic of dissent

within SNCC. Some SNCC workers wanted to keep the movement run by African

Americans due to issues such as escalated violence, and a desire to keep the organization

true to its original establishment as an African American led group.

The uncertainty that permeated every aspect of the Freedom Summer was if the

inclusion of white activists was the right decision. Howard Zinn, a white university

professor involved with SNCC, asked a pivotal question in his book, which was written in

1964 soon after the Freedom Summer, and in the midst of the civil rights era. He wrote in

his book The New Abolitionist , “ Can white people and black people truly live together as

friends in the United States?”2 This question completely embodied the sentiments of the

time, and was a reflection of the feelings harbored by many Americans, especially

southerners, and the answer to this question frames the outcome of the Freedom Summer.

In such a stratified and dichotomous culture prone to violence and racial segregation racial

equality and friendships between whites and African Americans seemed like a fictitious

idea, not possible in the near future if ever. This movement was the first time a large scale

2 Zinn, SNCC, 167.

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collaboration between African Americans and white had taken place, and probably not

surprisingly resulted in mixed feelings. It is understandable that Howard Zinn, who saw

first hand the violence and hate directed towards SNCC and other activists in the South

would ask this question, which was the same question being asked by SNCC leaders when

the inclusion of white college student volunteers into the Freedom Summer was being

discussed. Initially more positive sentiments were held when activists still were hopeful

for Howard Zinn was dismissed from his teaching post at Spellman College, a historic

black college for too aggressively pursuing the role a an activist.3 For his belief’s in

change, and a world in which whites and African Americans could indeed be friends, and

live harmoniously. Zinn was personally affected by racial tensions that ensued, as were

countless other people.

Even thought the Freedom Summer was marked by the large-scale inclusion of white

summer volunteers, and SNCC was created by African American college students for the

advancement of African Americans. The statement of purpose mentioned above was

created by SNCC as their founding statement, and spoke about their dedication to love,

nonviolence, and justice. SNCC promised to fight for justice through nonviolent means.

Their official statement said, “Justice for all overthrows injustice. The redemptive

community supersedes immoral social systems,”4 these words which were written in 1960.

The statement was created a mere four years before the large of the Freedom Summer.

The Freedom Summer was one of their attempts to overthrow racial injustice and replace

it with a new system of equal education, voting rights for all regardless of race while

3 Howard Zinn, "Finishing School for the Pickets." The Nation (1960).4 Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee , Statement of Purpose.

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practicing SNCC tenant of nonviolence.

SNCC was dedicated to reach these goals of the organization, which included the

Freedom Summer by completely being nonviolent even when violence was bestowed

upon them. The white college student volunteers were also committed to the nonviolent

movement. These students who were often from affluent families, and attended top tier

northern universities would not have flocked to Mississippi in such strong numbers had

the Freedom Summer not been committed to achieving its goals through nonviolent

measures. The northern students were familiar with nonviolent activism, and had the

movement not been committed to it, the support by these students would not have been

nearly as widespread. Nonviolence was a key element of the Civil Rights Movement and

its major proponent was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. SNCC was no exception at its

founding to the main elements of the Civil Rights Movement, and stayed that way-despite

minor dissent within the organization- through the 1964 Freedom Summer. Permanent

SNCC workers, and the Freedom Summer volunteers and all strove to practice

nonviolence. A statement regarding nonviolence, which was included in SNCC’s

statement of purpose, went as followes, “Nonviolence, as it grows from the Judeo-

Christian tradition, seeks a social order of justice permeated by love. Integration of human

endeavor represents the crucial first step towards such a society.”5 The Civil Rights

Movement was heavily influenced by religion and Christian teachings, and many of its

ideals were deep rooted in Christian tradition. It was important for SNCC to remain

completely nonviolent to keep with the teachings of the Civil Right Movement.

