Department of Defense. "Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)." 1967.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Department of the Army, gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the US Army Intelligence Command and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the preparation of this counter-intelligence study.
Users may submit comments, suggestions, or queries pertaining to this study to the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Department of the Army, Washington, D. C. 20310, ATTN: DSCC.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Department of the Army, gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the US Army Intelligence Command and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the preparation of this counter-intelligence study.
Users may submit comments, suggestions, or queries pertaining to this study to the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Department of the Army, Washington, D. C. 20310, ATTN: DSCC.
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NOTE: This
sector of the US intelligence network ignored the central role of Black
women in SNCC. These white men who worked for the National Security
State had greater fear of Black Men and, thus, vastly underestimated the
powerful leadership of young (and not so young) Black Women. It is one
reason why the Black Liberation Movement grew and developed- inspite of
COINTELPRO and the National Security State's onslaught on militant Black
organizations of the 1960s and 70s. Hence, the rise of an Assata
Shakur, Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, Sonia Sanchez, Toni Cade
Bambara, Safia Bukari, Fran Beal, Nina Simone, Black
Feminism/Womanism... BlackLivesMatter Leadership of today.
Below
are fotos of just a few of SNCC Sisters who played leading roles in the
evolution of SNCC and the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s to the
present-- SEA
Sister Ella Baker- Veteran Activist-Inspirer of SNCC Founders.
Sister Diane Nash- FreedomFighter and Leader For Life (seen here leading a Nashville desegregation demo).
SNCC and Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Leader, Sister Fannie Lou Hamer of Ruleville, MS speaking in 1964.
SNCC Leader, Sister Joyce Ladner.
SNCC Leader, Sister Gloria Richardson of Cambridge, MD confronting the National Guard in 1967.
SNCC Leader Sister Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson with Brothers Jim Forman, Cleveland Sellars, and Kwame Ture around 1966.
SNCC Leader, Sister Gwen Patton Woods with Jim Forman, Willie McRay, James
Baldwin and Joan Baez on the March 25, 1965 Selma to Montgomery, AL march.
She was also responsible for Brother Malcolm X's ability to speak to Tuskeegee Students
just weeks before his assassination.
A SNCC Sister holding a Freedom School Class in Alabama ca 1966.
SNCC Sisters at a Atlanta meeting ca 1966.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
1. Founding and National Headquarters 1
2. Policy Statements 2
3. Organization 3
a. National Leadership 4
b. Finances 5
c. Transportation 5
d. Publications 5
e. World Travel 6
4. Contact with other Organizations 6
5. Support by Communist and New Left Organizations 7
6. Personalities 8
7. Activities 17
Conclusion 20
INTRODUCTION
The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is an organization which seeks to capitalize on the discontent of Negroes who want immediate economic and social equality. Although SNCC was created in 1960 as a nonviolent civil rights organization concentrating on Negro voter registration campaigns in the South, by 1965 SNCC had renounced its policy of non-violence and integration to advocate political and economic power for the Negro and to agitate against the United States involvement in Vietnam.
This transformation of SNCC accelerated in May 1966, when Stokely Carmichael became national chairman. That summer Carmichael popularized his slogan, "Black Power," which to him meant "bringing this country to its knees" and using "any force necessary" to attain Negro goals. The switch changed SNCC from the traditional-type civil rights organization to a militant anti-white hate group.
Carmichael and the current SNCC national chairman, H. Rap Brown, have gained a great deal of notoriety by traveling throughout the United States and the world preaching hate and openly espousing urban guerrilla warfare to achieve "Black Power." Although, they cannot be held responsible for the violence in US cities in the summer of 1967, they most certainly have made their contribution to civil unrest.
1. FOUNDING AND NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS: In April 1960, a group of Negro and white college students, meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina, formed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee as a vehicle to coordinate their civil rights activities. At its second meeting, held in the middle of October 1960, in Atlanta, Georgia, SNCC became a permanent committee and started an outline for a constitution. SNCC then stated that its general principle was to be a continued policy of non-violent pressure to force desegregation. Its national head-quarters opened at 197 1/2 Auburn Street, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia. Several years later it moved to 360 Nelson Street, S.W., in Atlanta. As of April 1965, SNCC may have had some 250 field workers, but it was soon forced to cut that number in half due to financial problems.
2. POLICY STATEMENTS
a. SNCC can no longer be considered a civil rights group. It has become a racist organization with black supremacy ideals and an expressed hatred for whites. It employs violent and militant measures which may be defined as extreme when compared with those of more moderate groups. Some of its early leaders, such as John Lewis, have had to step down because of a conflict with the "New Way." In the fall of 1966, a position paper, written by dissident members, clearly showed that the organization's new "Black Power" philosophy was the product of months of planning. This policy change came as the result of internal discussion within the committee over the role of white workers within the organization. White workers have been released by SNCC, and the caucasian member in SNCC is almost non-existent today. Present leaders have proclaimed they have rid themselves of the white man so that they can truly work for black power. These SNCC leaders have become so active nationally that they not only represent the change in SNCC itself but the change in the militant Negro in every sector of the country. SNCC leaders also claim to represent Negro discontent with the war in Vietnam and the disproportionate number of Negroes drafted and serving in the "Racist Imperialist War."
