Many thanks to human rights activist and historian Sue Thrasher for sharing these thoughts on the recent SNCC conference. We have posted them with some photos taken by historian Patrick D. Jones. Take a look at Patrick’s album of SNCC reunion photos here. The site also has a great list of SNCC reading, both from a historical perspective and reflections on the conference.
Leah said, “Iron your blouse. . . it’s like we are going to a family reunion!” And thus it started — four intense days of seeing old friends and repeated attempts of trying to “place” people (Did we meet during COFO summer? The SNCC office in Atlanta? Or simply passing through Nashville?). Nan (Orrock) said as we were leaving the conference that it would take a long time to process the event, and a full five days later, I am still remembering and thinking about certain things. Intense is the word I have used to describe it to friends here; certainly on Sunday night I felt both emotionally and physically drained. Leah (Wise) tells me it has been the same for her. I think we expended enough psychic energy in those four days to last a month.
My immediate response was one of feeling “at home” or as Casey Hayden used to say, with my tribe. I have always thought of the SNCC days as the moment when I became the person I am today. It was that particular time – a few short years – that shaped how I have lived my life, and I am eternally grateful. I suspect the same is true for many of the 1100 people gathered in Raleigh. It was celebratory, and comforting, to slip back into the fold.
I attended all of the conference sessions, which is to say, that I attended one session in each time slot. This was not the kind of conference one could easily kibbutz and move from one session to another. For one thing, the rooms were overflowing and late arrivals would find no place to sit or stand. So, it was best to make a difficult choice and commit. I was never disappointed, but I imagine that any of the sessions would not have disappointed. One of my favorites was the one commenting on the impact of SNCC; the speakers were Charles Payne, author of I’ve Got the Light of Freedom; Taylor Branch of the King trilogy; Clay Carson, editor of the King papers and author of a book on SNCC; Tom Hayden, and Vincent Harding, author of There is a River. Nan took excellent notes on this session although she missed Payne’s presentation. I have to admit I just listened and soaked it in. The one nugget I took away, however, was Payne saying that we cannot tell young people how to organize now, but we can show them how to build a supportive culture for organizing. (I am mangling his eloquence, but hope the point is made.)
James Lawson reads from one of the Gandhi books that inspired his belief in nonviolence. Photo by Patrick D. Jones.
I was not happy with my presentation on the white organizing panel. Ten minutes means you go too fast and trip over yourself and in such cases, I am prone to get to the details but not the big picture. So, I’m afraid I only provided snatches of Highlander history and SSOC history. Ed did a much better job of talking about the white folks project as part of COFO summer and Candie Carawan gave a moving tribute to the West Virginia miners before talking about the work she and Guy have done with Highlander. Margaret Herring’s story of being arrested for sedition in eastern Kentucky was as riveting now as it was then. Sharlene Kranz’ presentation about her work in the Jewish community in Washington was amazing and inspiring. I also was glad that Bob Zellner could talk about the GROW project with pulpwood cutters and loved the fact that Hollis Watkins came forward to talk about the impact that work had in the black community. But Bob’s lingering feelings about the split in SNCC when white organizers were asked to leave left some unsettled feelings on the floor. SNCC organizer, George Ware, made a lovely statement about the need for black SNCC workers to explore black identity and deal with the issue of black self-determination.
I heard that on one of the panels someone made the statement that we are dealing with the Tea Party today because white people in the movement did not go out and organize white people. That strikes me as an inch-deep analysis of the current political landscape and it also diminishes the legacy of SNCC. In addition to the white organizing represented on the panel, most of the white SNCC staff and the summer COFO volunteers went on to do incredible political organizing in the years to come. Mario Savio is one of the first examples, but the anti-Vietnam war movement, the women’s movement, the environmental movement, organized labor, and even the counter-cultural movement (which laid the groundwork for movements today around issues of local food and sustainability) are rooted in the freedom movement.
Julian Bond, Courtland Cox, and Ivanhoe Donaldson. Photo by Patrick D. Jones.