The university professor Howard Zinn understood the divisive element that the

5 Statement of Purpose. Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee.

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inclusion of white college student volunteers experienced the Freedom Summer and the

proceedings of SNCC first hand. He believed in the premise of SNCC, and its goals for

the Freedom Summer. As a university professor, activist, and historian Howard Zinn was

the former professor of many of SNCC’s young student leadership, and acted as an

advisor to SNCC. In his book about the Civil Rights Movement and SNCC The New

Abolitionists, Zinn stated his beliefs as to what the Civil Rights Movement had

represented until that point in 1964. His observation went as follows, “ What the civil

rights movement has revealed is that it is necessary for a people concerned with liberty,

even if they live in an approximately democratic state, to create political power which

resides outside the regular political establishment [his emphasis].”6 This statement

corresponds with SNCC seamlessly. In essence, the purpose of the Freedom Summer was

to create spheres outside the regular establishment to promote a more democratic process

and greater liberty in the state of Mississippi. These establishments were the Freedom

Schools and the freedom Vote. Through this avenue, the Civil Rights Movement would

be propelled from the very base, of children and poor, often significantly under educated

citizens of Mississippi.

The Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964 was education based and acted as a

pivotal turn in the Civil Rights Movement because of the vast number of Mississippi

natives it was able to touch through the avenues of teaching and voter registration, and

because of the unprecedented mass partnership between African Americans and whites.

The Freedom Summer was composed of two parts. They were the Freedom Schools and

the Freedom Vote. Both of which were to be administered by the summer volunteers

6 Howard Zinn, SNCC: The New Abolitionists (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964), 220.

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during the months of July and August. The emphasis that the Freedom Summer placed

upon education, having the white students create small Freedom School, and schools

educating adults about voter registration was important because it was an area of

familiarity for the volunteers. These well educated volunteers were comfortable in an

academic setting and felt comfortable in the classroom. Therefore, The Freedom Schools

were to be a place for white involvement that did not grade, beat or humiliate the students,

but instead worked to narrow the education gap between Mississippi’s white students and

the African American students who were receiving an inadequate education. The Freedom

Vote was a program where the volunteer college students would hold a civics and voter

registration class for adults to prepare them to register for the opportunity to become a

voting citizen of Mississippi.

The Freedom Summer was a turbulent period in Mississippi that brought about

important changes in communities, and focused on the empowerment of the black citizens

by focusing on education and preparing students to be involved in the Civil Rights

Movement. One such change was in the way that SNCC helped to equal the playing field

in terms of education. One of the goals for the Freedom Summer was to establish

Freedom Schools in which children could meet with the SNCC summer volunteers and

learn in a non-threatening environment. The schools in Mississippi in 1964 were some of

the worst school sin the nation, if no the worst, and the African American schools were

still worse than the white schools. Students of color were unable to attend white schools

and were forced into schools with improper materials and ill prepared teachers. The

Freedom Schools were an opportunity to work outside the establishment to better African

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American children, and the Freedom Summer workers were all trained to empower these

children through knowledge.

The Freedom Schools in which the white student volunteers worked in had many

goals, but the three main goals were to supplement the lack of learning that went on in the

classroom that students were in all year long. It was also to prepare students for their civic

duties such as voting and how to become a responsible citizen. Finally it will prepare

students for a life of activism.7 Students would learn about African American history,

something that would have never been taught to them in public schools. This was to be

taught in an effort that students would be able to understand their culture better, and be

able to claim a sense of pride in their heritage. The curriculum for the Freedom Schools

was to be modeled after a few themes they included leadership, remedial education and

finally the skills to prepare students for activism in the community. Leadership

development was a major part of the curriculum and would include many aspects of

leadership such as public speaking, learning how to keep financial records, developing

communication skills, and handling press and publicity. Remedial academic programs

were aimed at reading and writing, mathematics, American history and sociology, and

teaching the scientific method. Contemporary issues were used in teaching how to

research and look critically at current events and issues. Finally, non-academic curriculum

worked to encourage friendships between students so that networks could be made.

