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

1965-03-15 "NOW! Friends of SNCC Newsletter" Page 1

NOW!  Monday, March 15/SNCC Newsletter—NOW!

Why SNCC
Part II
Ed Spannaus
When the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee shifted its emphasis from desegregation—the sit-ins and Freedom Rides—to voter registration, it made a very crucial—and very radical—decision. At this point, SNCC moved from the urban centers of the South into the rural, hard-core areas of the Deep South and began to strike at the roots of poiltical and economic power in the South. When SNCC began organizing the oppressed and disinherited Negroes in the rural South, it thus changed from an "integrationist" movement to an essentially revolutionary movement.
For in the context of the Deep South, desegregation is rather meaningless accompanied by the most profound and fundamental changes in the social order itself. It is necesary to demand a share in the society's controlling force, so that the people can participate in the shaping of their political and economic destinies.
So when SNCC changed it's focus in 1961, it began to confront the feudal order of much of the South, it confronted the fact that one-half of the Negro families in Mississippi had an income of less than $1000 per year. It cofronted the totalitarian nature of the legal and political system of much of the South, especialy Mississippi.
For the young revolutionaries of SNCC, this sprang from a renunciation of the fraud and glitter and indifference of middle-class life, and resulted in a challenge to the smug value-system of contemporary middle-class America. Nurturing a vision of justice and brotherhood of revolution beyond race, they moved into the hearts and homes of this society's disinherited outcasts, the rural Southern Negroes.
SNCC field workers move into the long dormant areas of the South, and rouse the people from quiesence to revolt. Living on the same level as the people, SNCC works to train and develop local indigenous leadership, which will carry on the struggle. Its emphasis is two-fold: voter registration and education. The latter is achieved through citizenship classes and Freedom Schools, which serve to make people aware of the political process, and to bring out critical-thinking participants in the Freedom struggle. 
Voting is felt to be the prerequisite for any meaningful changes in the South, this is sought by direct action voter registration drives as well as by litigation. Recognizing this as a very real threat to the existing order, the power structure and their uniformed hirings have reponded with every conceivable form of resistance, including murder.
In Mississippi, resistance to Negro voting has been so massive that it has become necessary to create an outside source of power—the Freedom Democratic Party—as  parallel structure to the regular party. Speaking of liberal organizations that seek to get cooperation and compliance through existing channels, COFO's director Bob Moses has said.
"You try to join, to cooperate, and then you get rebuffed. They make it a condition that you disband your own organization. You must have your own organization that is so strong that you move from your own strength."
The FDP not only serves to creatively keep pressure on the State of Mississippi and the federal government, but is also an invaluable means of political education. Its participants are involved in political action for the first time in ther lives, and in the challenges at Atlantic City and in Congress they are getting a unique look at the realities of political power in this country.
When John Lewis spoke at the March on Washington, many liberals were shocked by his attacks on the federal government for its inaction in the South. For although the Kennedy-Johnson administration may have appeared to some as the champion of civil rights, to the SNCC workers on the front lines of the struggle, the federal government has often appeared to be in complicity with the other side. Being the victims of unspeakable police brutality, violence, and murder, workers in the Movement have learned that the federal government only takes actions to enforce the laws when massive pressure is brought to bear upon it, such as resulted from the murders of the three workers last summer.
If nonviolent tactics are to succeed in Mississippi and the Deep South, federal intervention is necessary. For it is obvious that fundamental changes cannot come solely from within; witness Selma, Alabama, where SNCC has been working for three years, and Marion, Alabama, where a Negro worker, Jimmy Jackson, was murdered recently by a local policeman.
In Mississippi, the basic focus of SNCC's program is an eventual redistribution of the power now held by the oligarchy of racist politicians, large landowners, bankers, and professional segregationists. To bring this about, the hope is to develop the Freedom Democratic Party into a populist-style party. Thus the Mississippi Project includes attempts to organize poor whites and small farmers. 
As John Lewis intended to say at the March on Washington:
We all recognize the fact that if any radical social, political, and economic changes are to take place in our society, the people, the masses, must bring them about. In the struggle we must seek more than mere civil rights; we must work for the community of love, peace, and brotherhood. Our minds, souls, and hearts cannot rest until freedom and justice exist for all the people.

In Memorial
If a snake has your cornered, the only way to save yourself is to kill it . . . Who ever heard of singing or praying a revolution?
The snake that Malcolm X spoke of was the American society. A society that has the Negro cornered and needs to keep him cornered  The time is rapidly coming however, when the Negro will strike out and be freed. While Malcolm X was the leader of only a few hundred dedicated followers, he in actuality spoke the hidden feelings of most Negroes. When he died the movement lost a leader and the Negro lost a voice. And we are grieved.

The Nigger, The Negro
and The Movement
Part II
Seymour Gray
If the movement does not come from the bottom then there is no movement. To date the movement has been a remarkable flop among the bottom, among those that it most desperately needs to help. The nigger (the slum Negro) sees the movement as another attempt at begging for something he's not going to get. At least he feels he's not gong to get it by begging and so, the popularity of the black nationalist groups and the Muslims. Having nothing to lose he can be more realistic and honest about the situation than can most middle class Negroes who have been taught to talk softly but not how to carry and most definately not how to use a big stick. The argument of passive vs. violent resistance is an ideological crisis quite like that of peaceful coexistence vs. armed aggression. It is a matter of whether or not the Negro can change the class structure of the U.S. through petition and reason or will he have to make white people afraid of him before his demands are met. So far too much of the energy of the movement has been taken up in attempts at persuasion rather than power. "Freedom Now" (a slogan that originated somewhere in the

