Rutgers Model Congress
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Fanny Lou Hamer
Amy Chou
East Brunswick High School
One hundred years ago Abraham Lincoln declared, “all persons held as slaves
within any State, or designated part of a State…shall be forever free…” (Brooks 1).
Even after the Emancipation Proclamation affirmed that the United States would
“recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress
such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may for their actual freedom,” former
slaves still do not have rights equal to those of the white population (“Emancipation
Proclamation…” 1). Today in the 1960s, African Americans are still trying to gain their
freedoms and right to equality. Whether it is through the Montgomery Bus Boycott,
Greensboro Sit-Ins, or peaceful marches, African Americans are joining together to
ensure their rights will not be compromised. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) in cooperation with various organizations, such as the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC) will fight to uphold legislation and assist African
Americans in achieving equality.
The Civil War ended on April 18, 1865 and reconstruction went underway; the
abolishment of slavery followed in the post few months (“The Civil War…” 1). The
thirteenth amendment formally established that “neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude…shall exist within the United States…” (“US Constitution…” 1). The
fourteenth amendment proceeded, granting citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized
in the United States” and affirmed that “no State shall make or enforce a law that shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens…” (1). Though slavery was
abolished by the thirteenth amendment, African Americans do not have the equal rights
to those of the whites, which was proven in the monumental Supreme Court case of
Plessy v. Ferguson (Powledge 12). In 1896, Homer Plessy presented his case to the U.S.
Supreme Court; he had been arrested for riding in a “whites only” railroad car instead of
the designated Negro area (13). The majority opinion presented to the court allowed
states to provide “separate but equal” accommodations for Negros (13). Plessy has
proved to be a landmark case, with the majority of the states within the union still
upholding their right to “separate-but-equal” facilities for African Americans, deeming
segregation and Jim Crow Laws legal (Williams 2). In 1933, Nathan Ross Margold, a
white Harvard lawyer of the NAACP, published the Margold Report, a legal strategy to
end school segregation. It opposed the “separate-but-equal” doctrine and concluded the
Plessy decision was not well thought out or written (10). This report led to a legal
campaign for the end of segregation in public schools (“The NAACP Targets…” 1).
Although the south maintained its policy of segregation by this “separate-but-equal”
doctrine, there was a great disparity between the facilities the whites used versus the
blacks.
In 1935, Charles Houston of the NAACP began a filming project to show the
inequality within black and white schools (Williams 2). At the time, most southern states
spent at least five times more money educating a white child than they would a Negro.
The film “Examples of Education Discrimination Among Rural Negros in South
Carolina” would show the unequal African Americans need to endure daily (2). Even
with this, the courts had not ruled the state actions unconstitutional, and ignored the
school segregation until the case Oliver L. Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka
(Carrier 335). In Brown, Oliver Brown’s daughter, Linda, could not attend the nearer
school in Topeka, Kansas because it was a “whites only” school. He and several other
African American parents sued the board of education. Not only did Brown and the
NAACP win this case, but the Supreme Court reversed the fifty eight year old policy of
the separate-but-equal doctrine in public schools (336). Many believe this case is the
beginning of the modern civil rights movement which is still intact today.
The Civil Rights Movement has engulfed the south as an attempt to gain equal
rights and protections for African Americans. Although the fifteenth amendment ensures
race will not prohibit those of color from voting, intimidation and various laws
implemented by states have hindered its effectiveness as law (“US Constitution…” 1).
Vigilante groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the White Citizens Council used
intimidation of hangings and violence against the Negros to prevent them from
participating in the polls (Cobb 12). A stance taken by the Federal courts would be in the
Supreme Court case Smith v. Allwright, otherwise known as the “Texas case”, where
white primaries were abolished and prohibited from use in the United States (Brook 87).
“White primaries” are laws and rules which prohibit the blacks from participation in
Democratic Party primaries. After the abolishment of such activities, the voter
registration rate had gone up almost five percent within the southern black voting age
bracket (87). Although the abolishment of “white primaries” proved to be successful,
there were still many problems that need to be eradicated before African Americans
would gain the equal opportunity for voting as do other Americans.
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 created the United States Commission on Civil
Rights while setting guidelines to seemingly ensure voting rights for African Americans
(“Civil Rights Act of 1957” 1). In May, Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights
Act of 1960 which punished those threatened the new colored voters (“May 6” 1). With
only a 3% increase in African American voter registration during the 1960 election, the
Civil Rights Act of 1960 proved to be ineffective in combating the issue of minimal voter
registration. Though Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 were initiatives of the federal
government to encourage Negro participation in voting, they are proved to be ineffective
at combating the issues regarding voter registration.
Individual state laws pose a threat towards the equal treatment of African
Americans in today’s society. State sovereignty has been an issue since the creation of
the constitution (“The War for States…” 1). Since most of the Bill of Rights is not
incorporated, states are allowed to impose laws and restrictions which inherently affect
African Americans negatively. For example, in the Supreme Court case United States v.
