Hell No We Wont Go ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP :

The Student Non Violent Coordinating

Committee and the Anti-War Movement
By: Tom Gross

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Stockely Carmichael, Spring Mobilzation to End the War in

Vietnam, April 15, 1967, A=I=70, SNCC Papers.
1

The civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, which occurred simultaneously during
the 1960s and 70s, are two of the largest protest movements of 20th century America. The Student
Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) found themselves at the center of both. Originally
a civil rights group, SNC became involved in the antiwar movement because their original
ideology of non-violence and pacifism would inherently make them opposed to the war. This
combined with the murder of Samuel Younge, a young African American Navy Veteran, and start
of black power united the group in its stand against the war and mad them a formidable force in
the not only civil rights but foreign policy as well. They were the first civil rights group to
protest the war and were cut off from the government because of this. President Johnson was
desperately trying to balance civil rights and the war. SNCCs coming out against the war put
them in the governments crosshairs and eventually helped lead to their inclusion in the FBIs
COINTELPRO, an intelligence programed which targeted Civil Rights organizations. This paper
will explore why SNCC choose to oppose the war, how it did so, and the consciences for its
actions.
SNCC was able to maintain a united front against the Vietnam War because it went
against one of the basic ideals the group was founded on. SNCC being a non-violent group in its
early stages was morally opposed to the war from the start. This does not come as a surprise
2

because pacifism is part of the core ideals of SNCC. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP According to Daniel Lucks
Nonviolence was the mainstay of SNCC's ethos, and it would shape the groups opposition to
U.S military action abroad. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP In one of their earliest meetings they stated That
nonviolence is our creed, and the coordinating committee shall work out a definite
statement. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Before the war and during it SNCC communicated with other
pacifist organization such as the War Resisters League. They talked about "Tactics and
Philosophy 2.Worldwide Effect of the Southern Student Movement 3. Issues of War and Peace 4.
Problems Youth Face in the U.S 5. Berlin Crisis 6. Revolution in Africa and the American
Scene." ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP SNCC also read their magazine which monitored conflicts across the
globe including Vietnam. Not surprisingly, the War Resisters League publication also printed
stories on the Civil Rights movement itself. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP In a 1963 print, an article by David
McReynolds addressing what pacifists could learn from Civil Rights groups says one
commonality between Civil Rights groups and pacifists is the US government is as unwilling to
be branded a :war-monger as it is to be branded racist. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Although the United
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Claybourne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black
Awakening of the 1960s (Cambridge,Mass: Harvard University Press, 1995).
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Daniel Lucks, Selma to Saigon, Civil Rights and the Struggle
for Black Equaility in the Twentieth Century (University Press of Kentucky, 2014). Pg
43
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP SCLC, Recommedations From the Southwide Youth
Leadership Conference, April 1960, A:I:1, SNCC Papers.
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Raplh Rustin, Letter from War Resisters League to SNCC,
October 17, 1961, A=IV=390, SNCC Papers.
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Raplh Rustin, The Owner of Social Dislocation, War
Resisters League, August 1963.
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP David McReynolds, Teaching Pacifists a Lesson, War
Resisters League News, August 1963, A=IV=390, SNCC Papers.
3

States may not have been necessarily concerned with being labeled a war monger due to this
military action in the past, it is significant that the War Resisters League was pointing out
commonalities. This interaction between SNCC and an antiwar group is interesting and telling.
Since SNCC read the publication they must have been interesting in international politics in
1963, when most Civil Rights groups were solely focused on the fight at home. SNCC could
have been readying and informing themselves for inserting themselves into foreign policy.
Another reason this the interplay between this two groups is important is because both groups
were likely drawn to each other because of their common ideal of pacifism.
Bob Moses was the one of the only members of SNCC before late 1965 who actively
protested the war. He was part of teach-ins at California Berkley and the co chairman of the antiwar group Assembly of Unrepresented People. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP He was an important figure in the
organization and his position would influence how SNCCs stance on the war in the future. In an
interview with the Southern Patriot from 1964, Moses took a firm stance against the war. He
believed that the freedom movement and the antiwar movement were not that different but he
still thought that some people from the freedom movement should tread lightly when talking
about the war, which is an idea that would continue. To close the interview Moses said
The rationale this nation uses to justify war in Vietnam turns out to be amazingly similar
to the rationale that has been used by the white south to justify its opposition to the
freedom movement. For a racist white southerner, there is a logic in this parallel. He