I was very moved by the session remembering those who have died. Dinky Romilly gave a brave and beautiful remembrance of Jim Forman, challenging us to do better at dealing with mental illness. There was a jarring moment when Charles Sherrod simply asked that someone from the audience come forward to talk about Howard Zinn. This clearly had not been planned. And beautiful Vincent Harding, who did come forward to talk about Howard, let his distress at this turn of events be known before proceeding. The slide show was clearly done very quickly and was not professional at all, but it was hauntingly beautiful to see pictures of Mrs. Baker, Stokely, Forman, Ralph Featherstone and others – all young and beautiful. Whoever put the slide show together had not been able to snag a picture of everyone and that was disappointing, but the names were there. Sam Shirah, so important in the early days of SSOC, was named but not pictured, as was Stanley Wise. Pictures of Sam appear in Danny Lyon’s pictorial history of SNCC and when I bought the book, Danny talked about how much he loved Sam and told me that he, Sam, and John Lewis had shared an Atlanta apartment.
The other session I found moving was Saturday morning when SNCC people introduced their children, followed by a panel of the young people. Each of the young people talked about what they are doing. Many of them are teachers or working in education. Zora Cobb talked about agriculture and food. Rita Marie Romaine was introduced by Karen Spellman and talked about the resegregation of the Wake County schools and her plans to run again for the school board. When I first saw Rita, I was completely flustered; I thought Anne Romaine was standing in front of me. James Forman, Jr. talked beautifully about his work with the Maya Angelou Charter School in DC that works with incarcerated youth. I was ambivalent about the short speech given by the daughter of James Bevel and Diane Nash Bevel, asking people to remember the good things about her father. She did not mention or acknowledge her mother, Diane, or her sisters who brought suit against their father for sexually molesting them. Samirra Wise was not able to come that morning, but one of the big highlights of the weekend for me was seeing Samirra, now a beautiful young mother. Looking at Samirra is to bring Stanley Wise back to life and watching her daughter, Devin, now two years old, it is evident she has inherited the feistiness of both her grandparents.
Bob Moses and John Doar. Photo by Patrick D. Jones.
The conference part of the gathering was incredibly well organized and the best evidence of that was that it didn’t break down at all in light of the massive numbers of people attending. With uncharacteristic discipline, I and the people I was staying with made sure to arrive early in order to find decent seats and be able to hear. For the most part, I thought the presentations were better than the question and answer periods, because that, predictably, often turned into speech-making. I was told, though, that some of the sessions had excellent Q and As.
But even as I was enjoying the formal program of the conference, it was the personal reunions that I enjoyed the most. It was impossible not to run into old friends that I so wanted to see: Bernard Lafayette, a key member of the Nashville SNCC chapter, who had been at American Baptist Theological, along with John Lewis. McArthur Cotton and Willie Peacock, two of the local Mississippi young people (along with Hollis Watkins and Brenda Travis) who began working with Bob Moses when he first went to Mississippi. I have a great picture in my living room of Willie Peacock along with the Carawans, Hollis, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Pete Seeger, and Florence Reece (who wrote the song, “Which Side are you On” when she and husband, Sam, were fleeing gun thugs in 1930s Harlan County, Kentucky) singing at Highlander’s 50th anniversary reunion. Don Stone, whom I had known in Atlanta with the Black Workers Congress. Michael Simmons and Zoharah “Gwen” Simmons and their daughter, Aisha; I loved the fact that Michael was busy promoting his daughter’s film! Phyllis Cunningham who worked with the Medical Committee for Human Rights in Mississippi. Shirley Cooks. Dorie Ladner. Bob Mants. Bob Moses. Chuck Neblett. Len Chandler, still singing wonderfully. Cleve Sellers. Danny Lyons. Jane Bond. Howard Moore. Margaret Herring. Martha Prescod Norman. Fanny Rushing. Mildred Forman. Jean Wheeler Smith. Frank Smith. Walter Tillow, who helped put together the founding conference of SSOC. Kay Tillow who I first met when she was organizing the roving picket miners in Harlan County, Kentucky. These were people that I do not see often and do not know when I will see again.