an old Negro
picking bottles
my clock ticking
—seymour gray

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NOW! Monday, March 15/SNCC Newsletter—NOW! Why SNCC Part II Ed Spannaus When the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee shifted its emphasis from desegregation—the sit-ins and Freedom Rides—to voter registration, it made a very crucial—and very radical—decision. At this point, SNCC moved from the urban centers of the South into the rural, hard-core areas of the Deep South and began to strike at the roots of poiltical and economic power in the South. When SNCC began organizing the oppressed and disinherited Negroes in the rural South, it thus changed from an "integrationist" movement to an essentially revolutionary movement. For in the context of the Deep South, desegregation is rather meaningless accompanied by the most profound and fundamental changes in the social order itself. It is necesary to demand a share in the society's controlling force, so that the people can participate in the shaping of their political and economic destinies. So when SNCC changed it's focus in 1961, it began to confront the feudal order of much of the South, it confronted the fact that one-half of the Negro families in Mississippi had an income of less than $1000 per year. It cofronted the totalitarian nature of the legal and political system of much of the South, especialy Mississippi. For the young revolutionaries of SNCC, this sprang from a renunciation of the fraud and glitter and indifference of middle-class life, and resulted in a challenge to the smug value-system of contemporary middle-class America. Nurturing a vision of justice and brotherhood of revolution beyond race, they moved into the hearts and homes of this society's disinherited outcasts, the rural Southern Negroes. SNCC field workers move into the long dormant areas of the South, and rouse the people from quiesence to revolt. Living on the same level as the people, SNCC works to train and develop local indigenous leadership, which will carry on the struggle. Its emphasis is two-fold: voter registration and education. The latter is achieved through citizenship classes and Freedom Schools, which serve to make people aware of the political process, and to bring out critical-thinking participants in the Freedom struggle. Voting is felt to be the prerequisite for any meaningful changes in the South, this is sought by direct action voter registration drives as well as by litigation. Recognizing this as a very real threat to the existing order, the power structure and their uniformed hirings have reponded with every conceivable form of resistance, including murder. In Mississippi, resistance to Negro voting has been so massive that it has become necessary to create an outside source of power—the Freedom Democratic Party—as parallel structure to the regular party. Speaking of liberal organizations that seek to get cooperation and compliance through existing channels, COFO's director Bob Moses has said. "You try to join, to cooperate, and then you get rebuffed. They make it a condition that you disband your own organization. You must have your own organization that is so strong that you move from your own strength." The FDP not only serves to creatively keep pressure on the State of Mississippi and the federal government, but is also an invaluable means of political education. Its participants are involved in political action for the first time in ther lives, and in the challenges at Atlantic City and in Congress they are getting a unique look at the realities of political power in this country. When John Lewis spoke at the March on Washington, many liberals were shocked by his attacks on the federal government for its inaction in the South. For although the Kennedy-Johnson administration may have appeared to some as the champion of civil rights, to the SNCC workers on the front lines of the struggle, the federal government has often appeared to be in complicity with the other side. Being the victims of unspeakable police brutality, violence, and murder, workers in the Movement have learned that the federal government only takes actions to enforce the laws when massive pressure is brought to bear upon it, such as resulted from the murders of the three workers last summer. If nonviolent tactics are to succeed in Mississippi and the Deep South, federal intervention is necessary. For it is obvious that fundamental changes cannot come solely from within; witness Selma, Alabama, where SNCC has been working for three years, and Marion, Alabama, where a Negro worker, Jimmy Jackson, was murdered recently by a local policeman. In Mississippi, the basic focus of SNCC's program is an eventual redistribution of the power now held by the oligarchy of racist politicians, large landowners, bankers, and professional segregationists. To bring this about, the hope is to develop the Freedom Democratic Party into a populist-style party. Thus the Mississippi Project includes attempts to organize poor whites and small farmers. As John Lewis intended to say at the March on Washington: We all recognize the fact that if any radical social, political, and economic changes are to take place in our society, the people, the masses, must bring them about. In the struggle we must seek more than mere civil rights; we must work for the community of love, peace, and brotherhood. Our minds, souls, and hearts cannot rest until freedom and justice exist for all the people. In Memorial If a snake has your cornered, the only way to save yourself is to kill it . . . Who ever heard of singing or praying a revolution? The snake that Malcolm X spoke of was the American society. A society that has the Negro cornered and needs to keep him cornered The time is rapidly coming however, when the Negro will strike out and be freed. While Malcolm X was the leader of only a few hundred dedicated followers, he in actuality spoke the hidden feelings of most Negroes. When he died the movement lost a leader and the Negro lost a voice. And we are grieved. The Nigger, The Negro and The Movement Part II Seymour Gray If the movement does not come from the bottom then there is no movement. To date the movement has been a remarkable flop among the bottom, among those that it most desperately needs to help. The nigger (the slum Negro) sees the movement as another attempt at begging for something he's not going to get. At least he feels he's not gong to get it by begging and so, the popularity of the black nationalist groups and the Muslims. Having nothing to lose he can be more realistic and honest about the situation than can most middle class Negroes who have been taught to talk softly but not how to carry and most definately not how to use a big stick. The argument of passive vs. violent resistance is an ideological crisis quite like that of peaceful coexistence vs. armed aggression. It is a matter of whether or not the Negro can change the class structure of the U.S. through petition and reason or will he have to make white people afraid of him before his demands are met. So far too much of the energy of the movement has been taken up in attempts at persuasion rather than power. "Freedom Now" (a slogan that originated somewhere in the an old Negro picking bottles my clock ticking —seymour gray