After many years of discussing the need to document the history of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Chicago, in 2004, a group of people from the former Chicago Area Friends of SNCC (CAFSNCC) came together to form the Chicago SNCC History Project. Originally, the purpose of CAFSNCC was to support the efforts of the courageous young people in SNCC who were fighting the war aga
inst racism, discrimination, segregation and disenfranchisement of millions of African Americans in the southern part of the United States. However, discrimination in employment, segregation in housing, and in schools soon transformed CAFSNCC into an activist organization. The Chicago SNCC History Project is an empowerment project designed to “Tell the Stories” of SNCC and CAFSNCC’s pivotal role in shaping the fight for freedom in Chicago between 1960 -1965, and to preserve that history as a legacy of empowerment for those young people continuing the ongoing fight for freedom, justice and peace. The Chicago SNCC History Project collects the oral histories of those involved with the movement that changed history.