Additionally, students were able to experience mock voter registration, student

publications and student government.8 The Freedom Schools were carefully formulated in

7 "Adopt a Freedom School." Council of Federated Organizations, SNCC, The Student

Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972. Reel 20. 1963.8 "Adopt a Freedom School," Reel 20.

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order to create a comfortable atmosphere for the students to explore and catch up to their

privileged white peers. The Freedom Schools were a great success, SNCC papers give the

statistics that, “By July 26, 1964, there were 41 functioning Freedom Schools in twenty

communities across the state, with an enrollment of 2,135. That was twice what had been

projected for the summer.”9 The large turnout shows that the Freedom Summer was a

victory, and that the volunteers were well trained and prepared in order to teach a

successful class.

Education was vitally important to the success of the Freedom summer due to the

native Mississippians need for better education, and the draw that it had on the white

summer volunteers. The Freedom Summer’s second main goal was to register as many

African American voters in Mississippi as possible. This was a necessary goal for SNCC

because the vast majority of African Americans in Mississippi were not registered to vote,

or even unaware of the fact that they legally had the right to vote. The fifteenth

amendment in the United States constitution prohibited that any United States citizen be

denied the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” in 1870.

Yet, almost 100 years later fewer than two percent of African American citizens of the

state of Mississippi were registered to vote.10 The Freedom Vote was planned to show the

nation that black individuals did in fact desire to vote. This was important because, “Polls

at the time showed that forty percent of white southerners did not think Negroes really

wanted to vote.”11 This is a staggering statistic, and points to the great degree of racial

9 SNCC, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972 (Sanford,

NC: Microfilming Corporation of America, 1982) Reel 67, File 340, Page 1183.10 Charles M. Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: the Organizing Tradition and the

Mississippi Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 1.11 Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom, 294.

8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(classification_of_humans)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(classification_of_humans)



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segregation and subordination that consumed the state of Mississippi. African Americans

within Mississippi had many reasons not to register to vote, the most important being the

fact that many people simply were unaware of the fact that they were legally allowed to

register to vote. One Mississippi man was quoted in the SNCC newspaper The Student

Voice as saying, “I didn’t’ know colored people could vote.”12 This statement shows the

lack of opportunity and information that Mississippi’s African Americans had to vote

before the Freedom Summer.

The summer volunteers and SNCC workers were forced to overcome many

obstacles during the Freedom Vote because African Americans were kept from voting in a

variety of ways. Some were kept from voting by sheer ignorance; just as the man who

was unaware of his legally right to vote. Other citizens were kept from voting because of

violence. Southern whites would not hesitates to make arrests or even resort to violence if

they felt that the African American citizens were overstepping the segregationist norms.

The third way many African Americans were kept from voting was through legal means.

The state was not allowed to outright deny an African American citizen from voting, but

local districts and towns could enact laws, which made it more difficult to obtain

registration. One popular way was to have registration tests. These tests had the

registration candidate interpret a clause of the Mississippi state constitution. This clause

was picked by the registrar had to be interpreted to the satisfaction of the registrar.13 Not

only was this a highly subjective process but it was also unfairly difficult for African

Americans who were forced to attend subpar schools. With the lack of education, the

12 Clayborne Carson, The Student Voice 1960-1965 (Westport, Conn.: Student Nonviolent

Coordinating Committee, 1990), 153. 13 Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom, 35.

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African American applicants would often fail at the whim of the registrar, if they got to

that point at all. The entire process was stacked to promote the white dominance, and to

keep the African Americans out of politics where they were unable to create real change

by representing themselves in government.

The Freedom vote campaign seemed to be a success at first glance. On the surface

it seemed that the white student volunteers had been a great addition to the movement.

SNCC leader Ivanhoe Donaldson said, was excited about the outcome of the Freedom

Vote because he felt that for the first time, the project was able to reach the people in a

real and tangible way.14 There were 83,000 votes for the African American candidate

Aaron Henry who was a NAACP activist and was on the ballot for governor in 1964. The

number seems great, but the distribution was very uneven throughout the state meaning

that there were still areas that SNCC had yet to penetrate. There was much intimidation

and violence met by volunteers and local African Americans attempting to register.