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Peter Levy, Blacks and the Vietnam War, in The African
American Voice in U.S Forgein Policy Since World War II, Race and U.S Foreign Policy
From the Colonial Period to the Present (New York and London: Garland Publishing
Inc., 1998). Pg 283
4

condones murder in Vietnam for the same reason he condones it at home- he sees a threat
to his civilization. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP
Moses statements in this article are similar to the reasons SNCC gives from opposing the
war down the road. Clearly Moses early antiwar beliefs molded how SNCC would oppose the
war when the time came. With that being said, at the time not everyone in SNCC was happy with
Moses comments. As Moses spent more and more time working on anti wars protest, some
members of SNCC became concerned. They thought it was taking away from their
cause. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP This would be the biggest internal conflict caused by the war. But Moses
saw the movements as intertwined, something that would prove to be true. Moses saw these
issues as one in the same. The Civil Rights movement in line with its philosophy, puts forth a
different idea. We have always said people should be involved in all the major decisions that
affect them. We do not want the new politics to be just the old. People need a chance to vote on
real issues. (Foreign policy). ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP They were fighting for a say in how the country is
run, and Moses thought they should have a say in the US going to war. Even though Moses took
some flak at the time for his comments, in the future they proved to be very much a part of
SNCCs position on the war.

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Bob Parris, A Freedoms Workers View on War and Peace,
November 1969, 500, SNCC Papers.
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Eric Burner, And Gently He Shall Lead THem (New York and
London: New York University Press, 1994). Pgs 214-15
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Parris, A Freedoms Workers View on War and Peace.
5

In 1965 the conflict in Vietnam began to escalate. As the war started to gain more and
more public attention, the Civil Rights movement started to take a back seat. Students were
protesting the war throughout the nation and receiving a lot of media coverage. An article from a
magazine called The Movement discussed this issue saying The war in Vietnam, thousands of
miles away, has posed another important challenge to our movement. It has diverted attention
away from the revolution at home and given Johnson and the Establishment much needed
breathing space on the domestic scene. The article goes on to say For many of us, the burning
villages in Vietnam is but an extension overseas of an oppressive society at
home. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP The second statement is similar to what Moses had been saying before
and is an ideology which would become important to SNCCs stand against the war. SNCC had
mostly remained distanced from the issue to this point. SNCC chairman Forman admitted that
Until that year, most of us- including myself- had considered the war not irrelevant, but simply
remote. Its importance to black people had not come home to us. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP The movement
would soon hit home and united organization for two major reasons.

The Vietnam War began to intensify during the course of 1965. In 1965 one out of every
four U.S soldiers killed in Vietnam was black. This is was alarming to SNCC because blacks
made up only 14% of the soldiers serving overseas at the time. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP These stats show
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Richard Greeman, New Challenges, The Movement, Winter
1965, 502, SNCC Papers. Pg 1-2
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP James Forman, The Making of Black Revolutionaries (Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 1972). Pg 445
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP James E. Westheider, The African American Experience in
Vietnam: Brothers in Arms (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008).pg.47
6

