The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was one of the chief organizations during the Civil Rights Movement. It was formed 57 years ago in 1960 by young, Black college students of the time. Through their fieldwork, particularly the students’ involvement with the 1961 Freedom Rides, SNCC garnered much respect and forged a formidable presence in the South.

Initially, the organization was committed to following a Gandhian doctrine of nonviolence similar to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), another organization of the 1960s headed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As time passed, however, the two organizations drifted in ideologies and practices.

In 1963, SNCC chairman John Lewis was scheduled to speak at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He planned to address John F. Kennedy’s proposed civil rights bill, considering it as “too little, and too late.” He wanted to refer to the Civil Rights Movement as “a serious revolution” but he tempered his stance to appease other prominent march organizers.

After a series of even more disillusioning events, culminating in the murder of one of their members, Sammy Younge Jr., many students began to realize that preaching nonviolence was not the answer. SNCC found it no longer made sense to try to peacefully appeal to the general population, especially when they faced the real threat of death by white supremacists and Ku Klux Klan members.

Once SNCC named Stokely Carmichael chairman in 1966, their migration from nonviolent to militant was solidified. The organization understood that true, perpetual equality would not come from restrained, appeasing approaches. They officially changed their name to the Student National Coordinating Committee in 1969 to reflect the expansion of their tactics and philosophies.

Black Lives Matter and other grassroots and/or student-led organizations of 2017 can learn a lot from SNCC. In a short position paper, SNCC laid out their views and strategies for racial justice, and though it was written decades ago, their messages still ring true.

1. White Allies Can Limit Open, Truthful Discussions About Race.

“Negroes in this country have never been allowed to organize themselves because of white interference. As a result of this, the stereotype has been reinforced that Blacks cannot organize themselves... [They], in fact, feel intimidated by the presence of whites, because of their knowledge of the power that whites have over their lives. One white person can come into a meeting of Black people and change the complexion of that meeting... race would not be discussed."

“If Blacks feel intimidated by whites, then they are not liable to vent the rage that they feel about whites in the presence of whites — especially not the Black people whom we are trying to organize, i.e., the broad masses of Black people.”

“The reasons that whites must be excluded is not that one is anti-white, but because the effects that one is trying to achieve cannot succeed because whites have an intimidating effect.”

“These facts do not mean that whites cannot help. They can participate on a voluntary basis. We can contract work out to them, but in no way can they participate on a policy-making level.”

2. It Is Not the Responsibility of People of Color to Educate or Change the Hearts of Racists, Bigots, etc.

“It must be offered that white people who desire change in this country should go where that problem (racism) is most manifest. The problem is not in the Black community. The white people should go into white communities where the whites have created power for the express purpose of denying Blacks human dignity and self-determination.”

“Whites who come into the Black community with ideas of change seem to want to absolve the power structure of its responsibility for what it is doing, and saying that change can only come through Black unity, which is the worst kind of paternalism.”

“There is no doubt in our minds that some whites are just as disgusted with this system as we are. But it is meaningless to talk about coalition if there is no one to align ourselves with, because of the lack of organization in the white communities.”

3. Don’t Let Donation Money Dictate Your Actions.

“If we continue to rely upon white financial support we will find ourselves entwined in the tentacles of the white power complex that controls this country.”

4. Beware of White Liberals.

“More and more we see Black people in this country being used as a tool of the white liberal establishment. Liberal whites have not begun to address themselves to the real problem of Black people in this country--witness their bewilderment, fear, and anxiety when nationalism is mentioned concerning Black people.”

"When we view the masses of white people we view the overall reality of America, we view the racism, the bigotry, and the distortion of personality, we view man's inhumanity to man; we view in reality 180 million racists. The sensitive white intellectual and radical who is fighting to bring about change is conscious of this fact, but does not have the courage to admit this. When he admits this reality, then he must also admit his involvement because he is a part of the collective white America. It is only to the extent that he recognizes this that he will be able to change this reality."

“Previous solutions to Black problems in this country have been made in the interests of those whites dealing with these problems and not in the best interests of Black people in the country.”

“We have found that most white radicals have sought to escape the horrible reality of America by going into the Black community and attempting to organize Black people while neglecting the organization of their own people's racist communities. How can one clean up someone else's yard when one's own yard is untidy?”

“It is very ironic and curious that aware whites in the country can champion anti-colonialism in other countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, but when Black people move toward similar goals of self-determination in this country they are viewed as racists and anti-white by these same progressive whites.”

5. Stop Doing So Much Emotional Labor, and Save Your Energy.

“A thorough re-examination must be made by Black people concerning the contributions that we have made in shaping this country. If this re-examination and re-evaluation is not made, and Black people are not given their proper due and respect, then the antagonisms and contradictions are going to become more and more glaring, more and more intense, until a national explosion may result.”