Student Nonviolent Coordinating Association: Case Study

Celeste Tyree was attending college at the University of Michigan when she decided to leave from Ann Arbor and go to Pineyville, Mississippi in the summer of 1964 to help found a Freedom School and a voter registration project as part of Freedom Summer. Freedom Summer was organized by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. While Celeste is in Mississippi she “learned about the political realities of race and poverty in the town and Celeste also learned truths about herself and her family” (Amazon).

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), often pronounced "snick" (Wikipedia), was a really important organization of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. “It emerged from a student meeting organized by Ella Baker

held at Shaw University in April 1960. SNCC grew into a large organization with many supporters in the North who helped raise funds to support SNCC's work in the South, allowing full-time SNCC workers to have a $10 per week salary” (Wikipedia).

Many unpaid volunteers worked with SNCC on projects in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, and Maryland. “SNCC played a major role in the sit-ins and freedom rides, a leading role in the 1963 March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party over the next few years” (Wikipedia). SNCC's major contribution was in its field work, organizing voter registration drives all over the South, especially in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. I think this book takes place during an important time because in the summer of 1964, Mississippi saw the conviction ex KKK member Edgar Ray Killen for the “1964 abduction and murder” of Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner. “The men had been working on the Freedom Summer campaign attempting to prepare and register African Americans to vote after they had been disenfranchised since 1890. The disappearance and feared murders of these

activists sparked national outrage and a massive federal investigation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation referred to this investigation as "Mississippi Burning" (MIBURN)” (Wikipedia). It was only day one of the Freedom Summer campaign. They found the bodies of the three workers a little over a month after they disappeared. They had been buried in a dam near where they were murdered. The New York Times called this incident the “most infamous unresolved case from America's civil rights struggles” (Wikipedia). This is just one of the many incidents that took place during the civil rights times period.
I think what makes Celeste want to help is the fact that her life isn’t like what a typical black person in the south experienced during that time.

She heard activists talking of a nonviolent revolution while she was on campus and the she was determined to go south to help register blacks to vote. Her work in Mississippi was seen as “an attempt to validate her identity as a black woman and to help lift the veil of oppression” (Amazon). Celeste lived on Freshwater Road in Mississippi with Mrs. Owens who helps her learn the ins and outs of Pineyville. With the help of the local black minister Reverend Singleton, Celeste began the Freedom School to teach black history to the children and a voter registration class for the adults. Celeste finds herself in danger as whites and even some blacks are angered by her attempts to gain equal rights for the black citizens draw national attention to the state's brutal oppression of its black-skinned citizens. The house she stayed in with Mrs. Owens was fired into at night. Celeste had to sleep on the floor to avoid bullets that were fired through windows. She also had to step off the sidewalk to let whites pass her. Celeste had to adjust to poor plumbing and humidity in the south. Then she had to deal with the hostility from people due to her project. “The beatings, church burnings, and arbitrary lawlessness of Pineyville's sheriff are true to the historical acts of white racial violence that occurred in Mississippi that summer”

(Amazon). Celeste is harassed while distributing pamphlets and is also arrested for littering. On the way to Pineyville, her driver Matt is stopped, searched, and beaten by the Highway Patrol right in front of her. Through all the danger Celeste keeps pushing and keeps going. Even though she faces struggles and difficulties, she continued to push to reach her goal and never gave up.
The African-Americans in Pineyville do not have indoor plumbing and refrigeration is considered a luxury that not everyone can afford. They can be shot at for simply owning a car. In Detroit, on the other hand, Celeste’s father Shuck runs his own business and drives a Cadillac. In Michigan, an African-American can go to college while in Mississippi they hardly have the rights to an education. Since the two places are so drastically different in terms of ‘freedom’, Shuck worries a lot about his daughter going to Mississippi. She told him she was leaving with a "by the time you read this" letter. Shuck scared for his daughter because he knows she will face many challenges, but he is also proud of her bravery as he wonders how responsible he might be for her decision. She takes after her daddy, a "race man," who takes pride in who he is and is willing to fight for it.
The Freedom Summer project was both successful and unsuccessful. The 1964 Freedom Summer project was designed to draw the nation’s attention to the violent oppression experienced by Mississippi blacks who attempted to exercise their constitutional rights, and to develop a grassroots freedom movement that could be sustained long after student activists left Mississippi. It was a nonviolent effort by civil rights activists to integrate Mississippi's segregated political system. Its overarching goal was to empower local residents to participate in local, state, and national elections. It also had other goals: to increase voter registration, create the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), challenge the Democratic National Committee (DNC), set up freedom schools, open community center, hold a freedom vote, and to challenge exclusionary congressional elections. I think in the beginning it was unsuccessful because only a few hundred black voters were able to register, but the harassment against them were covered nationally through media outlets. What made the Freedom Summer successful was the fact that it raised millions people awareness about what was going on, and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and the Voting Right of 1965 were passed because lawmakers' constituents had been educated about these issues during Freedom Summer. Even though there were still many struggles after Freedom Summer, by the end of 1966, more than half of the African-Americans in the south had registered to vote. In following years, many were elected to positions like mayors, school board members, and chiefs of police. Even though Freedom Summer took a slow start, the goals it achieved in the following years made it successful.