The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: The Civil Rights Movement

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Recommended: Racial segregation in the US in the 1960s

The Civil Rights struggles in the 1960s raged far before and far after the issue was brought to public eye. The segregation of African Americans kept the races separated be it at school, the supermarket, or even a simple water fountain. A few brave men and women of the day banded together in the hopes of a future that is truly equal among all, regardless of skin color. One of these brave men was Cleveland Sellers, born in 1944, who became a leader and motivator for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He lived through the life and death of SNCC, the popularization of Black Power, and other major events that shaped civil rights. His struggle allows historians today to see the real, down and dirty life of a black militant in …show more content…

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee evolved from an idea to a powerful network of likeminded individuals. The idea started after the sit-in at Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina; four students from A & T protested segregation by sitting at a ‘white only’ lunch counter. This inspired 15-year-old Cleveland Seller to help organize a similar event in his hometown of Denmark, South Carolina. This was the idea that started the SNCC in later years. Similar protests were organized over the coming years but students lacked the communication to coordinate until Ella Baker, who worked for Martin Luther King Jr., set up a rally on her old college campus one spring break, “over three hundred students attended the conference. Two hundred more than we expected (Seller & Terrell, 1990)” The sporadic movements came together to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, of which Cleveland Seller began working for in his summer of 1964. This organization evolved into a coordinating committee to a full-on grassroots organization. Although they mostly worked on lunch-counter movements they

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