The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded at Shaw University in April of 1960. Hoping to harness the enthusiasm and willpower of young people to end segregation, founders Ella Baker, James Lawson and Julian Bond organized protests and actions across the south. SNCC was vital to the impact of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
This Wednesday through Sunday, SNCC celebrates its 50th anniversary with a conference at Shaw. "The State of Things" will broadcast live from the campus in Raleigh on Friday, April 16 with a panel of SNCC activists. But first, historians Seth Kotch, of the Southern Oral History Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Duke Distinguished Professor of History Bill Chafe join host Frank Stasio in the studio to listen to archival tape of Ella Baker and Julian Bond discussing SNCC's founding and its legacy.