The success of the Freedom Vote was due in part to the cooperation between

African Americans and whites during the Freedom Summer, but the integration of the

movement was not completely seamless and caused considerable conflict within SNCC.

SNCC had always had a partnership with progressive whites that believed in the Civil

Rights Movement. SNCC was created by, African American students, and run as an

African American organization. Historically, there was white participation within SNCC

but that was kept to a minimum, and only included a select few trusted whites. The few

white workers that worked within SNCC, always were aware that SNCC was an

14 John Dittmer, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (Chicago:

University of Illinois Press, 1994), 205.

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organization for the Advancement of African Americans created and run by African

Americans. The concept of the Freedom Summer’s large-scale involvement of white

students was revolutionary to SNCC for two reasons. First, there had never been a

number as large as the proposed number of volunteers for the Freedom Summer working

within SNCC at any other time. Secondly, although there was some white participation

within SNCC, the magnitude of white participation within the Freedom Summer was an

unprecedented level of white participation for SNCC. Within SNCC, not all of the

leadership agreed on the inclusion of Northern white college students into the Mississippi

Freedom Summer. The dissenting opinions were present in SNCC meetings, but in the

end, the white northern college student volunteers were invited to join the Freedom

Summer.

Bob Moses, a Harvard University graduate, was a staunch advocate for the

incorporation of white college students into the movement prior to the Freedom Summer,

he saw the potential that a greater national attention could bring to the movement, and was

wiling to bet that the answer to Zinn’s question was yes, African Americans and whites

could work together during this time. He was one who believed that the risks of bringing

in the white students outweighed the risks, and was part of the reason white volunteers

were included. He said, “is to have white people working along side of you, so then it

changes the whole complexion of what you’re doing, so it isn’t any longer Negro fighting

white, it’s a question of rational people against irrational people.”15 This quote is

important because it shows the moving away from superficial race blaming, and the

15 Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s

(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981), 99.

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looking deeper into he root of the problem, which was the way that people were taught to

believe. Bob Moses, along with many other SNCC leaders believed that it was time to

move past racial tensions between whites and African Americans if they wanted the

movement to be as successful as possible it was pertinent to avoid looking like hypocrites.

Since SNCC was fighting for the equality of African Americans to the rest of society, it

was important to give white volunteers that same level of equality.

Even though controversy followed the inclusion of white students into the

movement, the white Freedom Summer volunteers were a benefit to the Freedom Summer

in many ways. Sixty percent of the Freedom Summer’s 2,000 volunteers were white and

this meant that the new volunteers were predominantly different from the people whose

communities they were assigned to.16 The sheer influx in the number of bodies had a large

effect on the communities in which they worked, both because of race and geographic

differences. Although at first skeptical of the white volunteers, Ivanhoe Donaldson

testified to the help that the white students, especially male volunteers were able to

provide to the tired, and overworked small group of SNCC workers. He appreciated the

way that the men and women were able to provide a great deal of “legwork” which

included “legwork” the large group provided, they were bale to go out and canvass areas,

and just added a great deal of manpower.17 Not only did the white volunteers provide

labor and manpower in the Freedom Schools they also created lasting relationships with

the people of the communities that they were placed into. Some volunteers even kept into

contact with the families they met in Mississippi long after the completion of the Freedom

16 The Student Voice 1960-1965, 163.17 Dittmer, Local People, 206.

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Summer. 18 The closeness that resulted from the relationships created across the races

showed that African Americans and the white volunteers were able to learn from one

another and get to know each other in a personal and deeper manner. Both sides learned

from the other, stereotypes were broken, and there was even expressions of love, the

concept that SNCC was founded upon.

As previously argued by opponents of integrating the Freedom Summer’s

volunteers, the white volunteers did in fact garner the majority of news coverage, and this

posed a problem for the leadership of SNCC who had worried that this would happen. As

feared by some of the SNCC leadership, much of the media attention that the Freedom

Summer gained nationally was often filled with information on the white volunteers.