b. The policy of SNCC is best described in some of its earlier organizational pronouncements and in numerous statements of its leaders. Early in 1966, a SNCC policy statement provided a basis for its actions. The following is a synopsis of that statement:
SNCC has the right and responsibility to dissent with U.S. foreign policy concerning Vietnam; the U.S. has been deceptive in its claims about the freedom of the Vietnamese and colored people in the Dominican Republic, the Congo, South Africa, Rhodesia, and in the U.S., itself; SNCC has been involved in the black people's struggle for liberation and self-determination in this country for the past five years; SNCC work has taught that the U.S. government has never guaranteed the freedom of oppressed citizens; SNCC workers have often been victims of violence and confinement by U.S. government officials; the murder of Samuel Young in Tuskeegee is no different than the murder of peasants in Vietnam; Samuel Young was murdered because U.S. law is not being enforced; Vietnamese are murdered because the U.S. is pursuing an aggressive foreign policy in violation of international law; SNCC recalls the indifference, suspicion, and outright hostility with which reports of violence have been met in the past by government officials; elections in this country, in the North as well as the South are not free; SNCC questions, then, the ability and even the desire of the U.S. government to guarantee free elections abroad; SNCC sympathizes with and supports the men in this country who are unwilling to respond to a military draft; SNCC notes the inconsistency of a supposedly 'free' society where responsibility to freedom is equated with the responsibility to lend oneself to military aggression; SNCC asks where is the draft for the freedom fight in the U.S.; SNCC encourages those Americans who prefer to use their energy in building democratic forms within this country and believes that work in the civil rights movement and with other human relations organizations is a valid alternative to the draft.c. In late May 1967, SNCC issued the following policy statement:
"In our staff meeting held during the past week, the organization voted that the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee is a human rights organization, interested not only in human rights in the United States, but throughout the world; that in the field of international relations, we assert that we encourage and support the liberation struggles of all people against fascism, exploitation, and oppression. We see our struggle here in America as an integral part of the world-wide movement of all oppressed people, such as in Vietnam, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Latin America. Furthermore, we support the efforts of our brothers in Puerto Rico, who are presently engaged in a fight for independence and liberation there."d. "We shall seek to build a strong nationwide black antidraft program and movement to include high school students, along with college students and other black men of draft age. We see on reason for black men, who are daily murdered physically and mentally in this country, to go and kill yellow people abroad, who have done nothing to us, and are, in fact, victims of the same oppression that our brothers in Vietnam suffer. Our major thrust will be in the building of national freedom organizations which will deal with all aspects of the problems facing black people in America. The political objective will manifest itself in the creation of a viable, independent political force. The economic objective will be:
(1) To expel the exploiters who presently control our community.
(2) To gain economic control of our communities.
(3) To create an economic system which will be responsible to and benefit the black community, rather than a few individuals.
e. "Our cultural objective will be:
(1) To destroy the myths and lies propagated by white America concerning our history in Africa and in this country.
(2) To develop an awareness and appreciation of the beauty of our thick lips, broad noses, kinky hair, and soul. In obtaining these objectives, we will work with all other black groups who are fighting for the same goals."
f. On 1 August 1967, the Detroit News claimed that it received a black power pamphlet circulated by SNCC, which denied that it printed this pamphlet; the News stated it had quoted it verbatim. In essence the pamphlet called for the Negro to fill himself with "hate for all white things. We must disrupt the white man's system to create our own." The title of the document published was "We Want Black Power." "We cannot train an army in the local park, but we can be ready for the final confrontation with the white man's system. The black man in America is in a perpetual state of slavery no matter what the white man's propaganda tells us. We are not alone in this fight, we are a part of the struggle for self-determination of all black men everywhere."
g. In relation to the recent Arab-Israeli War, SNCC, on 15 August 1967, charged that Israel was guilty of atrocities during its war with the Arabs. In its monthly newsletter, it called Israelites, "Zionist terrorists who deliberately slaughtered and mutilated Arab men, women and children." It also stated that Israel forced itself into being in 1947 by parlaying the United Nations votes of the United States, "White Europeans and Australians," to vote for the Israeli partition plan.
h. Franklin Alexander of the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America (DCA), although not directly connected with SNCC, has commented on SNCC's policy with some inside knowledge, although just how much of Alexander's statement is fact and how much opinion remains uncertain. In August 1967, he expressed his feeling that the current group activity under consideration by leadership of SNCC was on "ghetto guerrilla organizing." This concept produced violent disagreements in SNCC, but the broad revolution section prevailed in the discussion and is now dominating SNCC activities. This has caused serious financial and organizational problems. The main personality among SNCC leadership stressing this philosophy is Harold Ware, an associate of Stokely Carmichael. Ware has been strongly influenced by the writings and discussions of Robert Williams, a Negro expatriate, now residing in China. Alexander is of the opinion that SNCC could be expected to become a para-military revolutionary underground organization dedicated to continuing terrorist activities in the urban centers of the U.S.
3. ORGANIZATION
a. National Leadership -- The national leadership of SNCC has passed through the hands of Marion Barry, Charles McDew, John Lewis, Stokely Carmichael, to H. Rap Brown, the current chairman. Behind these national leaders were assistants and an Executive Committee of workers, from which the leaders are chosen. There is also an Adult Advisory group of the Executive Committee. This Adult Advisory group consists of people from different movements, organizations, and areas of the country. Some members are known to the public; some have kept their association with SNCC secret. This has led to speculation concerning the true membership of this important group and just what outside organizations have an influence on SNCC. During its early days, Martin Luther King was believed to have been a member. Possibly, this Adult / dvisory group is an amorphic body of no specific or permanent members, varying in composition from time to time. The present national officers of SNCC are:
(1) H. Rap Brown, National Chairman
(2) Stanley Leroy Wise, National Executive Secretary
(3) Ralph Featherstone, National Program Director
(4) Ethel Minor, Communications Director of SNCC
(5) James Foreman, International Director of SNCC
(6) George Washington Ware, Program Director of Campus Affairs
(7) Bill Mahoney, SNCC National Press Relations Officer
b. Finances
(1) SNCC claims to be a non-profit organization. As such, it has purchased automobiles and paid monthly phone bills of $1,000, salaries for up to 150 people and numerous other expenses. With the adoption of its militant policy, SNCC lost much of its northern financial backing and faced a financial crisis.
