There are many books and papers that discuss that insides and outsides of civil right organizations. There are many on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, there are even fewer that discuss SNCC’s entire history; birth, growth, and the disintegration into other organizations. In Struggle identifies the personal, social, and cultural factors leading to the birth of SNCC, and determine the distinct differences between SNCC and other civil rights organizations. SNCC was born in February 1960 with four black college students in Greensboro, North Caroline at a lunch table. Cason describes this moment as “the initial spark of the movement was a simple, impulsive act of defiance, on that required no special skills or resources” (page 9).…show more content… SNCC was so effective because with their actions they lifted the veil on the racial tensions and rights that have been stolen from blacks. Numbers and personal stories are very important in creating a powerful book. In Struggle is a powerful description and how influential SNCC was to the civil rights movement. Cason identifies three parts of SNCC’s being; Coming Together, Looking Inward, and Falling Apart.
Carson asks the question, why did SNCC come together? The question is quickly answers, SNCC was formed as a community because of the collective struggles of black America. The building blocks of SNCC are the work of Gandhi and Christian idealism. This section of SNCC’s history, coming together, was between 1960 and until 1964. SNCC was instrumental to the civil rights movement in several ways.…show more content… This divide can be used to understand that with growth that organization start to become fractured. That change happens in organization, the author employs the word militant to describe SNCC during the second part, Looking Inward. This section of In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s starts to identify SNCC as a wild child. These students wanted confrontation, and were willing to take more risks that most civil rights organizations. SNCC workers traveled to some of the most violent parts of the south to register voter, create schools to prepare black residents for voter registration tests, and to promote black culture. Carson states states that SNCC workers were looked at as legendary, this section of the book is very emotional due to Carson engaging words. SNCC fought for equality and empowered communities all through the south with tools and knowledge that most would not have received if not for SNCC’s actions.
Falling Apart, is the final part of In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. SNCC has an ideology shift to black consciousness, black power, and separatism. SNCC was born with the ideology of equality and the destruction of racial barriers. The term ‘black power’ was born with Stokely Carmichael, a leader of SNCC, during the Selma to Montgomery March. According to Carson the shift was from adopting white values, to promoting black culture and
