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In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s
With its radical ideology and effective tactics, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was the cutting edge of the civil rights movement during the 1960s. This sympathetic yet evenhanded book records for the first time the complete story of SNCC’s evolution, of its successes and its difficulties in the ongoing struggle to end white oppression.
At its birth, SNCC was composed of black college students who shared an ideology of moral radicalism. This ideology, with its emphasis on nonviolence, challenged Southern segregation. SNCC students were the earliest civil rights fighters of the Second Reconstruction. They conducted sit-ins at lunch counters, spearheaded the freedom rides, and organized voter registration, which shook white complacency and awakened black political consciousness. In the process, Clayborne Carson shows, SNCC changed from a group that endorsed white middle-class values to one that questioned the basic assumptions of liberal ideology and raised the fist for black power. Indeed, SNCC’s radical and penetrating analysis of the American power structure reached beyond the black community to help spark wider social protests of the 1960s, such as the anti–Vietnam War movement.
Carson’s history of SNCC goes behind the scene to determine why the group’s ideological evolution was accompanied by bitter power struggles within the organization. Using interviews, transcripts of meetings, unpublished position papers, and recently released FBI documents, he reveals how a radical group is subject to enormous, often divisive pressures as it fights the difficult battle for social change.
At its birth, SNCC was composed of black college students who shared an ideology of moral radicalism. This ideology, with its emphasis on nonviolence, challenged Southern segregation. SNCC students were the earliest civil rights fighters of the Second Reconstruction. They conducted sit-ins at lunch counters, spearheaded the freedom rides, and organized voter registration, which shook white complacency and awakened black political consciousness. In the process, Clayborne Carson shows, SNCC changed from a group that endorsed white middle-class values to one that questioned the basic assumptions of liberal ideology and raised the fist for black power. Indeed, SNCC’s radical and penetrating analysis of the American power structure reached beyond the black community to help spark wider social protests of the 1960s, such as the anti–Vietnam War movement.
Carson’s history of SNCC goes behind the scene to determine why the group’s ideological evolution was accompanied by bitter power struggles within the organization. Using interviews, transcripts of meetings, unpublished position papers, and recently released FBI documents, he reveals how a radical group is subject to enormous, often divisive pressures as it fights the difficult battle for social change.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
About the author
Clayborne Carson
91 books45 followersClayborne Carson is professor of history at Stanford University, and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. Since 1985 he has directed the Martin Luther King Papers Project, a long-term project to edit and publish the papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 29, 2009
Very thorough, but consequently a bit dry. Carson presents the story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee as a case study in the history of the civil rights movement and the New Left as a whole. He argues that SNCC was never a stable organization, and that its internal divisions were mirrored in the rest of the movement.
Carson identifies three stages of development for SNCC. In the first, lasting from 1960 to 1964, a largely religious and communitarian ethic of nonviolence gradually gave way to secular militancy. SNCC had been organized in order to coordinate student resistance efforts that had already begun spontaneously in southern black communities, but it developed a cadre of experienced workers with a national perspective. In the next stage, from 1964 to 1966, SNCC workers expressed uncertainty over what direction the movement should take, and militants and moderates competed for power. In the third stage, which began in 1966, the black power activists (most notably Stokely Carmichael) who won SNCC’s leadership contests tried but ultimately failed to consolidate a black national and international revolutionary consciousness.
After December 1966, when SNCC expelled its white members, the organization rapidly lost support from white liberals even as the federal government, determined to eradicate black militancy, stepped up its harassment campaign. An attempt to unite SNCC with the Black Panther Party failed in the spring of 1968 due to strategic and organizational differences as well as due to FBI agitation. After 1968, SNCC quickly withered. Its demise, Carson concludes, was caused not only by outside pressure but also by the organization's "losing touch with its roots in the deep South" and replacing "community organizers" with "propagandists and ideologues." However, he also notes that SNCC's influence lingers both in the South and in the many other liberation movements that learned from its example.
Carson identifies three stages of development for SNCC. In the first, lasting from 1960 to 1964, a largely religious and communitarian ethic of nonviolence gradually gave way to secular militancy. SNCC had been organized in order to coordinate student resistance efforts that had already begun spontaneously in southern black communities, but it developed a cadre of experienced workers with a national perspective. In the next stage, from 1964 to 1966, SNCC workers expressed uncertainty over what direction the movement should take, and militants and moderates competed for power. In the third stage, which began in 1966, the black power activists (most notably Stokely Carmichael) who won SNCC’s leadership contests tried but ultimately failed to consolidate a black national and international revolutionary consciousness.
After December 1966, when SNCC expelled its white members, the organization rapidly lost support from white liberals even as the federal government, determined to eradicate black militancy, stepped up its harassment campaign. An attempt to unite SNCC with the Black Panther Party failed in the spring of 1968 due to strategic and organizational differences as well as due to FBI agitation. After 1968, SNCC quickly withered. Its demise, Carson concludes, was caused not only by outside pressure but also by the organization's "losing touch with its roots in the deep South" and replacing "community organizers" with "propagandists and ideologues." However, he also notes that SNCC's influence lingers both in the South and in the many other liberation movements that learned from its example.
May 27, 2014
An interesting history of the Civil Rights movement and the SNCC's role in it. The difficulty I had in reading it was that there seemed to be a new organization being formed constantly and they all had acronyms. There were a number of times I had to look back to determine which organization he was referring to.
September 10, 2011
Vibrant study; I'm delighted it's been reissued!
April 22, 2020
Professor Carson has given the definitive account of the Southern Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and its tortured journey; fought not only by enemies without but racked by domestic cannibalism. “Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.” Created during the sit-in movement, galvanized by the Freedom Rides, SNCC took on a life of its own as it organized communities for voter registration and political action. In this it was parallel to the “going to the people movement” of young Russian radicals a hundred years before, seeing themselves as the “vanguard” of the (hopefully non-violent) peoples’ revolution.