that large numbers of African Americans were being sent into combat zones. Peter Levy explains
why the casualty rate was so high for blacks in his book section Blacks and the Vietnam War.
More than any other factor, social class determined the likelihood of service. The lower and
working classes of America were more likely to fight in Vietnam than the middle or upper
classes. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP This helps explain why even with the majority of the military being
white that blacks were dying at such a high rate. Whites had more opportunity to get jobs in the
service stationed in the states whereas most blacks who were enlisted were being sent other to
Southeast Asia. SNCC could not ignore this issue as an organization and began to draft a
statement late in 1965. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Soon after this meeting, SNCC member and twenty two
year old Navy Veteran Samuel Younge was murdered in Alabama for using a white bathroom.
His death united SNCC on the issue of Vietnam, and on January 6, 1966 the group became the
first civil rights organization to openly protest the war. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP In the groups statement
they used many of the same ideas that Bob Moses had stated two years prior. They gave three
main reason of why they are protesting the war.
We ourselves have been victims of violence and confinement expected by United States
officials. We recall the numerous persons who have been murdered in the South because of their
efforts to secure their civil and human rights guaranteed by law. Sameuel Younge was murdered
because the US law was not being enforced. Vietnamese are murdered because the US is
pursuing an aggressive policy in violation of international law.

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Levy, Blacks and the Vietnam War.pg 211

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Forman, The Making of Black Revolutionaries.pg. 445
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Lucks, Selma to Saigon. Pg.3
7

The death of Samuel Younge and the rising death tolls in Vietnam gave SNCC the
opportunity to connect the Civil Rights movement with the war in ways in which poor blacks
could understand. They did this by comparing themselves to the Vietnamese in their second and
third points of their statement on Vietnam. SNCC said that since the US does not give its own
people equal freedoms and voting rights why would it give them to the people of
Vietnam. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP SNCC felt it their duty and responsibility to protest the war, and aside
from the moral factors which no doubt played a role in SNCC stance, Younges death above all
united the group. Sooon after SNCC released their statement, Julian Bond released a personal
statement regarding Younge and Vietnam. Bond condemned the actions against Younge and the
war itself. He also addressed the issue of civil rights being separated from foreign policy saying
There are those who would say civil rights is one thing and politics is another. I reject this
concept. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Bonds statement shows more support from inside SNCC for antiwar
protest. Younges death solved any internal conflicts about their stance on the war. Now SNCC
was ready to go on the attack, and would soon become a major antiwar organization.
SNCC at its heart was a grassroots organization. They were successful because they
could connect with poor blacks and organize them. Claybourne Carson says in his book In
Struggle that SNCC workers did not see the relation of anti-war activity and their organizing
efforts. SNCCs difficulty was not in determining the essence of its position on the war but in
presenting its stand on terms that could unify the staff and appeal to SNCCs poor black

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP C:I:163SNCC Statement on the War in Vietnam, January 6,

1966, 1157 C:I:163, SNCC Papers.
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Julian Bond, Statement By Julian Bond on Vietnam and the
Death of Samuel Younge., January 10, 1966, C:I:163, SNCC Papers.
8

constituents. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP So if they were going to successfully protest the war they would
have to be able to show poor blacks why it is important. The effort they put into doing so shows
that he group felt this was an important issue and it needed to be addressed. The death of Samuel
Younge and the rising death tolls in Vietnam gave SNCC the opportunity to connect the Civil
Rights movement with the war in ways in which poor blacks could understand.
It is unlikely if there was conflict inside SNCC on the war that they would have released
so many public statement and speeches against it. SNCC would not have put themselves in the
spotlight on this controversial issue if they did not believe in it.

After the death of Samuel Younge antiwar statements and protest took an important role
in SNCC. They began to attack the government and try to expose its so called unjust war to
sway public opinion. Their statements were clear and directed. SNCC had a set of reasons why
they did not believe in the war and they were going to let the world know that. As they became
more involved with the war, they began to use it to their own advantage. Other antiwar groups
took notice of this and recruited SNCC to help aid their own cause. The Lawyers Committee on
American Policy in Vietnam was the first to contact SNCC. They said they war was not only
morally wrong but also illegal. They cited that the President does not have the power under the
Constitution to declare war, and furthermore that the United States was violating the Geneva
Code of 1954. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Soon after they released this the LCAPV sent a letter to
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Claybourne Carson, In Struggle (London, England: Havard
University Press, 1981).pg. 183
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Edward Kuhn, Statement of Lawyers Committee on
American Polic Towards Vietnam, March 15, 1966, The SNCC Papers. A=I=60
9

Carmichael which asked him to help join their cause. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP For SNCC it was another
way to sway public opinion against the government. SNCC began to have correspondence with
organizations in Vietnam about how to stop the war. In a letter from the South Vietnam People's
Committee for Solidarity with American People they were asked to establish relations with and
contact all progressive organizations and individuals in the US who are struggling for peace
justice, freedom and Civil Rights and who want to acquaint themselves with the situation in
Vietnam and to join the Vietnamese people in demanding that the US government end its war on
Vietnam..