Much of the work being done in Mississippi was overshadowed and belittled by the press.

It was said within SNCC that the white students from Stanford and Yale were the reason

behind the vast news coverage. They were not getting publicity for what the movement

has done, but rather the strange partnership that was created between blacks and whites.

Emphasis was taken from the political goals. Articles that were supposed to be about the

events of the Freedom Summer including the elections would end up having a majority of

the article focused upon the white volunteers. One such article that attempted to shed light

on the violence that the white opponents of the Freedom Summer were causing spent a

great deal of its time discussing the white worker’s blonde hair and graduate studies at

Yale University.19 It was disheartening for the SNCC leadership to see much of the

positive publicity of the Freedom Summer directed towards the white volunteers

18 Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom, 307.19 Dittmer, The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, 207.

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overshadowing all of the important work being done. However, without the presence of

the white volunteers, the Freedom Summer would have attracted much less attention and

therefore would not have been as successful. The problem of the white workers gaining

the majority of publicity was a necessary evil that, although discouraging, brought

national attention to Mississippi in the summer of 1964.

The second school of thought was a way that the role of white volunteers could be

limited within SNCC and the Freedom Summer, therefore relieving some of the problems

being created by the inclusion of the white college students. There were many reasons

present for the limitation of the role or white workers. Arguably, the most important

argument was one of safety. The impact of a large-scale inclusion of white volunteers was

likely to lead to a greater degree of violence brought onto SNCC. Many of the black

SNCC project leaders had been working in Mississippi since 1961 and did not want their

efforts to have been in vain if heavy violence were to ensue. It was thought that the influx

of white workers could create an escalation of violence towards those workers, the already

established black project leaders, and just to the communities in general. SNCC, who had

already been subject to great amounts of violence, did not want to add to the brutality that

there were experiencing at the hands of the southern whites. The SNCC newspaper The

Student Voice that was published every Monday included a section called “Mississippi

Harassment” that listed harassment violence and threats all committed in Mississippi,

mostly upon African American SNCC workers. Some of the weeks the harassment cases

took up an entire page or even went onto the second page of the newspaper. There

included a diverse list of grievances which included, “The Hold Ghost church outside

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Clinton was set on fire,” “Cars driven by whites circled the Negro community, throwing

bottles at cars and homes,” and even, “A Negro man was hit twice in the head while

following a car driven by two white men who had fired into a Negro Café.” 20 These were

listed among a group of twenty-five reported cases of harassment, which range from

verbal harassment and threats to arson and even physical attacks. The latter was a common

occurrence experienced by SNCC workers, and also the Freedom Summer volunteers.

According to the Student Voice Newspaper put out by SNCC, “the first group, numbering

223 arrived in Mississippi on June 21. Three are missing already, and are presumed to

have met foul play”,21 and this article was published five days later on June 30, 1964. This

shows the legitimacy of the concerns voiced by some SNCC leaders that there would be

serious if not escalated violence towards white volunteers.

Skepticism regarding white participation in the Freedom Summer was felt by some

of the SNCC leadership, and came form the past experiences of some of the SNCC

workers who were often divided on the role that white should play within SNCC. Some of

the African American workers felt that white workers had come in and at times taken over

leadership. SNCC was founded on, among others, the principal that the organization was

for the advancement of African Americans by African Americans. Before the Freedom

Summer, white participation was present, but it was not a dominating force. A white

woman who was involved with SNCC named Casey Hayden spoke on white involvement

within SNCC. She understood the importance of SNCC remaining an African American

run organization. Belinda Robnett who compiled her book How long? How long?:

20 The Student Voice 1960-1965, 163.21 The Student Voice 1960-1965, 164.

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African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights which was an account about the

