FBI File on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Microform Collection
Location: Microfilm E 185.61 F355
Scope: The FBI maintained a file on the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) because Communists were
believed to be infiltrating its leadership. This file is comprised of field
reports from nineteen cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles,
San Francisco, Seattle and several others. The national offices of the
SNCC were in Atlanta and represents the largest of the documents.
"The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was
organized in 1960 as a nonviolent civil rights movement devoted to
direct-action, voter-registration campaigns for blacks in the Deep South.
Comprised mostly of Southern black college students upon its inception, SNCC
later attracted both black and white students into its membership. . .In 1965,
SNCC shifted its emphasis from civil and voting rights to the empowerment, both
economic and political, that those rights bring." From the
introduction of the print guide to the collection
How to Search the Collection: The collection is contained on two rolls of microfilm and is accompanied by a print guide that includes "Roll Notes." The material has been filmed in the order in which it was released from the FBI. The reports are organized by the reporting field office and then chronologically within the report.
According to the guide, each field report is organized as follows:
1) basis for
investigation
2) address of
SNCC chapter
3)
characterization and membership
4) principal
officers
5) activities
6) results of
activities
7) appendix
The guide describes the appendices as "noteworthy" as they provide descriptions
of related organizations that the FBI deemed important, such as the Nation of
Islam, the Young Socialists, Students for a Democratic Society, Committee on
Racial Inequality and others. The roll notes provide basic
information; in most cases simply the originating city of the report and the
dates that the field reports were made. Some additional information is
provided in the notes to Section 1 and 2 of Roll 1.
You can also view this FBI file at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/sncc.htm in PDF format.
Guides:
Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the FBI File on the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Wilmington, Del. : Scholarly
Resources, 1991. (Microfilm E 185.61 F355 1991 Guide)
Subject Categories: To find more information on this topic in our library, search under these subject headings in the Library Catalog:
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.) -- Biography
African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Time Period: 20th Century
Subject keywords: African American Studies, Civil Rights, FBI Documents
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