The
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (
SNCC, often pronounced "snick": ) was one of the most important organizations of the
American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a student meeting organized by
Ella Baker held at
Shaw University 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, allowing full-time SNCC workers to have a $10 per week salary. Many unpaid volunteers also worked with SNCC on projects in
Mississippi,
Alabama,
Georgia,
Arkansas, and
Maryland. 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, Alabama, and Mississippi.