Civil Rights Movement discussed the racial and gendered complications within SNCC

during the Freedom Summer. She argued that the white SNCC workers, and the white

college student volunteers were not one and the same. This argument by Robnett is

important. She felt that it was important to distinguish between the seasoned white SNCC

workers who had been submerged in the movement and the well-off white college

students that went through minimal training and who were from a completely different

background. Being form a privileged state they could have a sense of entitlement or be

inclined to expect a leadership position. The former SNCC worker Casey Hayden was a

white woman who worked with SNCC prior to the Freedom Summer. Casey Hayden

discussed the mentality of women workers before 1963 when she said, “The White

women who came to SNCC prior to 1963 tended to respect the position of SNCC as a

Black organization in which they, as well a White males, could provide support as

mainstream bridge leaders”.22

In other words, the original white women understood the

power dynamics of SNCC, and were culturally conscience and sensitive to the movement.

This finding by Casey Hayden is correct in that the position of whites was to be in more of

a back role within SNCC. African Americans had risked so much and invested

themselves so fully into SNCC, that many ff the members did not want to loose the

identity that they had created. Through their efforts, they were able to prove that African

American leadership could be very successful and make a significant impression.

SNCC was historically Black, and therefore mass white inclusion was a strict

22 Belinda Robnett, How long? How long?: African-American Women in the Struggle for

Civil Rights, (New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1997), 118.

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diversion from the history of the organization. The organization was formed and operated

by African Americans from the very beginning. Ivanhoe Donaldson who was a prominent

SNCC worker was proud of that fact and said that It feels good to see Negros running

SNCC and the movement.23 Through her involvement with SNCC, Hayden was able to

understand the importance that African Americans felt that by their taking ownership of

the organization, they were really able to take ownership and have a stake in the

movement. She said, “this was really the coming to the fore of Black men-young Black

men….Black women had always been strong in the local community … Now men could

come forth….It was a rising up of the Black men.”24 This quote introduces another

element of gender stigma, but more importantly it also shows the importance that she

assigns to the involvement of the African American men in the SNCC organization. The

predominance of leadership positions held by African Americans within SNCC was a new

concept. African Americans were suddenly playing a role that they had previously not had

the privilege of holding. Jeanette King, a white woman who volunteered with SNCC

during the freedom summer always was acutely aware of many tensions within SNCC.

She was a delegate for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the

1964 Democratic National Convention. Not only did she feel like an outsider as a white

individual, but also as a woman. Ms. King briefly addressed the mixed sentiments felt by

some SNCC workers when the northern white college students were brought into

Mississippi to work on the movement in 1964. She also stated that some were worried that

the large population of white volunteers would take over the authority of the suddenly

23 Dittmer, John. Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi. Chicago:

University of Illinois Press, 1994. Pg, 209.24 Robnett, How long? How long, 118.

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outnumbered black leadership. King said, “I could identify with black staffers who did

not want to be submerged by white volunteers swarming into the state to ‘save the

situation,’ even though I often felt insulted by the condescension directed at me by certain

male movement heavies”.25 She said that she was torn about the debate, and it made her

reflect upon herself. Often being the only white woman fighting “for black people” made

her very aware. She said, “ This position had always made me feel like an outsider taking

on someone else’s burden”.26 Although she believed in the movement and was willing to

fight for Civil Rights, King understood that SNCC had a strong African American identity

that was of the utmost importance to its members.

In the end, SNCC came to the conclusion that the answer to Zinns’s question was,

not yet could African Americans and whites work together. The risks of involving the

large-scale inclusion of white volunteers outweighed the benefits. Despite the gains

achieved with the participation of the Northern white volunteers whites were limited in

their role through the rest of SNCC’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.

Prominent SNCC worker Bob Zellner was among the first members of SNCC leadership,

and also happened to be white. After years of hard work alongside SNCC’s African

American leaders, enduring jail time and physical beatings in the name of the SNCC he

too was expelled from the organization in 1967.27 In the end SNCC’s desire to stay

strictly an African American organization won out, and continued on that way throughout

the rest of the Civil Rights Movement. Although the Freedom Summer ‘s experimentation

25 Faith Holsaert and others, Hands on the Freedom Plow, (Chicago: University of

Illinois Press, 2010), 228.26 Holsaert, Hands on the Freedom Plow, 228.27 Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom, 384.

