Word: sncc
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Over one-third of the students at the Atlanta conference were white, in sharp contrast with past meetings. "It was encouraging to see so many whites, especially those from southern colleges," said Robert E. Wright '65, chairman of the Harvard Civil Rights Coordinating Committee and a summer SNCC field-worker...
...addition to the physical closeness of whites and Negroes, there was a constant stress on interracial cooperation. On the first night of the conference, the students joined in singing "We Shall Overcome," the themesong of the movement. After the group sang three verses of the song, James Forman, SNCC'S executive secretary, quickly made his way up to the stage and whispered in the ear of one of the song leaders. The singer nodded, and shouted out the next verse, "Black and white together...
...line with this stress on Negro-white cooperation, SNCC workers constantly emphasized the importance of white participation in the summer project. Frank Smith, a Negro field worker from Mississippi, explained, "The average Negro in Mississippi hates everybody white--they've never met a white person on their side." He paused and then continued, "No Negro can build up a Negro's confidence in a white man; the cat has to come down and do it himself. It's a very tender process...
...SNCC's emphasis on interracial cooperation, is leading toward an expansion of its activities to an entirely new area--the poor white community. One field worker expressed this change saying, "We aren't a Negro movement--we're a movement of the poor...
This theme was repeated throughout the conference, Forman echoed it when he said that SNCC must go into white communities, the labor unions