SNCC Legacy Project

08/21/2026

Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon taught us that all meetings in movement must have song. You start with song before getting down to the agenda. Not just any songs BUT powerful Freedom Songs. She mentioned that song is raising the possibilities and spirit and allows for participation where at any point someone can lead. The former founding member of the Freedom Singers and Sweet Honey in the Rock (We Who Believe in Freedom) mentioned that in the Black Organizing Tradition it sustained us. In this photo Judy Richardson is leading a freedom song (Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody…) with Courtland Cox and Dr. Geri Augusto holding up the rear.

Visit sncclegacyproject.org keywords: music of the movement or Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon for information on freedom song, song leaders and the history of freedom music.

“MUSIC IS A MOTIVATOR AND ORGANIZING TOOL.”- Chuck Neblett

08/19/2026

If you are in the Washington, DC area on Saturday, August 29th make some time to attend the Social Justice Curriculum Fair. As the new school year begins, this is an opportunity to learn strategies, acquire materials, and talk through pedagogy grounded in justice and your overall teaching experience. Teaching can be lonely and stressful BUT your network, practice, and support systems expand at the Social Justice Curriculum Fair. Visit our friends Teaching for Change for more information.

Also don’t miss the Women & Gender Toolkit Workshop facilitated by the amazing Judy Richardson and dynamic Jess Rucker. The organizing toolkits that are 6 in total span topics to include Women & Gender, Art & Culture, Organizing Tradition, Freedom Teaching, Voting Rights, and Black Power. The toolkits can be found at sncclegacyproject.org /sncc-grassroots-organizing

We Must Fight for Our Freedom❗️

07/31/2026

07/30/2026

Legacy leaves clues.

Explore our documentation of movement and the freedom struggle in the many forms (written, audio, visual, and personal documentation). Allow the work of the past and present to inform your work of the day, as legacy leave clues. It serves as map of where we’ve been and all the learnings along the way. Whether it be the building of leaders through Ella Baker, the resistance of the sit ins, the transforming the right to vote, or the riveting story of Lowndes County and the Lowndes County Freedom Party just to name a few, become curious through our primary sources.

www.sncclegacyproject.org

07/14/2026

The Civil Rights Movement Archive also know as CrmVet is an archive created by civil rights workers active in CORE, NAACP, SCLC, SNCC and similar connections to the Southern Freedom Movement.

Curated by Bruce Hartford

CrmVet publishes a monthly newsletter with expansive resources, photos, reports, art, speeches and historical items that contribute to the sustainability of movement history. It serves as one of the most consistent documentations of moment history.

It’s no less than amazing the collection of materials in the CrmVet repository. Download the monthly newsletter at www.sncclegacyproject.org and also explore each unique cover with time and purpose captions dedicated to also highlighting the beautiful imagery of the Black Freedom Struggle.

Follow, Like, Share and Comment here to continue to help us grow. CrmVet is a partner of the Movement History Initiative (MHI), a collective work group aimed at sharing resources and supporting legacy.

07/03/2026

Happy Birthday Medgar Evers. A movement continued because of your work and efforts❗️

As written on www.snccdigital.org

July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963
Raised in Decatur, Mississippi

Medgar Evers had misgivings about SNCC–too young, too radical, not knowledgeable about the state. But on the other hand, he was frustrated. He was the NAACP field secretary for Mississippi, the first in the state, and his national office was reluctant to move on Mississippi–too dangerous, too little gained for the money likely to be spent. But SNCC, Evers concluded, as did other local NAACP leaders, represented young energy he could use.

Evers laid much of the foundation on which the voting rights struggles of the 1960s were built. Before SNCC’s presence in Mississippi, he mentored young Mississippians who later became a crucial part of SNCC’s work. Students like Charles McLaurin, Dorie and Joyce Ladner, and Colia Liddell all looked to Evers for guidance before becoming field secretaries in SNCC.

A veteran of World War II, Medgar Evers was program director of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) organized in 1951 by Dr. T.R.M. Howard. In 1954, he became the NAACP’s Mississippi field secretary, a position that he would hold until his assassination in 1963. He spent much of the late 1950s traveling from one NAACP chapter to the next giving “pep talks,” often dressed as a sharecropper to avoid drawing attention to himself. Seeking to investigate and publicize racially-motivated homicides and lynchings in Mississippi, he became increasingly frustrated by how difficult change appeared to be in Mississippi. Watching the success of Montgomery bus boycott, Evers lamented to his wife Myrlie that “it was all happening somewhere else. Mississippi stood still.”

Evers’s relationship with SNCC was complicated at first. While he believed that the head-on confrontations that SNCC sometimes used in direct action protests might prompt violent responses against Black Mississippians, he also respected the militant actions they were taking to challenge inequality.

For primary source movement history visit www.snccdigital.org, www.sncclegacyproject.org or www.crmvet.org

06/19/2026

The More You Know Series featuring Charles “Chuck” McDew- In Memoriam • We Remember

CHARLES F. MCDEW
June 1938 – April 3, 2018

Retired history professor Charles F. McDew led his first demonstration in the eighth grade, to protest violations of the religious freedom of Amish students in his hometown of Massillon, Ohio.

McDew’s career as an activist expanded in scope while he was a freshman at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Inevitably involved in the newborn sit-in movement, he was elected as student leader by his fellow demonstrators. McDew attended the founding conference of SNCC at Shaw in April 1960 while a student at South Carolina State and a member of The Orangeburg Movement for Civil Improvement. He served as the second Chairman of SNCC, 1960-1963.

McDew was active in organizations for social and political change, working as a teacher and as a labor organizer, managing anti-poverty programs in Washington, D.C., serving as community organizer and catalyst for change in Boston and San Francisco, as well as other communities. He has appeared on countless radio and television programs as a speaker against racism. McDew recently retired from Metropolitan State University, Minneapolis, MN, where his classes in the history of the civil rights movement, African-American history, and in social and cultural awareness were always oversubscribed. He served faithfully on the SNCC Legacy Project Board, never missing a meeting. He is survived by his daughter Eva.





Search the 40,000 document SNCC archive at www.sncclegacyproject.org • Explore Movement History

06/17/2026

The More You Know Series featuring Charles “Chuck” McDew- Day 3

As seen in the Louisiana vs. Callais Decision, the voting power of Black Americans in Southern states is under attack. Last month, the Supreme Court overturned the redistricting referendum in Virginia, while allowing states such as Tennessee to gerrymander away the last blue district in the state. This is not only a blow to Black Voters in these states, it’s also a blow to the advocates and lifelong activists such as Chuck McDew, who put their lives and well-being on the line in order for the Black Voter to have proper representation without fear.

The SNCC Legacy Project released a statement on the Supreme Court Decision Louisiana Vs. Callais with a clear prescription on how this decision impacts voters and citizens nationwide.

On the SLP Platform, SNCC describes the importance of this time and work of the past. Visit https://sncclegacyproject.org/statement-on-the-supreme-court-louisiana-v-callais-decision/

05/13/2026

Statement from the SNCC Legacy Project on the Supreme Court Louisiana v. Callais Decision

Dear Friend of SNCC,

As veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, we are angered by the
Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais. In the 1960s we
organized against the killings and brutality of white supremacists
trying to stop Black people from voting. We know what it means to
face the darkness and despair of the America envisioned by this
decision. The destruction of the Voting Rights Act isn't an aberration or a mistake. Carefully woven between Callais’ false claims of “progress” lies the roadmap for the next phase of a long, disciplined project to contain and roll back Black political power in the United States.

We say this as people who fought with determination and commitment for a future in which our communities would enjoy shared and equitable power. While we have yet to achieve the future we envisioned in our youth, we remain undeterred.

First hollowed out in Shelby County v. Holder, then further weakened in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the dismantling of the VRA is part of a larger grab for absolute power. Over 160 years since emancipation, we fight the precision of modern gerrymandering, where districts are drawn not to represent communities, but to neutralize them. It’s in legislative maneuvers that override the will of the people — even after elections have been won. And it’s in the Statement from the SNCC Legacy
Project on the Supreme Court Louisiana v. Callais Decision
the people — even after elections have been won. And it’s in the
quiet, shameless actions of local power structures — like the effort
now underway in Louisiana to eliminate the important position of
Criminal District Court Clerk in New Orleans, after the first Black
person was overwhelmingly elected to that position.

White supremacy has never depended on a single tactic. Rather, it
adapts, innovates, and learns. And too often, it counts on us to treat each new attack as if it were isolated.

We’ve seen this before. And because we’ve seen it, we’re not
confused about what this moment requires—Courage, radical
imagination, and readiness to act.

For the full statement, click on the image below.

As veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, we are angered by the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais.

04/16/2026

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TikUwz9aehc&si=lbf19B3_tY7qHnnj

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