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP

Peace, Freedom, and justice is something that people during the Civil

Rights movement were striving towards and something that SNCC could use to tie their cause to
Vietnam. Soon after SNCC released a statement by John Wilson to the American public and
Vietnamese people saying that talks about the black struggle and how it is linked to Vietnam.
"When a country like the USA is allowed to force people of color to yield its power, it is
imperative that people of color fight back. You are fighting for peace freedom and land. Our fight
is the same." He continued this by saying that The U.S government is using the Vietnam war as
a means of genocide of black people as well as the people of Vietnam" because"20% of SNCC
members have refused to go to war." ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP These are clear cut acquisitions against the
US government. SNCC continued to protest against the war on moral and legal grounds. They
used the LCAPV document to show that the war was illegal and that the American public was
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP William Standard, Letter to Carmichael From Lawyers
Committee on American Policy Towards Vietnam, July 1966.A=I=60
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Letter From South Vietnam Peoples Commitee for
Solidarity with American People, October 17, 1966, 0087 A=VIII=298, SNCC
Papers.
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP John Wilson, Statement by John Wilson to the Vietnamese
People, n.d., 0113, SNCC Papers.
10

not informed of what was going on over there. They used moral grounds by connecting their
struggle with that of the Vietnameses people. Both sides were fighting for freedom and had a
common enemy, the American Government. SNCC went in this direction because they felt it was
the right thing for them to do. Like Moses had foreshadowed earlier, the two movement were
intertwined. Samuel Younges death showed this to many members of SNCC. Their stance on the
war became more complex than when they first were reading about it because it became
personal. As SNCC develop during the War so did their arguments against it. They still opposed
it from a moral standpoint but also including reasoning that stemmed from Black power and third
world peoples as well. No one was able present this argument quiet like Carmichael.
Stokely Carmichael was considered the voice of SNCC. His speeches show the direction
that he wanted SNCC to go. Much like their press releases during that time, Carmichaels
Speechs contained a lot of antiwar material. He addressed the war on multiple occasions which
shows that the war was an issue he thought was important. He touched on many of the same
themes that were repeated throughout SNCC antiwar protest. In a speech he explains why they
will not fight saying The American Army takes advantage of the Afro- American masses. It uses
them to fight our own brothers. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP This quote shows Carmichael using the idea of
third world peoples to connect with the Purtio Ricans. He was trying to connect with them the
way he tried to connect poor blacks to the war. During the Spring Mobalization of 1967
Carmichael gave an entire speech on ending the war. In this speech Carmichael gives his most
detailed rhetoric on why a civil rights organization should be involved in anti war protests.

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Stockely Carmichael, Speech By Carmichael at the

University of Purtio Rico, January 1967, A=I=70, SNCC Papers.
11

We black people have struggled against white supremacy here at home. We therefore
understand the struggle of the Vietnamese against white supremacy abroad. We black people
have struggled against U.S aggression in the ghettos of the North and South.. We therefore
understand the struggle of the Vietnamese people against U.S aggression abroad. This is why
there is no question of whether a civil rights organization should involve itself with foreign
issues. It must do so if it claims to have any relevance to black people and their day-to-day needs
in the United States of America. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP
Carmichael shows his passion against the war in this speech by making ending the war part of
SNCCs spring mobilization. He was the figure head of the organization and his stance against
the war in public speeches continually shows that SNCC as a whole was united against the war.
If Carmichael was devoting this much time and effort to protest the war the members of SNCC
had to of backed him.
SNCC and the Draft.
SNCC was not only opposed to the war in Vietnam but also to the draft system itself.
Their opposition in the draft is rooted in the same ideals which made them oppose the war. These
issues to SNCC were one in the same. In 1966 SNCC member Cleveland Sellers number was
chosen in the draft. Like 20% of the members of SNCC, he refused to go and faced charges. His
reasons for not going were consistent with SNCC stance on the draft. Sellers was reviewed by an
all white draft board and his information was illegally given to the FBI. He said "My brothers
around the world know that the U.S, with her western counterparts understand one thing and one
thing only-force- the force to move these resources out of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Sellers
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Carmichael, Spring Mobilzation to End the War in Vietnam.
12

