Celebrating SNCC: 60 Years of Social Justice  

On April 17, 1960, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded on the campus of Shaw University. The student-led, grassroots organization was dedicated to ensuring that people of color had the freedom to exercise their full rights as citizens. SNCC was founded by a group of student leaders who were not content to simply wait for change. Many were leaders of the growing sit-in movement that was attracting national attention; among them was then-Shaw sophomore, Dr. David C. Forbes, Sr., who became a founding member of SNCC. Shaw University alumna and activist, Ella Baker, believed that young activists were a valuable resource to the civil rights movement, and facilitated the convening of student leaders and civil rights elders of the day. From that pivotal first meeting on Shaw’s Campus, SNCC went on to become a major force that reinvigorated America’s civil rights movement.