Cruikshank, an armed white mob attacked and lynched freedman marching in Colfax,
Louisiana (“United States v. Cruikshank” 1). The United States brought a suit to insist
the group of white individuals violated the African American’s first amendment right to
peacefully assemble (1). The Supreme Court overturned the guilty charge on Cruikshank
and claimed the Bill of Rights was not incorporated to the states; therefore the white men
were able to do as they pleased, as long as no state law violations were made (“U.S.
Supreme Court…” 1). Not only was this an act of racial violence against African
Americans, the courts allow states overwhelming amounts of power to allow for such
gruesome actions to occur. States’ rights activism has been a detriment to the civil rights
movement for a variety of reasons. The southern states used De Jure segregation versus
the north’s policy of De Facto segregation, both of which posed limitations on Negro
rights and favored white supremacy (“Segregation…” 1).
State sovereignty allowed for abuses on the African American privilege to vote as
well. The tenth amendment gives “the powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to
the people” (“Bill of Rights” 1). Since specific voting rights are not outlined in the
constitution, the state redeems control over some aspects of the polls. Subsequently,
many of the southern states are using a poll tax, literacy test, grandfather clause, and
various forms of harassment to ensure African Americans would not be included in the
elections (Powledge 130). There have been instances where the polls would be placed far
away from black communities or have been moved spontaneously. African American
votes have been “eaten” by mules or purposely purged by political parties (131). Also,
economic threats are used to keep Negros from voting. A black farmer had attempted to
register only to discover his credit would be cut off if he had subsequently resulting in his
lack of registration (132). The State uses extraneous explanations to why all these factors
prevent African Americans from voting.
As well, many states in the south enacted Jim Crow laws, named after the popular
minstrel show, posed strict anti-black laws (“What Was Jim Crow” 1). These rigid laws
ensured that blacks would be treated as second class citizens rather than people equal to
the white. Such laws forced African Americans to bow to whites as they passed by,
segregate the races, avoid any form of racial integration, and so forth (1). Since it is
within states’ rights to set such restrictions on the African American population, the
federal government and court did not want to or have jurisdiction to punish the state.
Civil rights issues have been affecting the south since the post-civil war era, and
various organizations and groups have been established to assist African Americans with
our struggle for equality. The emergence of a younger generation of African Americans
created the need to establish the Temporary SNCC. This committee is inspired by Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr’s ideals of nonviolence and continues to carry his philosophy
while combating racial inequality (Weisbrot 34). On February 1, 1960, a group of
college students refused to leave a Woolworth’s counter though they were denied service
(“Six Years of…” 1). This would become the Greensboro sit-in, which is sparking waves
of sit-ins within students from various colleges all over the South. The Greensboro Sitins instigated the creation of SNCC, which serves as the coordinator for peaceful protests
throughout the south, especially in high racially segregated areas. Sit-ins gradually
became a widespread protest technique used by the youth of America to demonstrate
dissatisfaction with the current segregation (Morton 1). Though it is a fairly new
organization, SNCC is committed to using strategies of nonviolence with the new
generation to promote a revolution toward racial equality.
SNCC is crucial in involving the younger generations of the civil rights
movement through Gandhi’s non-violent teachings. “The movement is the eternal
refutation of the idea that the colored citizen is satisfied with segregation” stated Martin
Luther King Jr. (Morton 1). This movement is fueled by the youth; the next generation
will not be subjugated to more of the same system. In order to achieve racial equality,
the activists cannot solely stem from one generation; the movement must be large scale
and raise awareness. SNCC differs from other mainstream civil rights organizations in
that it chooses to change society from grassroots beginnings rather than simply integrate
African Americans into the existing order (“SNCC-What We Did” 1). This committee
should emphasize the cruelty and degree of inequality faced by Negros in the south
through small scale projects (“Student Nonviolent…” 1). SNCC is looking at individual
points of interest in the Civil Rights Movement and will achieve racial equality by
changing the way society views African Americans. The goal of SNCC is not just to
solely integrate, but to make the population understand blacks are not inferior to white,
we are all equals.
I, Fanny Lou Hamer, being poor black woman living in the south, have personally
experienced the injustices within America. On October 6, 1917, I was born on a
plantation to a family of poor sharecroppers in Montgomery County, Mississippi and
later moved to Sunflower County (“Fanny Lou Hamer” 1). Needless to say, I was
growing up during a time of segregation and racism, in the most prejudice state in the
union. Starting at age six, my family and I would work in the fields picking cotton for
the plantation owner, being a sharecropper is just another form of slavery in my mind.
My family earned miniscule amounts of money and eventually accumulated enough to
rent a small plot of land and purchase tools for small scale farming (“Fanny Lou Hamer
Bio” 1). Our neighbor, a white farmer, did not want to see my family and I succeed in
our farming activities and he poisoned our mules to ensure the failure of our farm
(“American Rights…” 1). Preceding this tragic event, we found work on another
plantation where I became a record keeper as a result of my literacy. “When I was a
child, I loved to read. In fact, I learned to read real well when I was going to school”
(“Fanny Lou Hamer: Woman...” 1). Literacy is crucial in my involvement within the
civil rights movement.
