[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 140 (Thursday, October 8, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1960-E1961]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CELEBRATING THE 70TH BIRTHDAY OF JAMES FORMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 7, 1998

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate James Forman, who should 
have been a celebrated leader years ago. Jim, as we always called him 
when he was the engine and the engineer of the Student Nonviolent 
Coordinating Committee (SNCC), has just celebrated his 70th birthday. 
Jim Forman is the least known of the major civil rights leaders of the 
1960s. Our colleague, John Lewis, may be the best known of those of us 
who worked in SNCC, but John would be the first to say that it was Jim 
who ran SNCC.

[[Page E1961]]

  Jim Forman was the Executive Director of the Student Nonviolent 
Coordinating Committee when it was at its best and at its height. This 
was the SNCC that pioneered the nonviolent techniques of the sit-ins at 
segregated lunch counters; that organized the Mississippi Freedom 
Democratic Party that broke segregated national convention delegations 
in both parties; and that originated the 1964 Mississippi civil rights 
summer that brought an integrated army of students into the South to 
break open the worst and most dangerous areas. These historic 
achievements required more than young people who were willing to sit 
in, go to jail, or risk their lives. Jim did those and more. Jim was 
the sturdy hand at the helm who brought order out of movement chaos, 
kept everybody focused, and headed off trouble. I remember Jim as the 
forceful man in charge who was good at the whole range of human 
interactions. He could cajole, he could persuade, he could entice, and, 
if necessary, he would order.
  SNCC was an extraordinary, collegial, decentralized movement 
organization. Its loose structure, youthful participants, and free 
spirits demanded a special leader. How fortunate our band of the young 
and foolish were. At the moment when we needed a leader who could hold 
us all together until the segregated south succumbed to the rule of 
law, we found one--James Forman.

                          ____________________