SNCC women recount Civil Rights struggles

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/.