The City of Atlanta

Celebrates the Bravery and Courage

of the Youth of the
Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee
Monday, May 10, 2010
11:00 A.M.
at
Raymond Street S.W. and Mitchell Street S.W.
near the campus of Clark Atlanta University

Dedication Ceremony of
SNCC WAY
 James Forman leads singing in the SNCC office on Raymond Street in Atlanta. A Toddle House in Atlanta has the distinction of being occupied during a sit-in by some of the most
(From left) Mike Sayer, McArthur Cotton, Forman, Marion Barry, Lester MacKinney, effective organizers in America when the SNCC staff and supporters take a break from
Mike Thelwell, Lawrence Guyot, Judy Richardson, John Lewis, Jean Wheeler, and Julian Bond. a conference to demonstrate. Photos by Danny Lyon, from Memories of the Southern
Civil Rights Movement, courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery.

“Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends
towards justice, but here is the thing: it does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in
our own ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice....”
Senator Barack Obama, speaking on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
April 4, 2008
Street Unveiling Ceremony

“It is fitting and appropriate for the City of Atlanta to designate the old
Raymond Street, as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Way. This one organization, located on this street, changed not only the
American South, but changed our nation. So many young people, from
all over the country, worked here, on what would become SNCC Way, to
help and inspire people around our nation to use the power of peaceful,
nonviolent activism to liberate the soul of our nation.
On this street we planned and we studied the philosophy of nonviolence.
We got in the way. We struggled against unjust laws and against the forces
of hate and division, and showed the nation and the world that the way of
peace and the way of love is a better way. From this street, we desegregated
lunch counters, restaurants, theaters and waiting rooms; we registered
people to vote and got more Americans to participate in the democratic
process. On behalf of all of the members of SNCC, we are more than grateful
to the City of Atlanta, the City Council and the Mayor for honoring SNCC with
this street naming.”
— U.S. Congressman John Lewis
“The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was one of the
principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the
1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held
at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960. SNCC grew
into a large organization with many supporters in the North who helped
raise funds to support SNCC’s work in the South. Many volunteers worked
on racial equality projects in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas,
and Maryland. As much as SNCC was about racial enlightenment, it also
promoted the equality of women.
SNCC played a major role in the sit-ins and freedom rides, a leading role
in the 1963 March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party over the next few years. SNCC’s
major contribution was in its field work, organizing voter registration
drives all over the South, especially in Georgia and Mississippi.
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.”

—Julian Bond
 Presiding
The Honorable Michael Julian Bond
Atlanta City Council, Post 1 At-Large

Selection
Jeremy Simmons, Student
Clark Atlanta University

Invocation
Dr. Robert Michael Franklin
Morehouse College, President

Greetings – State of Georgia

The Honorable Nan Orrock
State Senator, District 36

Greetings – Fulton County

The Honorable Emma I. Darnell
Commissioner, District 5

Greetings – City of Atlanta

The Honorable Kasim Reed, Mayor

Street Unveiling Ceremony

The Honorable Ivory Lee Young, Jr.
Council Member, District 3

Greetings – Clark Atlanta University

Dr. Carlton E. Brown, President

Selection
Minister T. Reneé Crutcher

Remarks
Lonnie King, SNCC member

Reflections on a Student Movement

Charles McDew, SNCC member
Dr. Doris Derby, SNCC member
Constance Curry, SNCC Advisory Committee

Dedication and Unveiling of SNCC Way

The Honorable Kasim Reed
The Honorable Michael Julian Bond
Dignitaries and SNCC Members

Selection
Minister T. Reneé Crutcher

Benediction
Rev. Michael Jones
Constituent Services, Office of the Mayor

Reception to follow at the Robert W. Woodruff Library

Photo of Burning Freedom Ride Bus in 1961


Occasion of the Dedication of ‘SNCC Way’,
Our sincere thanks to the Atlanta City Council and the people of
Atlanta, Georgia for bestowing this honor on the young people of
SNCC who worked tirelessly to combat racial oppression and to
struggle for social justice and human rights for all people.
“To designate this humble street ‘SNCC WAY’ is fitting tribute to
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which
from 1962 to 1966 occupied offices in the Marx Building, now
gone, here at 6-8½ Raymond Street. This honor recognizes the
sacrifice and struggle of students, many of whom were from
historically black colleges and universities, who dedicated their
lives to the freedom struggle.
As young people, SNCC organizers were on the cutting edge of
the ‘60s civil rights movement, often going where others feared
to tread, risking life and limb in street marches, sit-ins, registering
voters, and assisting grass-roots leaders to stand against injustice.
SNCC organizers started freedom schools, labor unions, economic
development projects, organized grass-roots independent
Official Communiqué on the
Atlanta, Georgia
May 10, 2010
political parties and created community–based cultural
expression and institutions. SNCC’s vision was to create a new
America from the bottom up where people of color were free of
racial discrimination and where women and men were equally
valued for their strength, courage and leadership.
From this home base, SNCC workers confronted white
supremacy throughout the United States and eventually joined
with oppressed people throughout the world struggling for their
liberation from colonial domination.
Make no mistake. Our work is not done. The struggle has just
begun. We Veterans of SNCC accept this honor in celebration of
the new generation of student activists, knowing that they will
continue the struggle. ‘Come; let us build a new world together’.
-SNCC 50th Anniversary Conference Planning Committee

Special Thanks
Dr. Carlton E. Brown, President Constance Curry
Clark Atlanta University SNCC Advisory Committee

Donna Brock Katrina Taylor-Parks

Director, Strategic Communications Deputy Chief of Staff, City of Atlanta
Clark Atlanta University
Andrea Boone
Michael Lacour Department of Constituent Services, City of Atlanta
Vice President for Management
Clark Atlanta University Dexter M. Chambers
Director, Office of Communications
Loretta Parham Atlanta City Council
CEO and Director
Robert W. Woodruff Library Kristina Garcia-Buñuel
Senior Legislative Aide, Post 1 At-Large
The Staff of the Robert W. Woodruff Library and Atlanta City Council
The Woodruff Library Archives
Mi-Lan Henderson
The City of Atlanta Department of Public Works Chief of Staff, District 3
Atlanta City Council
The City of Atlanta Office of Assets Management
Felicia Fleetwood
Catering With A Flair Chief of Staff, District 10
Dwynell Williams, Owner Atlanta City Council

Street Unveiling Ceremony