(2) SNCC had originally set a dues system to obtain needed finances, but this has apparently fallen by the wayside. It has solicited contributions by mail and personal contact. Its aid may now be coming from fund-raising affairs, from friends who seek contributions and hold parties to raise money in the North, from a touring SNCC group of Freedom Singers who appear at benefits on SNCC's behalf, from the sale of recordings and Freedom songbooks, and from benefits by entertainers such as Pete Seeger, Dick Gregory, Harry Belafonte, and Peter, Paul, and Mary. Stokely Carmichael received payments of $1000 to $3000 for speaking engagements at various colleges. SNCC has received funds from the Southern Regional Council and Southern Conference Educational Fund; however, it still remains in financial difficulty because of its loss in popularity among northern whites. SNCC will possibly have to find financial aid from new sources in order to alleviate its current financing shortcomings.
c. Transportation -- Transportation has been a prime necessity for SNCC organization and leaders. It set up the "Sojourner Motor Fleet" in Atlanta, Georgia, to provide automotive transportation for its workers. Air travel has been on commercial flights and is frequently used as its national leaders travel throughout the country for meetings and speech making jaunts.
d. SNCC Publications
(1) The Student Voice was first issued in June 1960. It had been SNCC's intermittent official publication, although it has not appeared since late 1966. The Student Voice is a corporate organization and owns its own equipment. In order to defray some expenses, it has taken on some commercial printing. It has also published a history of the American Negro.'
(2) The Movement, a monthly newspaper, was published by SNCC in California until 1966. The publishers separated from SNCC at that time, but maintained their continued support of SNCC policies. In June 1967, they stated they full supported the SNCC "Black Power" philosophy.
(3) Several chapters of SNCC and Friends of SNCC have also published newsletters and pamphlets, such as, The Drummer in Cleveland, and The Voice of Washington SNCC in Washington, D. C. Posters, fliers, and circulars have also appeared at SNCC pickets, demonstrations and rallies.
e. World Travel
(1) SNCC leaders and their aides travel throughout the world to attend meetings and give speeches. These meetings vary from groups of International Civil Rights workers to communist sponsored meetings and to lectures on revolution.
(2) Charles McDew, of SNCC, has traveled to Mexico where he may be in contact with many persons in Mexico with Communist backgrounds. In the fall of 1966, Vernon Crutchfield, a field worker for SNCC, stated that he and other representatives of SNCC made an all-expense paid trip to Russia, and that white there he was offered a free scholarship to attend a Russian school. Ralph Featherstone, of the Executive Committee of SNCC, visited Japan to lecture and visit the Hiroshima City celebration in the fall of 1966. In the spring of 1965, John Lewis made a trip to Africa on what he called a "Mission of Learning" and to improve relations between the liberation movement of Africa and the civil rights struggle in this country. On 13 July 1967, SNCC announced that James Foreman was to leave for Russia. In 1965, Stokely Carmichael made an expense-free trip to Guinea with ten other SNCC workers. This trip was arranged by Harry Belafonte. There they took lessons in revolution from President Sekou Toure, the pro-Communist president of Guinea. In 1967, Carmichael also made his well publicized trip to England, Cuba, North Vietnam, and Algeria, spreading his words of hate and attracting aid from foreign sources.
4. CONTACT WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
a. SNCC has had contact with other civil rights and nationalist organizations. During its early days it worked through the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Urban League (UL), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Conference Educational Fund, Inc. (SCEF), and the Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC). In early 1966, SNCC started a chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in Lowndes County, Alabama, intended as a political civil rights group and a third party slate. The BPP has Maxwell Stanford, head of Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), as a member. Two of SNCC's well-known leaders were members of the Nonviolent Action Group (NVA). Franklin Alexander, a member of the Du Bois Clubs of America (DCA), worked closely with SNCC members in the riots on 17 May 1967, in Houston, Texas. DCA is a front organization of the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA). The Puerto Rican Independence Movement (MPI) has made an agreement with SNCC, according to Ponce Directore Jenaro Rentas Rodriguez, to create riots and racial problems in New York and other U.S. cities through the coordinated efforts of Puerto Ricans and Negroes. This agreement was supposedly made prior to Stokely Carmichael's recent visit to the Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO), in Havana, Cuba. Stokely Carmichael has also conferred several times with members of black national groups, such as, the Nation of Islam (NOI) and RAH.
b. SNCC's militant attitude has aggravated the leaders of the moderate civil rights group like SCLC. SCLC is lead by Martin Luther King, Jr., who in September 1966, said he could not countenance the current violent approach resorted to by SNCC and hoped he would not have to take a public stand against SNCC. Attempts have been made to reconcile the two groups. On 13-14 June 1967, a secret meeting was held with SNCC and CORE representing militant groups, and SCLC, NAACP, and UL representing the moderates. Some progress was made and common goals set. Relations were soon to be strained again, however, by the continued militant activities of Brown and Carmichael.
c. The increasingly militant policies of SNCC have infuriated right-wing organizations throughout the country. The Minutemen delivered an ultimatum to SNCC headquarters in July 1967, for Stokely Carmichael and others to "Vacate Georgia forthwith" under pain of violent reprisal. The American Nazi Party has held numerous counter-demonstrations at SNCC rallies. In general, there is the ever present danger of extended violence in the confrontations of SNCC with groups of the radical right.
