Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas

by Jennifer Jensen Wallach, John A. Kirk (Editor)

Overview

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) arrived in Arkansas in October 1962 at the request of the Arkansas Council on Human Relations, the state affiliate of the Southern Regional Council. SNCC efforts began with Bill Hansen, a young white Ohioan--already an early veteran of the civil rights movement--who traveled to Little Rock in the early sixties to help stimulate student sit-in movements promoting desegregation. Thanks in large part to SNCC's bold initiatives, most of Little Rock's public and private facilities were desegregated by 1963, and in the years that followed many more SNCC volunteers rushed to the state to set up projects across the Arkansas Delta to help empower local people to take a stand against racial discrimination. In the five short years before it disbanded, the SNCC's Arkansas Project played a pivotal part in transforming the state, yet this fascinating branch of the national organization has barely garnered a footnote in the history of the civil rights movement. This collection serves as a corrective by bringing articles on SNCC's activities in Arkansas together for the first time, by providing powerful firsthand testimonies, and by collecting key historical documents from SNCC's role in the region's emergence from the slough of southern injustice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557289681
Publisher:	University of Arkansas Press
Publication date:	06/01/2011
Pages:	225
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Jensen Wallach is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Texas and the author of Closer to the Truth Than Any Fact: Memoir, Memory, and Jim Crow and Richard Wright: From Black Boy to World Citizen.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xi

Part I Historical Assessments

1 The Origins of SNCC in Arkansas: Little Rock, Lupper, and the Law John A. Kirk 3

2 In the Storm: William Hansen and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas, 1962-1967 Brent Riffel 23

3 "It Was the Wrong Time, and They Just Weren't Ready": Direct-Action Protest in Pine Bluff, 1963 Holly Y. McGee 35

4 Crossing the White Line: SNCC in Three Delta Towns, 1963-1967 Randy Finley 54

5 Replicating History in a Bad Way? White Activists and Black Power in SNCC's Arkansas Project Jennifer Jensen Wallach 69

Part II Firsthand Accounts

6 Arkansas Daze Bill Hansen 87

7 Excerpts from an Interview with Jim Jones Robert Wright 101

8 Arkansas Roots and Consciousness Michael Simmons 107

9 Maeby Civil Rights Sanderia Smith 115

10 Excerpts from an Interview with Bob Cableton Robert Wright 126

11 Lessons from SNCC-Arkansas 1965 Nancy (Shaw) Stoller 132

12 An E-mail Interview with Tim Janke Jennifer Jensen Wallach 139

13 An Interview with Millard "Tex" Lowe Jennifer Jensen Wallach 142

14 Arkansas SNCC Memories Laura Foner 148

15 An Interview with Gertrude Jackson Jennifer Jensen Wallach 155

16 My Arkansas Journey Arlene (Wilgoren) Dunn 160

17 The Civil Rights Movement in Pine Bluff Vivian Carroll Jones 166 l Part III Historical Documents

18 "Up Against the Obstacles" (1960) 177

19 "The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee" 179

20 "Field Report, Pine Bluff, Arkansas" (1963) 182

21 Press Releases: "Students Attacked with Ammonia in Pine Bluff" (1963) and "Pine Bluff Movies, Schools, Park Open to All" (1963) 186

22 Letter to Ruthie Hansen from Bill Hansen (1964) 189

23 "Field Report, Phillips, Monroe, Arkansas and Lee Counties" 191

24 "Annual Report" (1964) 194

25 "Hansen Resigns SNCC Post; Says Negroes Should Lead But He'll Stay as Adviser" (1964) 202

26 An Open Letter from Representatives of the Forrest City (Arkansas) Movement (1965) 205

27 Ozell Sutton v. Capitol Club, Inc. (1965) 210

28 Letter to Arkansas Summer Project Applicant (1965) 213

29 Letter to Collin Minert from James O. Jones (1965) 216

30 "What to Bring with You" and "Orientation Schedule" (1965) 216

31 "82% Negro; 100% White" (1965) 220

32 Letter to "Dear Friend" from Jim Jones (1965) 224

33 "What We Shall Overcome Means to Me" (1965) 226

34 Journal Entry by Mitchell Zimmerman (1965) 228

35 Letter from Rev. Benjamin S. Grinage to John A. Hannah (1966) 232

36 Press Statement: Rev. Ben Grinage (1966) 237

37 "Black Power-Another Definition" (1966) 240

38 "Arkansas Staff Meeting" (1966) 243

39 "Ex-workers for SNCC Tell Why Group Faded in State" (1967) 247

Notes 251

Contributors 277

Index 279

Editorial Reviews

"Provides another piece of the puzzle as we seek a fuller understanding of the civil rights movement beyond Birmingham, Selma, Atlanta, and all the other places that have dominated movement literature for decades." --Cynthia Griggs Fleming, The Journal of Southern History, February 2013


"Provocative and accessible, ARSNICK offers unprecedented insight and new topics previously missing from civil rights history...a compelling read." --Journal of African American History, Spring 2013


"Wallach and Kirk’s volume is an excellent starting point for understanding SNCC’s statewide campaigns." --H-Net Reviews, January 2012


“John Kirk and Jennifer Jensen Wallach come along and show us that Arkansas SNCC is a veritable gold-mine of historical evidence. It’s a humbling and wonderful part of the scholarly process to be taken to task by others who find new approaches and new sources. In this case, Wallach and Kirk note that the stories coming out of ‘ARSNICK,’ or the Arkansas branch of SNCC, significantly challenge the ‘master narrative’ of the organization. I would add that the evidence they uncover has the potential to challenge the master narrative of the civil rights movement as a whole." --Wesley Hogan in Arkansas Review


"The battle to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock is widely recognized as one of the seminal moments in US history. But aside from this incident, historians have largely ignored the struggle for civil rights in Arkansas. This collection of essays, memoirs, and documents seeks to fill this gap. ... Indeed, in the coming years, these sources should provide a springboard for much-needed additional scholarship on these very subjects." -Choice, Dec. 2011

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