The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

In April 1960, after the student-powered sit-in movement was underway, a group of students met on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh , North Carolina to discuss how to sustain its momentum.  Veteran organizer Ella Baker, a member of Dr. King's SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) organization, suggested they form their own group, instead of taking the lead from the SCLC.  SNCC was created as a student-run body.  It took part in the major Movement activities of the 1960s – sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, voter registration, Mississippi Freedom Summer.  It also helped create the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as an alternative to the white-controlled state Democratic Party.  In 1966, there was a split in SNCC ranks, with some members, such as Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture) advocating "Black Power," and others wanting it to remain an integrated organization.

To find out more: http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/