5. SUPPORT BY COMMUNIST AND NEW LEFT ORGANIZATIONS: There is no evidence to prove that SNCC is a communist front organization. There is ample evidence indicating communist support and infiltration, however, since SNCC first came into being in the early 1960's. SNCC has always Claimed that it does not concern itself with the outside interests of its workers, nor does it care if a member is a communist. SNCC states its only concern as the belief and intention of its members to work for civil rights. Communist aid does not represent total alignment and complete collaboration of SNCC with the CPUSA. It does mean that the communists do support and influence SNCC activities to a limited extent. In November 1962, Dan Rubin, CPUSA Youth Leader, New York, stated that the CPUSA would establish groups of young people in the North who would give aid to SNCC in the South. Ben Davis, National Secretary, CPUSA, in May 1963, pointed out tremendous work done by the "Student Nonviolent League" and indicated "we" should understand the importance of getting "our own people" into work of this kind in the South. Carl Bloice, of the Youth Commission of the Northern California District of the CPUSA, spent time with SNCC, and indicated that among SNCC leadership, most of the Marxist classics were familiar books. In 1963, SNCC received checks from or through individuals with CPUSA affiliations. Adult Member, Executive Committee, SNCC, was a member of the CPUSA in 1953. Charles McDew, who resigned as Chairman of SNCC in June 1963, and went to Mexico, is described as knowing many persons in Mexico and the U. S. who were of communist background who apparently does not care to hold title position with SNCC in Atlanta, is described by newspapers as a Field Secretary for SNCC and is considered by Atlanta Police to be third in command of SNCC after the Chairman and Executive Secretary. As of January 30, 1963, was a member of the Youth Club, an affiliate of the CPUSA of Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware (CPEPD). SNCC has received financial support from SCEF, the Louis M. ?? Foundation (known to give aid to communist front groups), and the Women's Peace and Unity Club. Ella J. Baker, Adult Member, SNCC Executive Committee, has associated with individuals known to be CPUSA members. Information received in mid-December 1963, revealed that John Lewis was a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. As of June 29, 1963, was a member of the CPUSA, in New York City. ardent supporter of SNCC, was a CPUSA member. of Atlanta, another ardent SNCC supporter, was identified as a CPUSA member in December 1952.
6. PERSONALITIES
a. STOKELY CARMICHAEL
(1) Stokely Carmichael, while on the Meredith Freedom March in Mississippi in June 1966, coined the slogan "Black Power," which shortly afterwards split the civil rights movement into two camps, moderate and extreme. He and H. Rap Brown have preached violence throughout the nation. In the summer of 1967, he traveled to Havana, Cuba, and Hanoi, North Vietnam, to take part in communist activities and attack "white racism" in the U.S.
(2) Carmichael was born in Trinidad, West Indies, on 29 June 1941. His father was a native of the British West Indies and his mother was Panamanian. His family moved to Bronx, New York, in 1952. Carmichael became a US citizen on April 27, 1953, by derivation from the naturalization of his father. he graduated from the Bronx School of Science in New York City, in June 1960. While in high school he was a member of a group that seemed unusually devoted to left wing activities. Eugene Dennis, Jr., son of the former General Secretary of the CPUSa, was a close friend and fellow high school student of Carmichael's in the Bronx. Young Dennis played a prominent role in the founding of the DCA. In Carmichael's senior year, he and some classmates went to Washington, D. C., to picket the House Committee on Un-American Activities. he later attended Howard University in Washington, D. C., where he obtained a degree in philosophy in 1964 While at Howard he joined the Nonviolent Action Group, an affiliate of SNCC. In June 1961, he participated in freedom rides and experienced the first of his numerous arrests Two years after graduation from Howard he became chairman of SNCC. In this position from the spring of 1966, until May 1967, he traveled throughout the United States speaking at churches, high schools, colleges, and street rallies. Carmichael claims he established his idea of "Black Power" from a book he considers his "bible," The Wretched of the Earth, by the West Indian Negro, Frantz Fanon. His recent activities and statements show his concentration on preaching violence and hate, and how violence usually follows his speaking engagements.
(a) On 17 July 1966, Carmichael told a large rally in Philidelphia, Pa., of a plan to oust all white businessmen and landlords from Negro areas of the city. According to Carmichael, cooperatives will be formed to buy out white businesses and apartment houses in the Negro sections -- "We will force them to sell to us by moving out of their apartments and boycotting their businesses."
(b) During his speech in Detroit, Michigan, on July 30, 1966, he urged Negroes to stop begging white people for what "we deserve by birth." He also stated he had experienced so much law and order in this country that he now wanted to try "a little taste of chaos."
(c) On 2 August 1966, Carmichael appeared in the Vine City area of Atlanta, Georgia, and shouted "Black Power" when police were attempting to arrest a Negro for a minor traffic offense. A riot resulted. On August 8, eight members of SNCC were arrested when they disrupted traffic as they picketed the Atlanta Housing Authority.
(d) Carmichael at the Mount Morris Presbyterian Church in Harlem in New York City, on 29 August 1966, said, "In Cleveland they're building stores with no windows. All brick, I don't know what they think they will accomplish. It just means we have to move from Molotov cocktails to dynamite."
(e) In Selma, Alabama on 5 November 1966, Carmichael was arrested when he attempted to incite a riot at city hall during a campaign rally for Black Panther Party candidates.
(f) On 24 May 1967, Carmichael told some 7,000 UCLA students that, for negroes, the war in vietnam is a matter of survival rather than morality. He said that more than 30 per cent of the fighting force in Vietnam is Negro, whereas only 10 per cent of the US population is Negro. A Washington Post article stated that recent statistics show that Negroes comprise about 23 per cent of the fighting force in Vietnam. Carmichael is "against coalition at this time because it will not benefit the black man...we will not be defined by a white society. We will struggle to create our own terms and have them recognized."
(g) On 11 June 1967, Carmichael was arrested in Prattville, Alabama, for disturbing the peace after an incident in which police claim an aggressive Negro gathering harangued and fired on police and white passers-by. Police quoted Carmichael as saying, "We came here to tear this town up, and we're going to tear it up." Carmichael led the gathering and later stated that the trouble was started by Klansmen and police brutality.
(h) During racial violence in Atlanta, Ga., on 18 June 1967, Stokely Carmichael appeared on the scene accompanied by a group of individuals, some of whom were connected with SNCC. Carmichael immediately began to harrass the police and was finally arrested for disorderly conduct -- failure to obey an officer to move on. After the violence on June 19, Carmichael, who was out of jail on bond, held a press conference and announced that a protest meeting would be held at St. Joseph's Baptist Church that night. At this meeting he attacked the Atlanta police force and incited the crowd with inflammatory statements. Further rioting resulted.
