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Friends of Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) clippings, 1965-1966

1965-03-23 SNCC Hunger Strike details

March 23, 1965
Dear Faculty Member,
Five students, members of the University of Iowa Friends of SNCC (STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE), have participated in a hunger strike since Wed., March 17. Until Sunday they subsisted on fruit juice and coffee and since then have taken only water. They have chosen this extraordinary course of action to bring vividly to our attention the constant suffering of many Negroes in the South through economic discrimination and the denial of basic civil rights. They hope that their actions, here, now, visible to us, will redouble our concern for the cause of civil rights for all Americans.
One of their aims is to point out the need for money to carry on the work of SNCC in the "Black Belt" of Alabama where Selma is located. They hope that five thousand dollars will be contributed for this purpose. SNCC is an organization of students, most of whom are Southern Negroes who work in Southern communities, primarily on voter registration projects. Staff members work for subsistence wages (ten dollars a week - when available). SNCC has been working in Selma since 1962, and its workers and local Negro citizens have faced daily harrassment and frequent terror. The recent events there are only the latest and most publicized.
The students feel that the proposed federal voting legislation, while a substantial step toward the goal of full equality, is not a panacea. Even after its passage the problems of timidity and fear among Southern Negroes and of subterfuge and evasion by state governments will not disappear. There is much work to be done in utiizing new laws and in organizing Negro citizens to register to vote. In the past, the bulk of this work has been done by students, especially by SNCC. This will continue to be so in the future. The work deserves to be supported.
We faculty members, who lament the absence of imagination in our students and who criticize their lack of idealism, have been bluntly confronted by five students who refuse nourishment in order to bring these needs to our attention. We, the signers, are "too busy" to conduct an ordinary campaign for funds by personally approaching individual colleagues. (Some of us also harbor doubts about whether the things we are "too busy" doing are as important as the things our students are doing.) We are using this letter to urge you to contribute to the Selma Freedom Fund, Box 133, Iowa City. This money will be used by SNCC to continue to sponsor workers in the Selma area. This continued effort will help to make the proposed federal voting legislation a success.
George Bedell, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine
Richard Braddock, Associate Professor, Rhetoric
Michael Brody, Associate Professor, Pharmacology
Friedrich P. Diecke, Professor, Physiology
Roland K. Hawkes, Instructor, Sociology
George C. Hoyt, Associate Professor, Business Administration
Eugene Spaziani, Associate Professor, Zoology
Alan Spitzer, Professor, History

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March 23, 1965 Dear Faculty Member, Five students, members of the University of Iowa Friends of SNCC (STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE), have participated in a hunger strike since Wed., March 17. Until Sunday they subsisted on fruit juice and coffee and since then have taken only water. They have chosen this extraordinary course of action to bring vividly to our attention the constant suffering of many Negroes in the South through economic discrimination and the denial of basic civil rights. They hope that their actions, here, now, visible to us, will redouble our concern for the cause of civil rights for all Americans. One of their aims is to point out the need for money to carry on the work of SNCC in the "Black Belt" of Alabama where Selma is located. They hope that five thousand dollars will be contributed for this purpose. SNCC is an organization of students, most of whom are Southern Negroes who work in Southern communities, primarily on voter registration projects. Staff members work for subsistence wages (ten dollars a week - when available). SNCC has been working in Selma since 1962, and its workers and local Negro citizens have faced daily harrassment and frequent terror. The recent events there are only the latest and most publicized. The students feel that the proposed federal voting legislation, while a substantial step toward the goal of full equality, is not a panacea. Even after its passage the problems of timidity and fear among Southern Negroes and of subterfuge and evasion by state governments will not disappear. There is much work to be done in utiizing new laws and in organizing Negro citizens to register to vote. In the past, the bulk of this work has been done by students, especially by SNCC. This will continue to be so in the future. The work deserves to be supported. We faculty members, who lament the absence of imagination in our students and who criticize their lack of idealism, have been bluntly confronted by five students who refuse nourishment in order to bring these needs to our attention. We, the signers, are "too busy" to conduct an ordinary campaign for funds by personally approaching individual colleagues. (Some of us also harbor doubts about whether the things we are "too busy" doing are as important as the things our students are doing.) We are using this letter to urge you to contribute to the Selma Freedom Fund, Box 133, Iowa City. This money will be used by SNCC to continue to sponsor workers in the Selma area. This continued effort will help to make the proposed federal voting legislation a success. George Bedell, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine Richard Braddock, Associate Professor, Rhetoric Michael Brody, Associate Professor, Pharmacology Friedrich P. Diecke, Professor, Physiology Roland K. Hawkes, Instructor, Sociology George C. Hoyt, Associate Professor, Business Administration Eugene Spaziani, Associate Professor, Zoology Alan Spitzer, Professor, History