like most members of SNCC believed that the draft was designed to erase blacks from American
society. This is another motive they developed to protest the draft. He shows evidence of this
saying He goes on to cite that "During the first 11 months of 1966, black soldiers comprised
30% of all army troops killed in action". ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP This evidence is startling because there
were many more whites in the military than black which means that black were most likely being
sent into the most dangerous combat zones. SNCC went before the Committee of Armed Forces
make their point known. Carmichael delivered the speech saying In a supposedly free society
conscription is a form of legalized enslavement of the worst kind. A slave has to serve his
masters economic interests with labor and sweat, but a draftee must serve national interest,
with murder and his own blood. Black men in the United States army are forced to kill their
colored brother in Vietnam. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Again SNCC shows a connection with the
Vietnamese people as well as attacking US government policy. The draft included not only
blacks but men of all races. SNCC only mentions blacks as the people who are being wronged
but one can assume that they believe the practice to be wrong even when whites are drafted. The
reason being most whites drafted were poor people who did not go to college. Carmichael
continued to make the draft part of his stance against the United States government. In a speech
he gave at the Conference of Gannon he made a point to discuss the issue saying
"Now only a few people in this country have the information on Vietnam. So only a few people
can decide what to do there. But yet they tried to send me to Vietnam. Dont I have the right to

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Statement by Clevland Sellers, Upon His Attempted

Induction, May 1967, 0495 B:II:18, SNCC Papers.
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Stockely Carmicheal and Carl Oglesby, Statement of the
SNCC and the Students for a Democratic Society on the Conscription Laws before
the House Commitee of Armed Forces, 1967.
13

decide that? They wanted to send me into a situation I knew nothing about. Because they have
the information and they wont give it to me. People have to have the information if theyre
going to make decisions about their own lives". ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP
SNCC became a major player in the anti-draft movement after these statements. They soon made
national headlines for standing behind maybe the most famous athletes of the century Cassius
Clay, also known as Muhamad Ali. At the time Ali was the reigning Heavyweight Champion of
the World and one of the most vibrant and radical figures in sports. Members of SNCC attend
his trial and one said "If anything happens to Muhammad Ali, there will be retaliation by the
whole negro people. I think the whole corrupt America is on trial here". ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP By doing
this SNCC put themselves in the spotlight of the anti war movement. Clay was a major figure not
only in the sports world, but also the Civil Rights movement. He was a Black Muslim who was
part of the Nation of Islam, which was a radical group in itself. SNCC statements on the draft
were concise and consistent. They saw it as a way to kill off blacks and also as a way to expand
American Imperialism. Their statements were aimed to turn public opinion to their side and to
gain awareness of the inner workings of the American government. Their position on the draft
was identical to its position on the war showed SNCC had a united stance against the U.S foreign
policy.
Section Three Government Response.

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Carmicheal Speech at Confernce of Gamon Pg 3 (Gamon

Conference, 1967), SNCC Papers.
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Martin Waldron, Call Witnesses on Cassius, New York Post,
June 20, 1967, June 20, 1967 edition, 0496 B:II:18, SNCC Papers.
14