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with large-scale white involvement had its positive aspects, the risks and negative aspects

of integration within SNCC caused the organization to move forwards as a purely African

American group.

The Freedom Summer remains to this day one of most complicated racial

interactions in the history of the United States. At a time when the South, especially

Mississippi was severely divided racially, SNCC worked to eliminate the division and

create one equal society. The inclusion of the white Northern college students into the

Freedom Summer proved to be a very contentious decision by the leadership within

SCNN. The risk taken by SNCC created a divide within the organization, and was the

cause of much debate. White students garnered much media attention, and at times had a

difficult time understanding their place both within SNCC and within the Mississippi

communities that were so vastly different from where they came from. Despite all of this,

the Mississippi Freedom Summer could safely be called a success, by teaching thousands

of children in the Freedom Schools and registering thousands of African Americans voters

in the state of Mississippi.

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Bibliography

"Adopt a Freedom School." Council of Federated Organizations, SNCC, The Student

Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972. Reel 20. 1963.

Carson, Clayborne. In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s.

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.

Dittmer, John. Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi. Chicago:

University of Illinois Press, 1994.

Holsaert, Faith S., Martha P. Noonan, Judy Richardson, Betty G. Robinson, and Jean S.

Young. Hands on the Freedom Plow. Chicago: University of Illinois Press,

2010.

Payne, Charles M. I've Got the Light of Freedom: the Organizing Tradition and the

Mississippi Freedom Struggle. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

Robnett, Belinda. How long? How long?: African-American Women in the Struggle for

Civil Rights. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1997.

SNCC, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972 (Sanford,

NC: Microfilming Corporation of America, 1982) Reel 67, File 340, Page 1183

Statement of Purpose. Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, 1960.

The Student Voice 1960-1965: Periodical of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating

Committee, Clayborne Carson, Westport, Conn.: Student Nonviolent Coordinating

Committee, 1990.

Zinn, Howard. "Finishing School for the Pickets." The Nation (1960)

Zinn, Howard. SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Boston: Beacon Press, 1964.

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Erickson

Corrections

After my final draft I had a chance to revise my paper, and really focus on making

is cohesive. Most importantly I revised my thesis so that it would encompass every aspect

of my paper, and as a result added to many body paragraphs so that its relation to my

thesis was as clear as possible. I tried to better connect my topic sentences with my thesis,

and keep my entire paper as relative to my thesis as possible. I also revised a number of

topic sentences to make them more specific. I took your suggestion, and used the Zinn

quote to help me frame my paper. I hope it worked out well, I really liked that suggestion.

I also changed some typos and some of the wording that could be seen as confusing. I also

moved my thesis in my intro paragraph per your suggestion, and added some words to

help it flow better.

Thank you for all of your help, your suggestions really helped me take this paper

to the next level, and I am really happy with it now. I hope you like it!

21



Erickson

Abstract

In 1964 the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized the

Freedom Summer in Mississippi. The goals of the Freedom Summer were to provide

adequate education to the children of Mississippi, and to register as many African

Americans as possible to vote. There were a large number of volunteers who came to aidin the Freedom Summer with sixty percent of them being white Northern college students.

Initially the question to include white student volunteers in the Freedom Summer was a

topic of dissent within the leadership of SNCC, however it was decided that the 2,000

volunteers would work in Mississippi during July and August of the Freedom Schools and

the Freedom Vote campaigns of 1964. I wish to show that the incorporation of white

college students, a controversial decision within SNCC, helped the movement to garner a

greater degree of national attention with the work on the Freedom Vote and the Freedom

Schools, however it was a divisive element of the movement, which was not always

beneficial to the community nor the Civil Rights Movement as a whole.

hist 498-sncc freedom summer

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