[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 114 (Friday, July 30, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    RECOGNIZING 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING 
               COMMITTEE AND THE NATIONAL SIT-IN MOVEMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                  HON. HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 29, 2010

  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. 
Res. 1566, which commemorates the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Student 
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the National Sit-In 
Movement. I want to give a special thank you to my fellow Georgian and 
the Dean of the Georgia delegation, Representative John Lewis for 
introducing this bill and for his own personal courage in participating 
in the Civil Rights Movement. Congressman Lewis is an American hero 
whose bravery has improved the quality of life for millions now and in 
the future.
  The sit-in movement was started by the extraordinary bravery of four 
young men in Greensboro, North Carolina. In February of 1960, these 
brave men started a movement that grew to more than 30 communities in 
seven different states in only one month's time. Even more impressive 
is how one and a half years after the inception of the sit-ins, the 
movement had attracted over 70,000 participants and a sit-in had 
occurred in every Southern state. The sit-in movement was truly a 
grassroots movement that showed the power of the cause and of the 
method. By choosing non-violent action, the sit-in movement was able to 
win hearts and minds across the country and led to the integration of 
restaurants, bus lines and public facilities all over the nation.
  The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is another 
extraordinary and influential group that played a major role in the 
civil rights movement. Founded in April, 1960, in Raleigh, North 
Carolina, the SNUG grew into a large organization that operated across 
the south. The group was inspired by the Greensboro sit-ins and began 
with an $800 grant from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference 
(SCLC), founded in my home State of Georgia, for a conference where 
student activists could share experiences and coordinate activities. 
The conference was a success and was attended by 126 students in 12 
states. Julian Bond and Representative John Lewis, both from my home 
State of Georgia, were among the attendees at the April 1960 
conference. Congressman John Lewis went on to be the 3rd Chairman of 
the SNCC.
  The SNCC grew to prominence, and put themselves at great personal 
risk, by organizing ``freedom rides'' across the deep south. At least 
436 people took part in these Freedom Rides during the spring and 
summer of 1961. The SNCC grew into an organization of organizers 
dedicated to building community-based political organizations of the 
rural poor. After the Freedom Rides, the SNCC worked primarily on voter 
registration, along with local protests about segregated public 
facilities. As a final, monumental step, the group took the leading 
role in the 1963 March on Washington where more than 200,000 people 
marched peacefully to the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal justice for 
all citizens under the law. The next year, this group merged with 
Congress on Racial Equality and the National Advancement of Colored 
People with the primary goal of creating a desegregated political 
climate necessary to pass legislation to expand civil rights and voting 
rights for all citizens. I agree with Julian Bond when he said that ``a 
final SNCC legacy is the destruction of the psychological shackles 
which had kept black southerners in physical and mental peonage; SNCC 
helped break those chains forever. It demonstrated that ordinary women 
and men, young and old, could perform extraordinary tasks.''
  The civil rights movement changed the fabric of America. The movement 
led to the passage of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965, which put an end to legal discrimination and 
segregation in this country. That battle for full equality is not yet 
over, however. As we move forward, we must remember the past and the 
resounding success of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and 
the National Sit-In Movement.
  As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, I am honored to 
address the House of Representatives on the fiftieth anniversary of the 
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the National Sit-In 
Movement. I walk in the footsteps of John Lewis and Julian Bond, great 
civil rights leaders from Georgia, whose heroism and bravery improved 
the lives of all Americans. Fifty years later, we all owe a debt of 
gratitude to the civil rights movement and I urge my colleagues to 
support this resolution.