Sixties Activists Reunite
On April 14-16 more than 50 former civil rights activists, members of the radical Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), met at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut to reminisce and share experiences and insights with a small group of 1980's activists. An Ann Arbor contingent of seven members of the United Coalition Against Racism (UCAR), including myself, were among the participants.
En route to the conference we were all very anxious to meet face to face with some of the legendary figures we had read about. These were the courageous young people who had braved racist lynch mobs, been beaten by Southern police, and been jailed for their efforts, (e.g. lunch counter sit-ins, voter registration drives, and freedom riders to desegregate public transportation), to combat Jim Crow segregation and Black disenfranchisement. In anticipation of meeting these personalities 20 years later, we recalled Diane Nash's resolute commitment to SNCC's Jail No Bail Campaign--expressing her willingness to serve a jail term for her political activity despite the fact that she was eight months pregnant at the time. We recalled Cleaveland Sellers who served nearly a year in federal prison for refusing to register for the draft in opposition to the Vietnam War. We recalled SNCC organizer Prathia Hall being shot at during a voter registration drive in rural Mississippi. And we wondered what these individuals would be like today.
Many are still involved in civil rights work. Nash is a community activist in Chicago, Sellers is organizing the homeless in North Carolina, and Hall is a minister and activist. They are a far cry from the cynical media images of 60's radicals-turned-Wall Street executives.
Founded in the spring of 1960, SNCC was an outgrowth of the desegregation sit-in movement and represented an important shift in the tone and focus of the civil rights movement. These young people, mostly Black, influenced by the brilliant political strategist Ella Baker, founded an independent youth organization to fight racism. Their organization was based on the principles of egalitarian, group-centered leadership, and recognized the importance of local, grassroots struggles. UCAR's own structure and philosophy has been inspired in large part by Baker, for whom UCAR's new Nelson Mandela/Ella Baker Center for Anti-Racist Education is named.
Some of the lessons we took away from the conference involved the reality of personal transformation through political struggle. Many stories recounted throughout the weekend suggested that virtually all SNCC organizers had been permanently changed by their experience in the movement. That experience had influenced their career choices, relationships, political involvements, and personal values.
Another impression we left with was that despite their shining moments in history, their admirable accomplishments, and their extraordinary deeds, these people were ordinary people--flesh and blood, with imperfections like the rest of us. While it was somewhat disappointing to have our political heroes dethroned, the realization of their weaknesses and limitations was at the same time empowering. We realized that the historical moment, the collective experience of struggle, is much larger than any of the individual historical actors.
while we look to SNCC for inspiration and historical lessons, we also realize, as Black Power leader Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) pointed out quite sharply, "history does not repeat, and what was a radical strategy in 1968, might be politically irrelevant in 1988." As times change so do the methods by which people are oppressed, even within the same social structure. Consequently, our methods of struggle and organization must change as well.
Anti-racist student organizing is at a critical juncture as we approach the 1990's. There has been a visible upsurge in anti-racist struggle on college campuses across the country over the past year, led largely by Black student activists. Most recently, the building occupation at U-Mass Amherst, the 90 Black students arrested at Penn State, and the sit-in at Harvard Law School, are only a few examples of this escalation of struggle. However, despite the intense and increasingly confrontational nature of many of the local struggles around racism among students, there has yet to emerge a coherent national voice. Our various struggles, although parallel and at times overlapping, are basically still localized and isolated.
Today, the more subtle, but equally dangerous manifestations of racism, make our task more complex. While we grapple with the political realities of the 1980's and attempt to develop strategies and build movement for the 1990's, we still look to the past for the inspiration and strength that comes from knowing what is possible. To help us tap that strength and clarify the lessons of the past, a small group of former SNCC members and current student activists are exploring the possibility of a fall conference to bring together political activists from teh 1960s and 80s