Amiri Baraka and Donald Stone. Photo by Patrick D. Jones.
It was also good to see others that I see on a more regular basis: Judy Richardson, who has regularly come to Western Mass over the past few years to provide workshops for teachers on how to use the Eyes on the Prize series; Charlie Cobb, who came last year to talk about his new book, Julian Bond and Pam Horowitz, James Bond, Dottie Zellner. The SSOC crew – there were ten of us around the dinner table together: Ed Hamlett, Gene Guerrero, Tom Gardner, Nan Orrock, Dottie Burlage, Howard Romaine, Bruce Smith, Archie Allen. We were joined by Ed King, whose house at Tougaloo College was a safe haven for many of us. My “Deep in our Hearts” cohorts were also very present: Connie Curry, Joan Browning, Emmie Schraeder Adams, Penny Patch, Teresa del Pozzo (in addition to Dorothy Burlage and me).
I have listed the names here because I want to remember them all (and because I am already frustrated that I cannot summon images to mind). I want to remember how they look now and try to remember how they looked then and what each of them brought into my life. I feel exceptionally lucky that I have been able to stay in touch with many of them and even work with them. Bill Strickland and I have served on the board of the National Priorities Project for many years; Nan came to speak at one of our annual dinners. Judy Richardson has been a mainstay in my efforts to figure out how to encourage teachers to teach about the civil rights movement. Charlie Cobb returned last year to the city where he graduated from high school to meet with students and teachers. Zohorrah, Howie Machtinger, Bob Zellner and I all re-connected last year in Chicago at a symposium organized by Charles Payne. It was there I met Fanny Rushing and learned about the Chicago Freedom Schools. Connecting present to past . . . remembering the SNCC touchstone and trying to pass it on.
Bob Brown and Cleveland Sellers. Photograph by Patrick D. Jones.
We managed to slip away from the conference on Friday night to have a mini-reunion with the folks involved in the early days of the Institute for Southern Studies/Southern Exposure. Julian and his wife Pam, Jacquelyn Hall (of the Southern Oral History Program) and Bob Korstad, Joe Pfister and his wife, Howard Romaine, Bob Hall, Chip Hughes, Leah Wise, and me. Bob and Julian told some funny stories about going to New York City to try to raise money for the Institute, “trying to get a foot in the door.” The Institute never had much money and Southern Exposure was always published on a shoe string. We didn’t reminisce much, just enjoyed each other’s company and talked a little about what we are doing now. I had not seen Chip for a long time and loved hearing about his work with occupational health and safety through NIH and the unions. Bob Hall is doing incredible work with Democracy North Carolina and apparently figured largely in the state turnout for Obama. The Institute still lives through the work of Chris Kromm and Facing South – and that is rewarding. Southern Exposure issues populate libraries around the country and I am always grateful for that. Recently a friend of Reber Boult’s got in touch to donate a full collection (these eventually went to Vanderbilt).
The truth is that it was absolutely exhausting! With the exception of the people that I see frequently, I found that I had to see people’s name tags in order to recognize them. And with that recognition would come a flood of memories of where and how our paths had crossed and deep, deep pleasure in seeing someone again and re-connecting. There was never enough time for this.
Franklin McCain, one of the "Greensboro Four." Photo by Patrick D. Jones.
I was really happy to meet John Doar, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division under Bobby Kennedy. It is no accident that Doar was there. He was always the most trusted of the Justice Department officials and many of us remember the picture of that riveting moment when he stepped between a line of policemen with guns drawn and the mourners in the march following Medgar Evers’s funeral. Dorie Ladner, one of the people arrested that day, took the microphone in the back of the Shaw Chapel and came down the center aisle to stand in front of John Doar and ask him to the tell the story of that day. He is now 88 years old and stayed for the entire conference. He was unassuming and humble about his role, yet clearly held in high regard by the SNCC organizers who kept his phone number in their pockets in Mississippi. I truly hope the man will write a book.
Harry Belafonte and Julie Prettyman. Photo by Patrick D. Jones.