The Vietnam War began to escalate at the same time many of President Johnsons Civil Rights
legislation was being passed. Both of this issues to him were very important. This is why many
of the Civil Rights organization stayed out of Vietnam War conversation. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Since
SNCC was the first Civil Rights groups to protest the war they received the harshest critics. But
SNCC could withstand bad press, what could really hurt them is if their stand against Johnsons
war turned the president against them. Soon after they released their statement in early 1966
Johnson advisors encouraged him to distance himself from the group. This left SNCC isolated at
the time and also created more enemies for the group. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP According to Nick Kotz,
after SNCC had condemned the war, it made Johnson more willing to go use the FBI against
Civil Rights groups. At times the presidents anxiety about his actions in Vietnam was causing
him to suspend his sharpest critical judgments. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Johnson was after all a politician
and votes mattered to him. With the combination of Vietnam riots and urban riots Johnson was
becoming desperate to gain voters. In order to due this Johnsons people started labeling radical
groups like SNCC who opposed the war as communists. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Johnson was more
willing to let the FBI target SNCC because they had come out against the war. In his book racial
matters Kenneth OReilly says It was one thing to challenge Bull Connor and the City of
Birmingham or J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation; quite another to

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Lucks, Selma to Saigon. 170-73

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the
1960s. pgs 188-89
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Nick Kotz, Judgement Days (New York and Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 2005). Pg 355
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Kenneth OReilly, Racial Matters The FBIs Secret File on
Black America (London: The Free Press, 1989). Pgs 240-41
15

challenge Lyndon Johnson and the United States. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP This is precisely what
Carmichael was doing during his year as chair. Carmichael repeatedly condemned the President
and his foreign policies. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, a known racist used
SNCCs and other Civil Rights groups antiwar protest to gain more support from the President
on counterintelligence operations.1 As the public opinion waned on the war President Johnson
become more and more willing to attack the radical groups. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP
The government responded to early antiwar protest by releasing a document justifying
their place in Vietnam. It was written by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and focused
on how to stop the protest. The ways in which they planned to do so according to SNCC analysis
of were "2). Showing that domestic and forge in "Communist" and "Pro Communist" sources
approve the protest. 3) Citing extreme statements or actions in protest against the war in
Vietnam" SNCC also believed that 1) Setting forth an official line about the war and implying
that all disagreement with that line is Communist inspired". ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP The government was
going to set up the image that groups protesting the war were pro-communist and they would use
this angle to combat statements by SNCC on the matter. The government was using this tactic to
sway public opinion against the organization as a whole. One way to determine if they were
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Ibid.pg 244
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Carmicheal Speech at Confernce of Gamon Pg 3.
1 Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and Image of American Democracy, n.d.
pg 246
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Levy, Blacks and the Vietnam War. Pg 224
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Analysis of the Senate Internal Security Subcommitees
The Anti-Vietnam Agitation and the Teach in Movement:The Problem of Communist
Infiltration and Explotation, October 1966, SNCC Papers.
16

successful, would be to look at the amount of donations SNCC received from the public. In 1964
SNCC received $638,000 in donations which dropped to $150,000 in 1967.Comparitively the
more moderate National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples donations
increased over the same time period. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Some other factors such as the
radicalization of SNCC and the black power movement could also account for the drop off in
income but clearly the governments plan was working. People were donating to groups who did
not oppose the war and were perceived to be less radical than SNCC. These financial problems
very likely hurt SNCC and their ability to run an effective organization.
While the government was trying to hurt SNCC the FBI was running a
counterintelligence program against SNCC. In is initiation of its largest plan, the
COINTELPRO,they cite antiwar protest as part of their motive. It states these activist urge
revolution in America and call for the defeat of the United States in Vietnam. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP
The government was not happy with SNCCs antiwar protest and were ready to do something
about. SNCC stance may have helped them with public opinion but the government had a target
painted on SNCCs back. Hoover was not going to let SNCC walk away from this. His
CONINTEL program eventually helped lead to SNCCs downfall. SNCC role in the antiwar
protest were a main factor in the beefing up of FBI counterintelligence. Hoover used SNCCs
attacks on the presidents policy to get the okay to destroy them.
Daniel Lucks who authored the book Selma to Saigon says in his introduction
The interplay between these two great protest movements has not received
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Levy, Blacks and the Vietnam War. Pg 225
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP C Brennan, Counterintelligence Program:Disruption of the
New Left, May 9, 1968.
17

