Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), also called “Snick,” was a civil rights organization in the United States during the 1960’s. It was founded in 1960 in Raleigh, N.C., and originally consisted of Black and white college students. In the early 1960’s, SNCC organized peaceful protests and demonstrations to speed desegregation in the South. In 1964, SNCC sponsored the Mississippi Project, in which about 800 volunteers helped thousands of African Americans register to vote.
In 1966, SNCC’s new leader, Stokely Carmichael, expressed the frustration and impatience of many young Black people with the slow progress being made through nonviolent protests. He called for a campaign to achieve Black Power and to fight the “white power” that had oppressed Black Americans. Carmichael urged Black people to gain political and economic control of their own communities. He rejected much of SNCC’s white support.
In 1966, SNCC was the first civil rights organization to oppose U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (1957-1975). Carmichael and other SNCC leaders said the United States was interfering in the struggle of nonwhite people to become independent.
Carmichael resigned in 1967, and H. Rap Brown succeeded him. SNCC changed its name to Student National Coordinating Committee in 1969, but disbanded soon after that.