I was reminded at this conference about the important role played by young Mississippi organizers. When Moses went into Mississippi to begin organizing for SNCC, in addition to Amzie Moore and Mr. Steptoe, he found Hollis Watkins, McArthur Cotton, Curtis Hayes (now Curtis Muhammed), Willie (Wazir) Peacock, and Brenda Travis. These select few were allowed to go into places like Amite County (McComb) and Natchez. I think I am right that no white COFO volunteers could go into SW Mississippi because it was simply too unsafe. I remember attending the first reunion of COFO on its 15th anniversary at Tougaloo, and even then, there was a sense that people had come and gone, forgetting Mississippi and the folks who were left there to continue the work. Mac Cotton now lives in Kosciusko, MS where the DeLaneys on my mother’s side of the family come from. Hollis, of course, has never stopped organizing. Active on the Highlander board, he is the founder of Southern ECHO and works with Leah Wise in the SE Regional Economic Justice Network. And one of the nicest reunions I had at the conference was re-connecting with “Little Hollis” who was in and out of Highlander during my time there, and is now a grown man working in education in North Carolina.
Donald Stone and Alan Haber. Photo by Patrick D. Jones.
It was fun to see Danny Glover. I don’t think he gave a very good speech, but I found it kinda sweet that he seemed a bit nervous and a little intimidated by the gathering. And I give him mucho credit for insisting on the making of Freedom Song. One of the Springfield teachers recently told me and Judy that this movie really grabbed the interest of her middle schoolers. And I thought Harry Belafonte was as magnificent as ever. Belafonte was remembered for flying in to Mississippi on more than one occasion with $60K in cash in his pockets to get people out of jail. And he did give a great speech – challenging us to move beyond celebrating the past to the organizing that still needs to be done.
For the most part, I didn’t embarrass myself by crying at this reunion – but I regularly lost it when Bernice Reagon and the Freedom Singers were singing. The music was extraordinary. It was in those moments that the powerful memories – and sometimes sense of loss – would rise up and the tears come. Chuck Neblett, Rutha Harris, Len Chandler, Matthew Jones, Marshall Jones, Willie Peacock, Hollis, Betty Mae Fikes from Selma, Jamila from Montgomery and Birmingham, Guy and Candie singing the song that Guy wrote . . . . and an absolutely beautiful tribute to Cordell Reagon as part of the Saturday night concert. (This footage included some shots of Joy Reagon who was active in Nashville SNCC with her husband, Freddy Leonard when I was there. Eyes on the Prize includes a wonderful interview with Freddy.) Bernice closed the conference on Sunday morning and there could not have been a better way. I’ve never met anyone more eloquent or powerful than Bernice Johnson Reagon.
Karen Spellman and Freddie Green Biddle. Photo by Patrick D. Jones.
I have no criticism or regrets about this conference. I thought the planning committee did a good job and that it would have been impossible to please everyone. The fact that 1100 people showed up is really quite amazing. There are two things, however, that make me wish for a do-over. The first is personal. Diane Nash has long been a personal hero of mine. I barely missed knowing her as part of the Nashville SNCC movement. By the time I arrived in the fall of 1961, she and Jim Bevel had left Nashville and were working with SCLC. But her name was often on the lips of people like John Lewis and Lester McKinney, and I grew to understand that she had been absolutely fearless and brave. She elected not to give a speech at the conference and I am truly sorry for that. The SNCC leadership at the national level quickly became male, but in the very early dangerous days, Diane Nash was really something! Leah also told me that Tim Tyson was at the conference. I am reading Blood Done Sign My Name and I would like to have met him as well. He also wrote the book Radio Free Dixie at the point where Robert Williams was in danger or being forgotten. I suppose it is a quibble to wish I had met even more people, but it would have been nice to say thanks to both of them.