the scholarly treatment it deserves. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP There are three books
which discuss the relationship between the Vietnam war and civil rights
movement in detail. It should be noted that none of these books are
specifically devoted to SNCC and Vietnam. In Vanessa Murphees book The
Selling of Civil Rights, she looks at SNCC and the media. The book covers
Vietnam and SNCC during a portion of Chapter Five. Murphee said SNCC
opposition to the war was their greatest communication challenge
yet. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP The war did pose a challenge for SNCC because they had
to show blacks why it mattered. This is why they constantly compared the
South to the battlegrounds of Vietnam and rattled off combat statistics.
SNCC was able to make the war more personal this way. She goes on to say
that SNCC original antiwar statement helped shape the new organizational
foundation that would last until the committee disbanded. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP This
paper backs up her argument that SNCCs stance on Vietnam shaped the
organizations direction. This is clear in Carmichaels Spring Mobilization
Speech in 1967 that is specifically about ending the war. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP
Throughout 1966 and 67 SNCC was moving towards a more international
stage with their continued protest against Vietnam and colonialism.

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Lucks, Selma to Saigon. Pg 3

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Vanessa Murphee, The Selling of Civil Rights: SNCC and the
Use of Public Relations (New York and London: Routledge, 2006). Pg.7
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Ibid.pg.134
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Carmichael, Spring Mobilzation to End the War in Vietnam.
18

Daniel Lucks Selma to Saigon goes in depth on how the war and civil rights
were intertwined. For Lucks the Vietnam War sucked much of the oxygen
from the civil rights movement. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP He also portrays SNCC as the
most radical of the groups to come out against the war. Lucks arguments
relating to SNCC are similar to this paper. He believes there may have been
some members in SNCC who did not think the war was their problem in
1964-65. But he says by 1965 SNCC members were overwhelmingly in favor
of the organization coming out against the war, ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP The
organization only became more united after the death of Sammy Younge
which sparked the release of their statement against the war. Allen Eldridge
also wrote book on Vietnam and Civil Rights called Chronicles of a Two Front
War. In this book he looks at how the black media portrayed both the war
and civil rights. He believes that SNCC image was hurt when they came out
against the war. He saw SNCC antiwar statements as unique among other
civil rights groups because of their focus on the war being
racist. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Believe the war was racist was a large factor in SNCC
stance on Vietnam but so was their morals and ideology something that
Eldridge does not address. In another book section titled Blacks and the
Vietnam War, Peter Levy goes in depth about the relationship between
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Lucks, Selma to Saigon.pg 2
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Ibid.pg 101
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Lawrence Allen Eldridge, Chronicles of a Two-Front War: Civil
Rights and Vietnam in the African American Press, 1st Edition edition (Columbia,
Mo: Univ of Missouri, 2012).pg 55
19

African Americans and the war. He explore blacks motive for going to war as
well as their experiences overseas. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Levy does discuss SNCC in
some detail. He demonstrates SNCC involvement in the antiwar movement
and why they opposed the war. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Levy thinks the war hurt the
organization from two standpoints. They were hurt from a finical standpoint
and were targeted by the FBI. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Overall the relationship between
SNCC and Vietnam is a under explored topic. Not many authors have looked
into how their public stance against the war played effected the
organizations lifespan. Even more surprising is that the CONINTELPRO is
seldom mentioned in these books. The program was launched as the after
the Vietnam Protest began but authors only mention the correlations briefly.
There is much more literature on the relationship between Johnson and
Kings, and how Kings public stance against the war impacted their
relationship.
View from the Nation or Trenches
In the book Debating The Civil Rights Movement authors Steven Lawson and
Charles Payne debate over what drove the civil rights movement. Steven
Lawson believes that the leader in Washington ultimately controlled the fate

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Levy, Blacks and the Vietnam War.pg 278