(i) Stokely Carmichael reached a new height of international fame when he travelled in the summer of 1967, to the Cuban held Latin American Solidarity Organization Conference (LASO). On his way to Cuba he stopped in Britain. There Carmichael allegedly said, "If the British did not accept our principles, I would burn down their homes and factories." While at the LASO Conference, he said, quoting from Major Ernesto Che Guevara, the Cuban guerrilla leader, "Hatred is an element of the struggle, transforming (man) into an effective violent, selective and cold killing machine." In reference to Guevara on guerrilla warfare, Carmichael said, "You are an inspiration not only to black people inside the United States, but to the liberation struggle around the world. Please keep on fighting, you are helping to inspire us. Do not despair, my comrade, we shall overcome." When asked whether Black Power can be equated to communism, he answered: "Communism can be many things -- Russian, Czech, Yugoslav, Cuban. The system we like best is the Cuban." About the CPUSA, he said, "There are no proletarians in the U.S. Communist Party. It is the party of the rich." He said, "Forty per cent of the troops in Vietnam are Negro, and some good may come of it because when they come back they will be trained to kill in the streets." The American Negro's battle, he said, must be fought on two fronts: "The fight against racism and the fight against capitalism. Racism is a result of capitalism." According to Reuters, Carmichael envisions the possible assassination of President Johnson and British Prime Minister Wilson as acts of vengeance for the murder of Negro leaders. Carmichael said his three greatest heroes were assassinated black nationalist leader Malcolm X, Ernesto (Che) Guevara, and Mao Tse-tung.
(j) Because of these and similar statements, the US State Department is considering revoking Carmichael's passport. Since his stay in Cuba, Carmichael has travelled to North Vietnam. Carmichael's draft status is 4-F as of March 13, 1967. Previously he had been classified 1-Y because of a psychiatric test showing "chronic schizophrenic with psychopathic, pseudoneurotic and paranoid trends."
(k) In May, 1967, Carmichael relinquished his National Chairman position in SNCC ostensibly to return to Negro problems as a field worker; however, he has remained in the lime-light and has not returned to field work in Washington, D. C., as he indicated at the time of his resignation.
b. RAP BROWN
(1) In taking office as Stokely Carmichael's successor as National Chairman of SNCC, Brown stated that he hoped he would not be as publicly prominent as Carmichael. In an apparent effort to stress that he was as militant as Carmichael, he stated that he couldn't count the number of times he has been arrested and stated that he faces a trial in Selma, Alabama, on morals charges. Carmichael also assured news reporters that Brown was "a bad man."
(2) Brown's real name is Hubert Geroid Brown. He is reported to have acquired the nickname "Rap" during his early days as a civil rights worker when his fiery speeches caused audiences to shout, "Rap it to `em baby."
(3) Brown was born on October 4, 1943, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. he attended Southern University for two years, dropping out in 1962, because "they couldn't teach me anything." Due to flat feet and torn ligaments, Brown failed to pass physical examinations and was classified 1-Y by his draft board. From 1962 to 1963, Brown worked with Carmichael in a group called the Nonviolent Action Group, which was based at Howard University in Washington, D. C. Following this Brown and Carmichael worked with SNCC in Mississippi and Lowndes County, Alabama. From December 1966 to May 1967, he served as SNCC's Alabama Project Director. In May 1967, Brown was designated as SNCC National Chairman, succeeding Carmichael.
(4) Brown's activities and speeches have been numerous. During the summer of 1967, Brown traveled widely, making many speeches, inciting violence, and spreading hate.
(a) On 9 June 1967, Brown and other leading SNCC personalities held a press conference in Chicago. They indicated that SNCC would launch a nation-wide protest against the drafting of Negroes and would instruct Negroes on how to avoid the military draft. Black Draft Workshops were held in Chicago several days later.
(b) Brown, in Prattville, Alabama, on 11 June 1967, said "We recognize and accept yesterday's action by racist white America as a declaration of war...We are calling for full retaliations from the black community across America."
(c) On 14 June 1967, Brown spoke in Dayton, Ohio, on the request of a known CPUSA member from 1946 through 1948. After Brown's speech, groups of Negro youths caused disturbances there. On 15 June 1967, Brown, still in Dayton, called for massive civil disobediance and "damn the laws of the United States." On this same date Brown also turned up in riot-torn Cincinnati and told an audience that "SNCC has declared war."
(d) Brown was the featured speaker at a meeting is Houston, Texas, on June 19. The meeting was held to protest charges filed against five Texas Southern University students. Of particular interest was Brown's statement about the possible ways Negro women could serve. He mentioned, as an example, that the white "Boss" could "get his bacon and eggs with arsenic instead of salt." With specific reference to Houston, Brown stated that it was necessary that SNCC obtain the full cooperation of the Negro community to organize a "set up" in Houston similar to that which had been used in Cincinnati. He insisted that this was a "must" and could not be delayed. He also told them to arm themselves and that they could possibly take over Minutemen caches to aid in their armament. After the meeting had been in progress for some time, all news reporters and white people were requested to leave. Following their departure, Brown lectured on rioting. At the outset of a riot, Brown instructed, the city should be "hit" in the main business area. He explained that the police would concentrate on this central area. Then, simultaneous outbreaks in scattered ghetto areas would cause the police to be spread so thin as to become ineffective. Brown also urged that Negroes be trained to turn on fire hydrants in order to interfere with the use of high-pressure hoses to disperse rioters. Those present were also encouraged by Brown to buy firearms and ammunition. Finally, Brown counseled that rioters should dress in regulation army uniforms or fatigue clothes when the National Guard or other troops are called in. This attire, he pointed out, would confuse the soldiers and enable the rioters to gain possession of jeeps, which are often equipped with machine guns.
(e) At a later speech at SNCC headquarters in Washington, D. C., Brown said that Negroes will get home rule in Washington, "and if it must be gotten by going into the streets, that will be dictated by Lyndon Baines Johnson." He repeatedly said that if violence erupts, it will be the fault of the white community. He did not say how SNCC would get home rule but, that it will form "freedom organizations" to apply pressure on Congress. Concerning the resorting to arms, he said, "If it comes to the point that black people must have guns, we will have means and ways to obtain those arms." he accused the white power structure of "escalating genocide" against the Negroes. Brown said that it was the policy of SNCC to conceal the assignment of its workers when some asked him about the whereabouts of past National Chairman Stokely Carmichael.
