SNCC women recount Civil Rights struggles
By
Dolores Cox
Harlem, N.Y.
Published Mar 31, 2011 8:58 PM
Dorothy Zellner, left, with Dolores Cox.
WW photo: Anne Pruden
|
They were brave women of all ages, various ethnicities, races and backgrounds
from both the North and the South, urban and rural areas — and they were on
the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Mothers, daughters,
sisters, aunts played active roles. And when they got together they were
anything but ordinary; they were essential to the movement. They were the women
working in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee against the Southern
apartheid system.
Fifteen years ago SNCC women decided they wanted to tell their stories in their
own words. So four to five times a year they met in Baltimore to begin writing
accounts of their SNCC experiences. Their book, “Hands on the Freedom
Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC,” was published in 2010 and
edited by Faith Holsaert, Martha Noonan, Judy Richardson, Betty Robinson, Jean
Young and Dorothy Zellner. In it are remembrances of 52 women. The book is
dedicated to their mentors, heroines and the SNCC women who didn’t live
to see the book published.
On March 12, six of the book’s editors and contributors — Judy Robinson,
Gloria Richardson, Muriel Tillinghast, Dorothy Zellner, Angeline Butler and
Marilyn Fletcher — appeared at the renowned Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture in Harlem, N.Y. Each spoke about her memories of being in the
movement.
Their oral histories included their early childhoods, as well as how and why
they joined SNCC. Collectively, they had a social consciousness, and said
they were inspired by the sacrifices of others, a love for humanity and a
belief in equality, justice and freedom for everyone. Most of the women said
they were under 20 when they joined SNCC. Some dropped out of college to join
the movement.
SNCC was formed in 1960 by students at the all-Black Shaw University in
Raleigh, N.C. Together with other Black college student activists they
decided they needed an organization to bring the various sit-in groups
together. By the late 1960s, SNCC defined itself as part of a world struggle
against racism, colonialism and imperialism. Members attended international
conferences and met with leaders of other countries where decolonization
struggles and armed revolutions had taken place.
SNCC women participated in the Freedom Rides, sit-ins, voter registrations and
marches on Washington. They were arrested and jailed more than once. One woman
vividly recalled the physical pain of having fire hoses turned on her, the
beatings, gassings, dodging police bullets, death threats and the emotional
trauma of the violence they witnessed.
‘Band of sisters’ organizes, struggles
When asked what helped to hold them together and get them through the many hard
times, they recalled that it was their humor. One of the women said being in
SNCC was like being part of a family. Another stated that most Black women felt
liberated by being in SNCC. Though the U.S. was very sexist in the 1960s,
she added, SNCC women felt more equal to men.
One woman described the SNCC experience as “dying and going to
heaven.” And another stated they eventually saw each other as belonging
to a "band of sisters." One of the white women said she felt it
was a privilege for whites to be in the Black-led organization.
The women helped determine SNCC’s philosophy and political
positions. They participated in all aspects of organizing and planning
programs and projects. They also initiated and maintained major movement
efforts, including suggesting new ways to carry out the work, seeking the most
effective radical or revolutionary paths. They organized throughout the South
and endured the wrath of white-mob terrorism.
Despite organizing in “nasty, hateful” towns, particularly those
controlled by the Ku Klux Klan, they stated that SNCC actively challenged and
opposed the power of the status quo.
The movement women recalled associating with other organizations and meeting,
working directly with, or being connected with such notables as James Forman,
Ella Jo Baker, Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, Dick Gregory, Marion Barry, Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, John Lewis, Fannie Lou
Hamer, H. Rap Brown and Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), as well as Cuban
doctors.
SNCC women took a stand against the war in Vietnam, noting that Black soldiers
risked their lives abroad for the U.S., which denied them rights at home. They
fought for gay rights and political prisoners. They were involved in
encouraging SNCC to support the Palestinian cause and participated in
statements and actions against South African apartheid. They linked Civil
Rights activism to international efforts against Nazism and fascism. They also
obtained non-governmental organization status at the United Nations. In
addition, SNCC women gave birth to a feminist group for women of color: The
Third World Alliance.
SNCC, however, was targeted by the FBI’s Cointelpro under the heading of
“Black Hate Groups.” And by the late 1960s Cointelpro had
succeeded in destabilizing the organization, including jailing and
murdering some of its leaders. By early 1970 it had managed to destroy
SNCC.
At the end of the program the women were asked if there is a place for SNCC now
in today's climate. One of them answered that Wisconsin events show
there's room for much organizing around unemployment, unions, etc., and
that it's encouraging that there may be another big explosion on the
horizon.
The message from the SNCC women activists at the end of their March 12
testimonies was that you don’t have to be special to do what they did,
just an everyday person who's determined to struggle and fight for human
rights. These women continue to be active movement builders who’ve
kept their hands on the freedom plow.
A review of “Hands on the Freedom Plow” (‘SNCC women
were fierce activists’ by Abayomi Azikiwe, Feb. 11) can be found at www.workers.org/2011/us/sncc_women_0217/.
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