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Group 1 (215)

SNCC and the Spread of Global Freedom (Kyle Yuan, Dillon Beal)

Introduction:

While the Civil Rights Movement is mostly taught in classes with a primarily national scope, the international aspect of the Civil Rights Movement is integral to understanding the true complexity of the movement. Nikhil Pal Singh, a critical American studies scholar, argues in his book Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy for this international scope. He claims, “… the heterogeneous patterns and epistemologies of intranational racial differentiation were recast by [World War II] at new scales of association and influence. Black activists and intellectuals subsequently embraced new national and global conceptions of black struggle with surprising intensity, unanimity, and radicalism” (Singh 118, Ftn. 1). Singh argues that after World War II, black freedom dreamers looked through an international scope in order to fight for freedom. Singh uses the specific example of black activists denouncing the American involvement in the Vietnam War.

Jill Lepore, a prominent American historian at Harvard, is another historian participating in this debate. She argues in her article “A New Americanism” for a composite nation and the importance of looking at American history through the spreading of democratic ideals, albeit at only the national scope. She cites Carl Degler’s book Out of the Past: The Forces That Shaped Modern in her article as a primary example of how American history should be written. She states that the book was heavily influenced by W.E.B. Du Bois, and “placed race, slavery, segregation, and civil rights at the center of the story, alongside liberty, rights, revolution, freedom, and equality.” (Lepore, Ftn. 2).

Although Singh and Lepore are on opposite sides of the historical debate, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) practiced ideas presented by both historians during the Civil Rights Movement. While taking pride in being a grassroots movement in the American South emphasizing a national spread of democratic ideals, it also focused on global freedom dreams and spreading these democratic ideals over a large, global scope.

Document 1:

The first document is a written statement by SNCC denouncing American involvement in the Vietnam War. The statement addresses Samuel Younge, a Vietnam Navy veteran and SNCC worker who was shot and killed after attempting to use a whites-only bathroom. The day of his death, Younge led 40 other men into a local courthouse to register to vote, but was stopped by two registrars who took out knives and threatened to stab them to death. More can be learned about Samuel Younge on the SNCC Digital Gateway. This written statement by SNCC demonstrates how the organization viewed the Civil Rights as a global movement by connecting the black experience with the Vietnamese experience. It also represents the fight for freedom and democratic ideals on both the national scope and the international scope.

Document 2:

The second document depicts police officers dragging the chairman of SNCC, John Lewis, after he “arrested himself” after police officers arrested 21 other people during a meeting with Kenyan minister of home affairs Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a prominent figure in Kenya’s struggle for independence. The meeting with Mr. Odinga consisted of talks about black freedom and gift exchanging before being interrupted by the series of arrests. Lewis consequently arrested himself, and called for Atlanta to be taken off the itinerary for African visitors visiting American after claiming Atlanta was the most segregated city in America given its size. SNCC’s involvement with Mr. Odinga once again emphasizes their commitment toward achieving democratic ideals within the nation, but also shows the global influence on the Civil Rights Movement.

Teaching:

Reading and interpreting these two documents reveals why both Singh and Lepore’s arguments are necessary in teaching history. Although Singh and Lepore do have contradictory arguments such as Singh’s focus on the "the splitting off of racial history, in our own time, yielded a kind of national schizophrenia.." and Lepore’s focus on the uniting of different histories to form unified story, both were present in SNCC. Their involvement in the Civil Rights Era demonstrates how both perspectives are important toward understanding the Civil Rights Movement in all of its complexity. Without one or the other perspectives, key information would be missing about the Civil Rights Movement, and could lead to the spread of misinformation. Additionally, SNCC demonstrates that at the core, Singh’s global black freedom dreams and Lepore’s liberal nationalism essentially argue for the same thing: the spread of freedom and democratic ideals. The importance of both perspectives is crucial to teaching and understanding our own history as a whole.

Notes:

Digital Research Process