Though I value my literacy and believe all children should receive equal
education, voting is currently the most pressing issue of the Civil Rights Movement. It is
imperative that more eligible African American voters become registered, so then we can
have proportional say within the government. Blacks have been denied their rights to the
polls for far too long, some counties have an overwhelming majority of black residents,
yet the number of registered Negro voters is lacking greatly (Powledge 133). In 1957,
the newly established U.S. Commission on Civil Rights exercised their rights investigate
six Black Belt towns in Alabama counties (133). Black Belt counties are located in an
area of rich soil for cotton farming and contained a large Negro population within
Alabama (“The Black Belt” 1). Though the African American to white ratio was greater,
there were less than one thousand registered blacks in each county (Powledge 133). In
fact, two of the counties, Lowndes and Wilcox had no registered Negro voters. For
regions such as these, SNCC must be enacting greater force to ensure voting rights
become fairly allocated.
With all the shameful displays of injustice within American society, African
Americans must infiltrate their thoughts and ideas into the American legal system to
ensure equality in the future. Under the fifteen amendment, no state can deny the right to
a vote to any citizen based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (“US
Con…” 1). Though many tactics of intimidation are used to deter African Americans
away from voting, Negros must become strong and united against such threats. The
SNCC should organize student voting groups to ensure protection within numbers and
safety of those registering. Though the group of willing voters is founded, there needs to
be education distributed amongst these people so they can comprehend the proper ways
to vote. Voting drives should also be held; the larger the drive the more media coverage
may become available which promotes awareness to our cause. I believe that a voter
registration course is crucial for all African Americans who want to vote, so they can
know how to properly vote and prepare for the literacy test which may be administered.
SNCC can also attempt to send representatives to major political party platform
writing sessions to gain assistance for the struggle against desegregation (Powledge 240).
In the past, the Democratic Party has stated it would guarantee compliance to the civil
rights acts and equal access to areas of the community to everyone (241). The
Republican GOP has condemned racial discrimination and pledges to eradicate the
current policies of segregation and racial discrimination (241). Though we are aware
what these political parties say do not dictate their actions, SNCC can attempt to rally
some political support for a stronger alliance against voting rights abuse.
Often times, state and local governments allow or facilitate acts of violence to
occur to those of color registering to vote. Many also ensure difficulty to African
Americans by implementing various tests and taxes to qualify for voting. In fact, in
Mississippi, only 5% of those eligible Negro voters have been registered (“Blacks in the
South…” 1). Areas in the Deep South have the most conflict with allowing the large
population of African Americans to vote. In 1954, Esau Jenkins in collaboration with the
Highland Research and Education Center used Citizenship Schools to educate African
Americans so they could subsequently pass the literacy test and participate in politics
(“The Citizenship Schools” 1). These schools provided Negros with enough education to
become literate and gain knowledge of the world around them. SNCC should broaden
this type of program throughout the south, where literacy tests are just part of a large
movement to prevent Negro suffrage. The SCLC is already affiliated with the
Citizenship Schools program, but SNCC can work in collaboration with this other
organization to promote literacy and increase voting rates throughout America (1). If
more voting rights are achieved, then African Americans can progress to attend various
major political party meetings and even attempt to represent various states at these
conventions. With greater voting power comes the potential for more aspirations for the
Civil Rights Movement.
The ignorance of many Americans must be broken; more awareness is needed if
we want this movement to succeed. As the year 1961 approaches, John F. Kennedy is
the incoming president with a State of the Union Address on January 31, 1961 (“John F.
Kennedy” 1). This State of the Union address will harbor mass media from the North
and many viewers; this address can act as media coverage for our movement. African
Americans must rally support from viewers and congress to focus on civil rights
legislation and enforcement. A large group of Negros should campaign nearby the State
of the Union Address to attract attention to the issues of our concern. There may be
negative effects from this plan, such as hate crimes against African Americans, but since
the rally is in Washington D.C., and not the Deep South, immediate violence is less likely
to occur.
Segregation is another issue that is plaguing our nation. The Federal government
needs to assert its power within this movement to deter away from racism. The Supreme
Court case Barron v. Baltimore had set a precedent that the rights enumerated in the Bill
of Rights do not pose limitations upon state rights and only apply to the federal
government (“Barron v. Baltimore” 1). This case has justified the states’ rights involving
affairs and allow for segregation to occur in the form of du jure segregation. SNCC must
illuminate the fact that national governments do have supremacy over the states.
The United States has passed numerous laws and acts as a feeble attempt to gain
equality amongst races. Unless more African Americans become registered voters, the
laws will remain useless and unenforced. SNCC should organize and clearly decide that
currently, voting rights is the most pressing issue, and then it can implement plans of
actions to address the issue effectively. Overall, the Civil Rights Movement must be
fueled by new ideas and contributions, which SNCC can provide.
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