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Ibid.pg 284
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Ibid. pgs 277-78
20

of the civil rights movement. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Payne on the other hand sees the
movement from a different perspective. He argues that the individuals who
were part of the movement on the front lines were what caused
change. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP He sees solely giving the leaders of organizations and
the government credit as to simple. Payne writes A top-down movement
typically implies that the movement can be understood solely through large
scale, dramatic events, thus obscuring the actual social infrastructure that
sustained the movement on a day to day basis. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP While this
may very well be true, Paynes argument is not demonstrated through this
paper. Since SNCC was united as a group against the war, there is not much
need to look at their stance against Vietnam from a grassroots level. Leaders
within the organization such as Moses and Carmichael helped shape the
organizations position which is why they a particularly important this papers
argument. What they were opposing what not just President Johnson, but
American Foreign policy as a whole. It was SNCC stand as an organization
against the U.S government. Lawsons argument on the other hand can be
tied into the argument of the paper. The government ultimately had control
over its own foreign policy. President Johnson was the Commander and Chief
which meant he had command of the U.S military. As this paper showed
SNCC attacked his command from all different angles including moral and
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Steven Lawson, The View From a Nation, in Debating the
Civil Rights Movement, 2nd ed. (New York: Roman and Littlefield Inc., 2006). Pg 3
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Ibid.pg127
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Ibid.pg.126
21

legal grounds. SNCC protests were not going to sway their decision in
Vietnam. What they did do was help distance the group from the
government. When SNCC went to Black Power and started criticizing the war
it broke ties with the government. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP The Vietnam War would go
until 1975 when the last troops vacated Saigon. By this point in time SNCC
had ceased to existed as an organization and the civil rights was basically
over. Through all the protest the Vietnam War continued because the
government had the final say. By 1967 56% of blacks and 43% of whites
thought the U.S should leave immediately. While 14% of blacks and 27% of
whites at the same time felt that there should be a negotiated
peace. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP These numbers would grow as the war continued but
the U.S did not pull out of the conflict for years to come. The government
and military were in control, and they chose to ignore a large portion of the
American people and could do so because they had the power.
In conclusion, once SNCC came out against the war they remained
constant and consistent in their protest. Any doubt about protesting the war
was erased by the death of Samuel Younge. SNCCs press releases and
Carmichaels speeches during 1966-67 show a group committed to ending
the war. This was rooted in the fact that SNCC was originally a nonviolent
organization and that they ideologically opposed war. This combined with
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Ibid.pg 34
ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Martin Elizabeth, Black vs. White Views of the War, North
Carolina (Chapel Hill Insitute for Research in Soical Sciences, 1981).
22

black power and their belief in a third world people caused this group to be
enthusiastic in protesting Vietnam. Their protest did not hurt the
organization internally but it did externally. The government became more
focused on SNCC when they evolved into more than a civil rights
organization. President Johnson was rattled by the groups coming out against
the war and it made him more likely to give the go ahead to the FBI to
investigate more. This eventually led to the COINTELPRO. The organizations
protest of the war was not they only reason for its eventual collapse, but it
no doubt play a role.

Epilogue
23

This paper demonstrates how SNCC stance on the war was developed and
why they were united against it. It also explored the repercussions for them
doing so but there are larger ideas which could be explored. One is
comparing Martin Luther Kings Jr.s antiwar activity to SNCCs. King did not
come out against the war until 1967 but the causes and effects are similar to
that of SNCC. ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP What would be interesting to see is if Kings
motives for opposing the war were similar to SNCCs. Another area which
could be explored is the differences between whites and black motivation for
opposing the war. There was significant opposition from both races and some
of it was segregated but did they do it some the same reasons? This paper
showed that SNCC opposed the war from both moral and legal grounds. Did
whites feel the same way? The last area that needs more research is how
blacks who fought in the war views compared to that of the anti war
protestors in America. It is quite possible that their combat experiences
changed their views that had going into the war.

ADDIN ZOTERO_TEMP Martin Fairclough, Martin Luther King Jr. and the War in
Vietnam, in The African American Voice in U.S Forgein Policy Since World War II,
Race and U.S Foreign Policy From the Colonial Period to the Present (New York and
London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1998). Pg 255
24

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