(f) On June 23, 1967, Brown held a press conference at Los Angeles. Brown made anti-Vietnam War statements and wanted Negro soldiers out of the war and sent home to "fight the real war."
(g) Cambridge, Maryland, for several years has experienced racial violence, the most recent of which, according to local and state officials, was caused by Brown. The second ward in Cambridge is a Negro area, and since 1963 violence between second ward Negroes and the white community has occurred frequently. Latest violence erupted over a controversy concerning the predominately Negro Pine Street Elementary School. On 24 July 1967, Brown told Cambridge Negroes, "You should burn that school down and then go take over the honkie's school." "Honky" is a SNCC created word for whites. He told the crowd that "if America don't come `round, we got to burn it down. You better get some guns, brother," he said. "The only thing the honky respects is a gun. You give me a gun and tell me to shoot my enemy, I might shoot Ladybird." Cambridge officials charged that Brown's statements caused the following violence. Brown later declared that what he said at Cambridge was no different from what he had told black people everywhere. "I was just instructing my brothers what they had to do to gain respect. Look, we stand on the eve of a black revolution. If you tell any bit of truth about the honky, it is inflammatory." Until Cambridge, Brown had been advocating defensive measures by the Negro. After the Cambridge riots, Brown declared, "Man, Cambridge was beautiful and we're going to see more of it." This statement and later racial disturbances indicate SNCC's departure from defensive to offensive measures. Brown was arrested at National Airport in Northern Virginia by the FBI and turned over to the local authorities in Alexandria, Va. William M. Kunstler of New York was Brown's lawyer at this time. Brown was held on $10,000 bond awaiting extradition proceedings. While at his arraignment he said, "If they can afford a Detroit in Alexandria, I'm prepared to give it to them." His followers continued, "We're going to take the word back to D.C." In a mimeographed statement distributed to newsmen at the Alexandria Courthouse, Brown declared, "I consider myself neither morally nor legally bound to obey laws made by a body in which I have no representation. Do not deceive yourself into believing that penalties will deter men from the course they believe is right. We stand on the eve of a black revolution." During the trouble in Cambridge, Brown said to 400 cheering listeners, "get your guns...if you gotta die, wherever you go, take some of them with you. I don't care if we have to burn him down or run him out, you gotta take over those stores, gotta take your freedom."
(h) Brown was held in Federal Detention House, New York City, on weapons charges, on 19 August 1967, and on the following day repeated his call to American Negroes to "Arm yourselves...Freedom is yet to come." In a statement issued from his call, Brown said his confinement will not "rebuild Detroit or save America from its due fate." Kunstler. Brown's attorney, told newsmen on 20 August that SNCC has been unable to meet Brown's bail, although the organization has raised about $20,000 in cash, bonds, and bankbooks. Kunstler said four bail bondsmen had refused to put up $25,000 bail money for Brown. Brown's detention prevented him from appearing at rallies in Cincinnati and Baton Rouge, La. Leonard Ball, SNCC Chairman in Cincinnati, said the rally there was a success eve without Brown. A county policeman who attended the rally, from which newsmen were barred, said many people left when they learned Brown would not appear. Kunstler, read a statement from Brown on the 20 August. It charged that Brown was a "political prisoner." "If it takes imprisonment or even death to expose America for what it is, then this is my destiny..." Brown said. "To all black brothers and sisters across America who are caught behind enemy lines: I say the fight has not yet matured. Arm yourselves, for freedom is yet to come." Brown signed his statement, "Yours in Rebellion," Kunstler said Floyd McKissick, had joined him as an attorney working for Brown's release. Brown was released from jail on 22 August after his bail was reduced from $25,000 to $15,000. SNCC quickly produced a check for the $12,500 it had raised and another for $2500 from a New Yorker identified only as Robert Langston.
(i) On 10 September 1967, H. Rap Brown spoke at Lincoln High School in East St. Louis, Illinois. Following his typical speech of hate and violence, unruly crowds formed and fires, window breaking, and sporadic gun fire occurred.
c. OTHER NOTABLE SNCC PERSONALITIES:
(1) JOHN ROBERT LEWIS -- Lewis was born 21 March 1940, at Troy, Alabama. He was educated at the American Baptist Theological Seminary, Nashville, Tennessee, from 1957-1961, and at Fisk University, Nashville, from 1961-1963. He replaced Charles McDew as Executive Chairman of SNCC on 15 June 1965. He was arrested ten times between 20 February 1961 and 11 January 1962, for his participation in civil rights activities. Lewis made a trip to Africa on what he called "a mission of learning, or an attempt to cement the relation between the liberation movement of Africa and the civil rights struggle in this country." He has since left SNCC because of its increased militancy.
(2) STANLEY LEROY WISE -- Wise was born on 12 June 1942, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and attended Howard University. He has been with SNCC for several years as an organizer. In May 1967, he was elected National Executive secretary, the second highest position in SNCC. He accompanied Carmichael during his Negro college tours in March and April 1967, and when white newsmen questioned Carmichael, he referred them to Wise. Wise also had accompanied Lewis to Europe in April 1966, to raise funds.
(3) PALPH FEATHERSTONE -- Ralph Featherstone, the National Program Director for SNCC, is a former Washington, D.C., school teacher and SNCC field secretary. He became a member of the SNCC Central Committee in 1966. He was born on 26 May 1937, in Washington, D.C. He was active in field work in Alabama and Mississippi, and worked as a radio announcer at one time in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a member of the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee, a communist front group. He made a trip to Japan in the fall of 1966, with Professor Howard Zinn of Boston University, to make lectures and attend celebrations.
(4) JAMES RUFUS FOREMAN -- Foreman, one-time National Executive Secretary, is now the International Director of SNCC. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 4 November 1928. He attended the University of Southern California in 1952, and received his BA degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago in 1957. He has been very active in demonstrations, has been arrested a number of times, and has had contact with communists both here and abroad.