Only such was not to be the case. As a mugging changes a liberal into a reactionary, so too does a cop’s baton change color-blind pacifist into racial militant. This, and the frustration with America’s pious promises but practical indifference, alongside the political games of the Establishment, split the movement between those committed to universalism and inclusion and “Black Power” separatism. Once it took a radical course the movement had more to worry about than racist sheriffs and county lockups. J. Edgar’s FBI and the CIA entered the picture; a natural extension of the system dropping its mask, militants would say.
Thus there was more to the civil rights era than M. L. King and his marches and speeches, though one would never know this as other actors have been airbrushed out of official historiography. Such is the fate of those who upset the apple cart without taking the fruit. While SNCC never took the masses with them, as Carson recounts, they did leave a lasting legacy to the chagrin of elites and liberals. First the Black Panthers, then the Nation of Islam, absorbed their spinout leadership. These groups have left a more lasting memory of the radical era, but they were the beneficiaries of SNCC and would not have grown otherwise.
A story of confrontations, “death moments,” great courage, and self-destructive rage, this is a vital portrait of an age. Fortunately there were enough survivors at the time of writing who could still vividly recollect its spirit and their own. Like Reconstruction, the residual anger left many leery of renewing its path. But what comes around once usually recurs. There will be new SNCCs as oligarchy and power continue their heavy tread upon freedom and human rights.
Only such was not to be the case. As a mugging changes a liberal into a reactionary, so too does a cop’s baton change color-blind pacifist into racial militant. This, and the frustration with America’s pious promises but practical indifference, alongside the political games of the Establishment, split the movement between those committed to universalism and inclusion and “Black Power” separatism. Once it took a radical course the movement had more to worry about than racist sheriffs and county lockups. J. Edgar’s FBI and the CIA entered the picture; a natural extension of the system dropping its mask, militants would say.
Thus there was more to the civil rights era than M. L. King and his marches and speeches, though one would never know this as other actors have been airbrushed out of official historiography. Such is the fate of those who upset the apple cart without taking the fruit. While SNCC never took the masses with them, as Carson recounts, they did leave a lasting legacy to the chagrin of elites and liberals. First the Black Panthers, then the Nation of Islam, absorbed their spinout leadership. These groups have left a more lasting memory of the radical era, but they were the beneficiaries of SNCC and would not have grown otherwise.
A story of confrontations, “death moments,” great courage, and self-destructive rage, this is a vital portrait of an age. Fortunately there were enough survivors at the time of writing who could still vividly recollect its spirit and their own. Like Reconstruction, the residual anger left many leery of renewing its path. But what comes around once usually recurs. There will be new SNCCs as oligarchy and power continue their heavy tread upon freedom and human rights.
June 23, 2013
This book is a history of the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) a student run Civil Rights activist group which emerged during the lunch counter sit-ins of the 1960's. SNCC was also a key player in the Freedom Rides (1961), the Voting Rights movements in Mississippi, the Albany (GA) desegregation effort, the March on Washington, and the March from Selma to Montgomery. Basically all of the key players - John Lewis, Diane Nash, James Bevel, James Foreman, Stokely Carmichael - were under 25 when they formed the most dynamic organization of the Civil Rights era. This book chronicles their history from its beginnings in Nashville, thru the Voting Rights Era thru its movement into black separatism and radicalism to its demise in the early 1970's. As a history Carson gives a clear and comprehensive view of the key figures, the organizational dynamics and the hostile social, cultural and political context in which SNCC operates. He does so with a critical by sympathetic tone. The book is also an excellent study of social movement organizations, the stages of development they go through, the successes and pitfalls they face, as well as the inevitable pressures for status quo institutions and counter-movements. The book is well written and well documented for further study. For anyone wanting to go deeper into the inside story of the Civil Rights movement, this book is a great place to start.
October 2, 2011
Very good book on Civil Rights...thorough and detailed record of the development, progress, accomplishments and struggle of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. The fact that students came together to work for change in their community and in the US is amazing. Their struggle and strength were amazing. This author was close to the committee and issues to experience this first and but also researched and used many sources to write this book objectively, sharing the positive and negative sides of their progress and journey. At tea the details were interesting and at times fairly dry but important to the accurate recording of the events.
May 13, 2020
I have been reading about SNCC in a bunch of other books, but this is the one to start with, because it gives a framework to hang all the other stories on. Also, Carson follows SNCC's remains into the 1970s into some (for me) unfamiliar territory after their flirtation with the Oakland Black Panthers. The more I read about SNCC, the more fascinated I become.
There were a lot of internal disagreements in post-1966 SNCC that we unfortunately keep repeating in all kinds of organizations, not just the political ones, so if you find yourself frustrated in some pointless ideological battle, there might be some lessons in here.
There were a lot of internal disagreements in post-1966 SNCC that we unfortunately keep repeating in all kinds of organizations, not just the political ones, so if you find yourself frustrated in some pointless ideological battle, there might be some lessons in here.
November 12, 2008
Really interesting history of SNCC. I think it was the first written history of SNCC that did not put MLK at the center of it, which is important. I found it helpful to learn a little bit more about how the organization was started, functioned, and what eventually caused it to crumble.
December 21, 2008
This is a great read on the civil rights movement and how those events affects attempts to organize ever since. This is one of my favorite books of all time.
October 29, 2019
AWESOME BOOK A MUST ?
December 14, 2008
Still the most definitive book on the student Civil Rights movement.
November 7, 2010
OK, not a gripping read, but infinitely fascinating nonetheless.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews