SNCC & Grassroots Organizing Discussion Series
The SNCC and Grassroots Organizing: Building a More Perfect Union discussion series focuses on SNCC’s grassroots community organizing and its relevance to ongoing efforts to build a more just, inclusive, and sustainable society. At its core, SNCC helped community members feel empowered to make choices and act on the issues that most impacted their lives and their communities.
Join us at an in-person or virtual event to learn more about SNCC’s organizing work from SNCC veterans and humanities scholars and to explore connections to your life and community.
The series is focused on six themes that are at the heart of SNCC’s history of grassroots organizing: the organizing tradition, voting rights, Black Power, women and gender, freedom teaching, and art and culture in movement building.
WHO WE ARE
In 2013, the SNCC Legacy Project, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the Duke University Libraries, and humanities scholars formed a partnership—now called the Movement History Initiative (MHI)—to tell SNCC’s history of grassroots organizing with activists’ voices at the center and to pass movement knowledge on to subsequent generations. Originally supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, SNCC and Grassroots Organizing Discussion Series is a collaborative project of the MHI, six Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and six civil rights and African American museums. It’s based at the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, another core MHI partner.
HBCU Partners: Claflin University (Orangeburg, South Carolina); Howard University (Washington, D.C.); Morehouse College (Atlanta, Georgia); North Carolina Central University (Durham, North Carolina); Prairie View A&M University (Prairie View, Texas); Tougaloo College (Jackson, Mississippi)
Museum Partners: Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, (Birmingham, Alabama); International Civil Rights Center and Museum (Greensboro, North Carolina); Mississippi Civil Rights Museum (Jackson, Mississippi); National Center for Civil and Human Rights (Atlanta, Georgia; National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, Tennessee); National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, D.C)
Our Collaborators: Catherine Adams; Marcus Board, Jr.; Electra Bolotas; Sheila Bonner; Daphne Chamberlain; Charles Cobb, Jr.; Courtland Cox; Vicki Crawford; Emilye Crosby; Deirdre Cross; Kaley Deal; Karlyn Forner; John Gartrell; Robert Greene II; Jarvis Hall; Will Harris; Wesley Hogan; Hasan Kwame Jeffries; Irving Joyner; Jennifer Lawson; Dory Lerner; Monet Lewis-Timmons Pamela Montgomery; Nicole Moore; Michael Morris; Josh Myers; Naomi Nelson; Nathalie Frédéric Pierre; Derecka Purnell; Judy Richardson; Marco Robinson; Jessica Rucker; John Swaine; DeJuana Thompson; Maria Varela
Friday, April 4 at Claflin University
Featuring SNCC veterans, Jennifer Lawson and Judy Richardson, and humanities scholar, Emilye Crosby
Friday, February 7 at Tougaloo College
Featuring SNCC veterans, Jennifer Lawson and Charlies McLaurin, and humanities scholars, Emilye Crosby and Robert Greene, II
Friday, November 15 2024 at Morehouse College
Featuring SNCC veterans, Charlie Cobb and Judy Richardson, and humanities scholars, Emilye Crosby and Hasan Kwame Jeffries
Thursday, September 12, 2024 at Prairie View A&M University
Featuring SNCC veterans, Courtland Cox and Judy Richardson, and humanities scholar, Melanye Price
Friday, April 26, 2024 at Howard University
Featuring SNCC veterans, Courtland Cox and Jennifer Lawson, and humanities scholars, Catherine Adams and Hasan Kwame Jeffries
Friday, February 2, 2024 at North Carolina Central University
Featuring SNCC veterans, Charlie Cobb and Jennifer Lawson, and humanities scholars, Wesley Hogan and Josh Meyers
Past Events
February 2-3, 2024: North Carolina Central University (Durham, NC)
Featuring SNCC veterans, Charlie Cobb and Jennifer Lawson, & humanities scholars, Wesley Hogan and Josh Myers
• Feb. 2, 7:00 pm: Art & Culture in the Movement Roundtable Discussion (Watch recording)
• Feb. 3, 10:00 am: Voting Rights Roundtable Discussion & Workshop
• Feb. 3, 1:30 pm: Art & Culture Learning Toolkit Workshop
February 26, 2024: Community Conversation: Art & Culture in the Movement
March 23, 2024: National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, TN)
Featuring SNCC veteran, Judy Richardson, and humanities scholar, Emilye Crosby
• 10:30 am CT: Art & Culture Learning Toolkit Workshop & Discussion
April 6, 2024: National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, D.C.)
Featuring SNCC veterans, Courtland Cox, Jennifer Lawson, and Judy Richardson & humanities scholar, Emilye Crosby
• 3:00 pm EST: Art & Culture Learning Toolkit Workshop & Discussion
April 26-27, 2024: Howard University (Washington, D.C.)
Featuring SNCC veterans, Courtland Cox and Jennifer Lawson, & humanities scholars, Catherine Adams and Hasan Kwame Jeffries
• Apr. 26, 7:00 pm ET: Black Power Roundtable Discussion (Watch recording)
• Apr. 27, 10:00 am ET: Art & Culture Roundtable Discussion & Workshop
• Apr. 27, 1:00 pm ET: Black Power Learning Toolkit Workshop
May 13, 2024: Community Conversation: Black Power
September 12-13, 2024: Prairie View A&M University (Prairie View, TX)
Featuring SNCC veterans, Courtland Cox and Judy Richardson, and humanities scholar, Melanye Price
• Sep. 12, 12:00 pm CT: Voting Rights Roundtable Discussion (Watch recording)
• Sep. 13, 10:00 am CT: Women and Gender Roundtable Discussion
• Sep. 13, 1:00 pm CT: Voting Rights Toolkit Workshop
September 30, 2024: Community Conversation: Voting Rights
October 19, 2024: National Center for Civil & Human Rights (Atlanta, GA)
• 10:30 am-2:00 pm ET: Voting Rights Learning Toolkit Workshop & Discussion
November 15-16, 2024: Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA)
Featuring SNCC veterans, Charlie Cobb and Judy Richardson, and humanities scholars, Emilye Crosby and Hasan Kwame Jeffries
• Nov. 15, 5:00 pm ET: Freedom Teaching in the Movement Roundtable Discussion (Watch recording)
• Nov. 16, 10:00 am ET: Organizing Tradition Roundtable Discussion Workshop
• Nov. 16, 1:15 pm ET: Freedom Teaching Learning Toolkit Workshop
December 9, 2024: Community Conversation: Freedom Teaching
December 14, 2024: International Civil Rights Center & Museum (Greensboro, NC)
Featuring humanities scholars, Wesley Hogan and Danita Mason-Hogans
• 2:00 pm ET: Freedom Teaching Learning Toolkit Workshop
February 7-8, 2025: Tougaloo College (Jackson, MS)
Featuring SNCC veterans, Jennifer Lawson and Charles McLaurin, and humanities scholars, Emilye Crosby and Robert Greene
• Feb. 7, 10:00 am-12:00 pm CT: Organizing Tradition Roundtable Discussion (Watch the recording)
• Feb. 8, 10:00 am-12:00 pm CT: Black Power Roundtable Discussion & Workshop
• Feb. 8, 1:00 pm-3:00 pm CT: Organizing Tradition Learning Toolkit Workshop
March 22, 2025: Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (Birmingham, AL)
Featuring SNCC veteran, Judy Richardson, and movement scholar, Emilye Crosby
• 10:00 am-2:00 pm CT: Women & Gender in SNCC Learning Toolkit Workshop & Discussion
April 4-5, 2025: Claflin University (Orangeburg, SC)
Featuring SNCC veterans, Jennifer Lawson and Judy Richardson, and movement scholar Emilye Crosbye
• Apr. 4, 5:00pm ET: Women & Gender in SNCC Roundtable Discussion
• Apr. 5, 10:00 am ET Freedom Teaching Roundtable Discussion & Workshop
• Apr. 5, 1:00pm ET: Women & Gender Learning Toolkit Workshop
April 21, 2025: Community Conversation
• 7:00-8:30 pm ET: Women & Gender in SNCC
April 26, 2025: Museum of Mississippi History & Mississippi Civil Rights Museum (Jackson, MS)
Featuring SNCC veteran, Judy Richardson, and movement scholar, Emilye Crosby
• 10:30 am-2:00pm CT Black Power Learning Toolkit Workshop & Discussion (register here – in person only)