(5) CLEVELAND L. SELLERS, J R. -- Sellers was born on 8 November. 1944, in Denmark, South Carolina. He was National Program Director of SNCC, third highest office until May 1967. He attended Howard University. In 1964, he worked for SNCC as a field worker in the Mississippi voter registration. He travelled with Carmichael in early 1967. He rejected the draft in May 1967, when called for induction.
(6) GEORGE WASHINGTON WARE -- Ware who is presently Program Director of Campus Affairs for SNCC, was arrested in Nashville on 22 August 1967, on a Tennessee sedition charge. He was taken to jail to await grand jury action and was held on $10,000 bail. Ware denied his guilt, but said he favored violence, if necessary, to gain Negro power. Ware was released on 25 August 1967, when his bail was provided by Reverend Andrew N. White.
(7) IVANHOE GAYLORD DONALDSON -- Donaldson was made a member of SNCC's Central Committee in May 1966, and in September 1966, he was made the New York field secretary. He was born on 17 October 1941, in New York City and attended Michigan State University. In 1962, he became active in civil rights in Mississippi.
(8)COURTLAND VERNON COX -- cox was born on 17 January 1941, in New York City. He attended Howard University with Carmichael and both his parents were from the British West Indies. He invented the "Black Panther" Label for SNCC's party in Alabama and was put on SNCC's Central Committee. He substituted for Carmichael in May 1967.
(9) WALTER LEON JENKINS -- In August 1967, Jenkins was arrested by the Baton Rouge police and booked on charges of inciting arson, simple battery, and public intimidation. He had been active at a Negro rally at the Capitol Building in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on 20 August 1967. He is reportedly a leader of the Black Advancement League of Baton Rouge, which is associated with SNCC. In the past he was associated with NAACP but believes that its methods are outdated. It was later revealed by him that he has been in the employ of CORE, under the name of Billy Brooks. Records later showed that Billy Brooks has a police record in several different towns.
(10) WILLIE RICKS -- Ricks, Known as Brown's "Minister of Defense," Showed up in Dayton, Ohio just before Negro violence erupted on 14 June 1967. After a meeting there, Ricks was quoted as saying that he was in Dayton to "make white men get on their knees." He has also been at a number of different demonstrations including one in Washington, D.C., at the South African Embassy.
(11) CHARLES MCDEW -- McDew is a past National Chairman of SNCC who has been involved in many sit-in demonstrations in the South. He was identified as having had extensive contact with communists in the US and Mexico. He left for Mexico after his term of office to live among a colony of leftists.
(12) REVEREND FREDERICK D. KIRKPATRICK -- Kirkpatrick is the leader of the recently formed SNCC Chapter at Texas Southern University (TSU) and has likened President Johnson to Hitler -- "Hilter had his gas chambers for Jews, and President Johnson has his Vietnam for Negroes." Kirpatrick was a leader of the SNCC demonstrations in early 1967 against the University's failure to renew the contract of Mack Jones, Political Science instructor and faculty advisor for the TSU SNCC chapter. This demonstration turned into violence resulting in some arrests.
(13) BILL MAHONEY -- Mahoney has been acting as SNCC's National Press Relations Officer. He was a friend of Carmichael's at Howard University and was active in the Nonviolent Action Group.
(14) VERNON CRUTCHFIELD -- Crutchfield was a field worker for SNCC in Arkansas and stated that he and other representatives of SNCC made an all-expense paid trip to Russia in 1966. While in Russia, he was offered a free scholarship to attend a Soviet school. He may have left SNCC as of 21 September 1966.
(15) MARION BARRY -- Marion Barry was the first National Chairman of SNCC. After leaving this position he became the director of the Washington, D. C. chapter of SNCC. He is no longer the D.C. director of SNCC, but still is quite active in such projects as Pride, Inc. He has obtained a degree of national prominence.
7. ACTIVITIES: In 1960, SNCC served as a coordinating body for civil rights information and assisted in organizing joint activities of civil rights groups. SNCC then became actively involved in the voter registration and direct-action civil rights campaigns in the South from 1961 to 1964. In 1965 it became more militant, shifting some emphasis from the South to the North and voicing opinions regarding US foreign policy.
a. Civil Rights Activity, 1961-1964.
(1) In August 1961, SNCC moved into Pike County, Mississippi, and opened the first voter-registration school for Negroes in the South. The school was supplemented with direct-action movements, including sit-ins, sign-ins, and marches, SNCC also provided schooling for those students who were expelled when they refused to obey a school directive against participation in demonstrations in McComb, Mississippi.
(2) In 1962, SNCC continued its voter-registration projects in Mississippi during the summer months. It received not only physical but economic opposition. SNCC solicited goods for the needy from northern colleges students.
(3) In 1963, SNCC joined other groups in COFO to carry out civil rights projects. The main single activity of SNCC in 1963, however, was the organization of Selma, Alabama, for voter registration. On the national level, John Lewis, then national chairman of SNCC, delivered an aggressive speech in Washington, D. C., denouncing proposed civil rights legislation as inadequate.
