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SNCC’s Revolutionary Purposes
With growing frequency the mis-named
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Com-
mittee has been appearing at the center of
racial disturbances in the cities of the na-
tion. This week it was in Atlanta where
SNOC Tembers_apparentiy_set_out_pur-
p y_to provoke disorders by spread-
ing false tales of "police brutality."
Just what SNCC is up to has been an: -
swered in the statements of its leaders,
most notably chairman Stokely Carmi-
chael. SNCC is seeking nothing less than a
revolutionary confrontation, what it calls
a "liberation" movement, that will pit
blacks against whites.
SNCC wants to divide the country irre-
vocably along racial Tines. Its first need is
to discredit the moderate Negro leadership
and the concept of non-violence. It has al-
ready rejected what is really the only viab-
le route to racial progress, cooperation
among whites and Negroes. It moves to ex-
ploit, with violence if necessary, the grie-
vances which responsible persons of both
races have long been working to eliminate.
"Black power," the SNCC battle cry,
has become a label of convenience readily
applied to any exploitable situation. In the
mouths of SNCC's leaders it means what
they want it to mean, from "bringing this
country to its knees," as Carmichael said
last month, to total racial separation.
Regrettably, there seems to be a grow-
ing number of whites ready to accept
SNCC's hate-inspired extremism as repre-
sentative of ALL Negroes, to cite demon-
strated excesses as convenient proof that
the races cannot get along, that steps to
improve Negro life are futile.
The irony of this is that the philosophi-
cal basis of SNCC's dogma rests precisely
on the same argument. The bigotry, the
exploitation, the outrages demonstrated
over the years by some whites are, in
SNCC's view, representative of the atti-
tudes of ALL whites. SNCC, too, says the
races can never get along.
In one sense SNCC's radical outlook is
perhaps understandable, as the logical pro-
duct of frustrations and discontent. But
this doesn't make it any more acceptable.
SNCC, like the white extremists who
both bolster SNCC's existence and draw
strength from it, is doing not only the Ne-
gro cause but the national cause a mon-
strous disservice. The sowing of hatred,
the fostering of divisions, are intolerable
whatever their source.
We are one nation, All who work against
unity and understanding—white or black
— deserve the condemnation of those
aware of our moral heritage.
BIBLE THOUGHT—IJce¢ unto them that call evil good, and good evil. Isaiah. V, 20.
five
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