SNCC Contributions
By September 1963, John Lewis was SNCC’s Chairman. Joining the COFO, Lewis felt SNCC was an oddball, “I really felt back then, and I still feel, that we in SNCC were a lot like members of the early Christian church, going out with virtually nothing but the clothes on our backs to bring the gospel of Freedom to the people.” "Brothers and Sisters"
SNCC's white involvement became disputed, which left Lewis heartbroken, “I’d seen people like Jim Peck, Al Bigelow and Jim Zwerg stand and suffer with us. We had become like brothers and sisters in the struggle. We bled together. We suffered together.” |
“I was hardly older than the kids I was [teaching], but I felt much older. And some of them scoffed. I heard the term “square” again and again, along with laughter.” (John Lewis) "Be the change"
Lewis told Mississippians, “You don’t have to wait until Roy Wilkins comes to Jackson. You don’t have to wait until Martin Luther King comes to McComb. You can do it yourself. There is no more powerful force than you. There is no leader as powerful as you, if you pull together.” Embodying Gandhi’s “be the change you want to see in the world,” Lewis was empowering the people and spreading love. "Divided Loyalty"
Lewis, elected to SCLC’s board, faced controversy, “The way I saw it, we were all, in the end, on the same team. If our eyes were on what really mattered then there was no question of divided loyalty.” |