(4) In 1964, SNCC played a primary role in the Mississippi Summer Project -- a statewide voter-registration campaign among Negroes aimed at education and job-training. An estimated 900 volunteers assisted in this project. It was at this time that Stokely Carmichael emerged on the scene. He was made SNCC field director in the Mississippi Delta area. Some 200 volunteers remained in Mississippi at the end of that summer and began the Mississippi Freedom Project. In August 1964, members of SNCC aided the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, went to the Democratic National Convention, and unsuccessfully attempted to have the Mississippi delegation integrated. In September 1964, SNCC's young leaders began identifying themselves with the leadership of the emerging new nations of Arica and other underdeveloped parts of the world.
b. POLITICAL ORGANIZING, 1965 -- In 1965, SNCC continued its activities in the rural South and also moved into the Northern cities. In June 1965, approximately 100 college students recruited throughout the U.S. by SNCC went to Washington, D.C., to participate in a lobbying attempt to get the Mississippi Congressmen unseated. SNCC along with DCA and the SDS, sponsored a demonstration in Washington in early August 1965. This demonstration included picketing the White House, as well as conducting workshops on Vietnam, the draft, Puerto Rico, and South Africa. Some demonstrators were arrested when they tried to enter the Capitol grounds. In the summer of 1965, SNCC, under the guidance of Carmichael, helped to organize the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in the Black Belt voting district in Alabama. Negro voter registration rose to approximately 2,000. SNCC later decided to form a separate political party in Lowndes County and in six nearby counties. In September 1965, SNCC issued a 50-page report, in which it sharply criticized the U.S. Office of Education's program for desegregating Southern schools.
c. PROTEST ACTIVITY, 1966
(1) Vietnam Protests -- In January 1966, John Lewis, then the National Chairman of SNCC, issued a statement condemning US policy in Vietnam and urging all Americans to use any method to avoid the draft. When Julian Bond, a SNCC member and an elected delegate to the House of Representatives of Georgia, publically agreed with this, he was refused his seat. This led to demonstrations and publicity. Throughout 1966, SNCC took part in numerous demonstrations against US action in Vietnam, and SNCC representatives, in speeches at conferences and before college groups across the country, denounced US participation in the war. At the XIIth Army Corps Headquarters, Atlanta, Georgia, a SNCC-led demonstration against the Vietnam War in August 1966, erupted into violence and twelve SNCC demonstrators were arrested.
(2) President's Conference on Civil Rights -- After Carmichael's election to the office of SNCC National Chairman, he rejected an invitation to a White House Conference on Civil Rights. He claimed that the conference was merely for propaganda purposes and not really a serious attempt to insure constitutional rights of "black Americans." SNCC also came out at this time against the 1966 Civil Rights bill and called it a "sham," declaring that legislators were voting for the "hypocrisy of President Johnson and his Administration."
(3) Mississippi March -- When Meredith was shot on his Mississippi Freedom March on 6 June 1966, a manifesto was signed by civil rights leaders, including SNCC, calling on the President for massive civil rights reforms. It was during this march that Carmichael began to popularize his call for "Black Power."
(4) Chicago -- Chicago was selected as the site for a pilot project for SNCC to put its "Black Power" doctrines to work. The plan was to get the black ghettos of the city under Negro control in political, economic, and industrial affairs. A Chicago Coordination Committee for Black Power was set up in the latter part of 1966 to form a loose amalgamation, generally composed of SNCC, CORE, Deacons for Defense and Justice, and Associated Community Teams. This was to be an "action group" that would spread the truth about Negro treatment. Demonstrations were held and pamphlets circulated.
(5) General Election in Alabama -- SNCC activity in Alabama in 1966 was mainly centered around the elections of that year. SNCC sponsored slates of candidates as a test run of "Black Power" politics. SNCC candidates were defeated.
(6) Miscellaneous Activities -- SNCC has also engaged in demonstrations, boycotts, sit-ins, marches, and other activities throughout the country. SNCC in Washington, D.C., held a bus boycott of the D.C. transit system for one day and held a sit-in at the South African Embassy. SNCC also had several representatives at the Youth Seminar on Racialism held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 27-30 April 1966, where SNCC made a special plea for the plight of the American Negro.
d. STEPS TOWARD "BLACK POWER," 1967 -- At a national meeting in December 1966, SNCC promoted national anti=draft programs and regional and national anti-draft conferences. SNCC also agreed to set up additional freedom organizations similar to the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, but not to restrict their activities to voter registration. In January 1967, a joint communique was issued by SNCC and the Movimiento Pro Independencia de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Independence Movement) (MPI). This communique called for improved housing conditions, and for Puerto Rican independence. It affirmed the need for a joint struggle against the "oppression" inflicted upon the Negroes and Puerto Ricans. In March 1967, following Adam Clayton Powell's unseating in the U.S. House of Representatives, SNCC announced that it would campaign for Powell's re-election. Carmichael claimed that it was a white man's plot to break up the Negroes when they wanted to run James Meredith against Powell and that this would become an international issue that will affect the whole world. In March 1967, SNCC held a national conference in Nashville, Tennessee, which placed major emphasis on peace-related workshops. SNCC also took a leading part in the Spring Mobilization Committees that held demonstrations in New York and San Francisco on 15 April 1967. During the period 20-23 July 1967, SNCC attended an all-Negro National Conference on Black Power, in Newark, New Jersey. One of the resolutions adopted called for a black militia to train black families in all aspects of self defense and racial survival. Another resolution denounced the Selective Service and the Federal Government and supported a "Hell no, we won't go" attitude toward the draft.
CONCLUSION
The growing popularity of H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, and SNCC indicates a changing temper in Negro racist agitation. More and more Negroes are accepting the SNCC policy of violence and destruction of established social order in the U. S. Recent utterances of SNCC leaders call for Negroes to arm themselves in preparation for guerrilla warfare to overthrow the "imperialist" government of the United States. They seek to destroy the present American economic, political, and social systems in a SNCC-defined attempt to gain "freedom" for the Negro.
The growing discontent of Negroes in the United States creates an ideal situation for the propaganda of the hate-mongers of SNCC. The leaders are actively touring the country to preach their sermons of violence in Negro ghettos, where they constantly stress their concept of "Black Power."
SNCC is not a communist front organization. It may not avoid such classification much longer, however, since it has accepted funds from communist front groups and communists as workers. Communists have the proverbial "foot in the door" and the question of whether this influence will increase is now a matter of conjecture only. Within the scope of current racist agitation in the United States and the activities of Carmichael and other SNCC members abroad, greater communist infiltration of SNCC and increased SNCC-aided violence in American cities is entirely possible. SNCC promotion of black racism and the advocacy of violence can only serve to increase racial tension throughout the country and possibly harm the struggle for civil rights being conducted by more responsible Negro organizations.