The second is really an observation. The conference/reunion felt strangely insular. In light of all I have said above about how wonderful it was to see old friends and the pervasive spirit of a family reunion, I think this is a little unfair even as I say it. SNCC’s impact on the country was enormous and it spawned many things (one of which was SSOC). But even as people were talking about the organizing that needs to be done now, I didn’t sense much connection to work that is being done. I think it was perfectly reasonable for SNCC to come together for purposes of a reunion and for documenting history (something that was ongoing throughout the conference). In fact, I would argue that the documentation alone was reason enough to come together. The Sunday morning discussion prior to Bernice’s closing did highlight the work of the Algebra Project and the Young People’s Project, and kudos to the organizers of that discussion for making it participatory. But I did feel there was too little acknowledgment of the great variety of cultural and political organizing that is taking place now. Its true there is no mass movement like the one we were lucky enough to be a part of and the country is not galvanized in the same way. But I think people have “dug in” and are attempting to make big changes in a myriad of ways. And I see young people every day who are engaged in making change. But as I said earlier, these are the quibbles of an ingrate and I know that I am enormously blessed to have been a part of this historic event.
Joyce Ladner. Photo by Patrick D. Jones.
Will it be the last time we cross hands and sing We Shall Overcome? Perhaps. But being in Raleigh means that is okay . . . and for that I am very grateful.
7 Responses to “The abortion debate”
wow dude u just opened my mind on it.not so sure of what i think but maybe if i am also in that situation i may resolve of aborting because of a number of factors. the problem i think with society is that we are quick to judge both the unmarried mother who is pregnant and the unmarried mother who decides to abort. we have to come up witha solution that will not stereotype any one is we want to reduce the number of deaths from people trying to abort. look at the case of your maid. she tried to abort and when it failed her family turned her away . maybe if she had successfully aborted without her family knowing she would not have been sent away. its a hard topic really for debate
This is quite an insightful piece, Fungai. Yes, it is easy to condemn and judge, especially if we are not in the shoes of these desperate women. You discover that while many moralist put up condemning posters on the wrongs of abortion, and condemnation been breathed down from pulpits, we often lose sight of the predicament these women find themselves in. Indeed, my Christian faith demands of me that I do not give a thumbs up for devotion, but at the same, time, it forbids me from condemning and judging.
So, I would say that while it is wrong for women to abort, what we need to do is to reach out to them and show love, that we love them for who they are, not on the basis of what they have done or have not done.
Look at what happened when the self -righteous Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught panties down to Jesus. They thought Jesus was going to condemn her on the basis of the law of Moses. But he asked the one who has not sinned to cast the first stone and they all disappeared! And Jesus told the woman that he’d not condemny her…’Go, and don’t sin anymore’.
The role of the church is to teach society to reach out to people who are cast out, show them love and give them a new lease of life…This is The Gospel.
The hurt and pain we bring to each other because of ignorance, prejudice and just plain meanness never ceases to amaze me. So unnecessary – how difficult is it to reach out to people? Yet these same ignoramus can justify hate and child sexual abuse – such hypocrisy.
wow.this is very enlightening.a lot of women would have an abortion,if it was guaranteed that no one would ever find out..Frm an aerial view babies are nice.i have a lot of friends and relatives that have had children outside wedlock..They love them to bits.bt they resent themselves,they never forgive themselves for the mistakes they made,and whats even worse,their bodies wnt let them forget..Some are still struggling to lose the baby weight or re-perk their sagging breasts.this one friend says she will never be naked in front of a man in broaddaylight..It must be dark..sexually,she feels she has to pull out all the stops,to make up for the fact that she is a reject..Society has condemned her to inner turmoil.Our mothers smile and praise her for raising such a cute little boy or girl singlehandedly,bt behind her back,they warn us never to go down that route as she is a joke.Sadly these are not the horrors that men go thru wen they have kids out of wedlock..Even after 3 kids a man can still marry the village virgin.I am still to meet a man who was interogated for more than 30 minutes as to why he has,even 1 child of wedlock ,no woman is that bothered- bt i am still to meet a woman who didnt have to explain to a probable suitor at length as to jus wat,wen and why things went wrng. What is wrong with society? Society-i cant save your face if you cant save mine!
One question…..What are women really afraid of which drives them to abort pregnancies????????///