Building A More Perfect Union” Discussion Series

The “SNCC and Grassroots Organizing: Building A More Perfect Union” discussion series seeks to expand knowledge of SNCC’s grassroots community organizing and its relevance to ongoing efforts to build, in the words of the NEH initiative,  a “more just, inclusive, and sustainable society.”  At its core, SNCC helped community members feel empowered to make choices and act on the issues that most impacted their lives and their communities. By engaging in discussions about SNCC’s organizing, we hope community members will be able to connect contemporary issues in their own lives and communities to central themes in SNCC’s history and the broader Black Freedom Struggle, while deepening their knowledge of the long and ongoing struggle for a more just and inclusive society.

Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the series is collaborative project of the Movement History Initiative–a collaboration between the SNCC Legacy Project, Duke University Libraries, the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke and humanities scholars–,six Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and six civil rights and African American museums.

The series is focused on six distinct yet overlapping humanities themes that are at the heart of SNCC’s history of grassroots organizing: the organizing tradition, voting rights, Black Power, women and gender, freedom teaching, and art and culture in movement building.

Where We’ll Be

Spring 2024 Events

February 2-3, 2024: North Carolina Central University (Durham, NC)

Featuring SNCC veterans, Charlie Cobb and Jennifer Lawson, & humanities scholars, Wesley Hogan and Josh Myers

Feb. 2, 7:00 p.m.: Art & Culture in the Movement Roundtable Discussion, NCCU Student Union

Feb. 3, 10:00 a.m.: Voting Rights Roundtable Discussion & Workshop, NCCU, School of Law

Feb. 3, 1:30 p.m. : Art & Culture Learning Toolkit Workshop, NCCU School of Law

Date TBD: Virtual community conversation:  Art & Culture in the Movement (online)

March 23, 2024: National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, TN)

Featuring SNCC veteran, Judy Richardson, and humanities scholar, Emilye Crosby

10:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.: Art & Culture Learning Toolkit Workshop & Discussion

April 7, 2024: National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, D.C.)

Featuring SNCC veterans, Courtland Cox, Jennifer Lawson, and Judy Richardson & humanities scholar, Emilye Crosby

7:00 p.m.: Black Power Learning Toolkit Workshop & Discussion

April 26-27, 2024: Howard University (Washington, D.C.)

Featuring SNCC veterans, Cortland Cox and Jennifer Lawson, & humanities scholars, Catherine Adams and Hasan Kwame Jeffries

Apr. 26, 7:00 p.m.: Black Power Roundtable Discussion

Apr. 27 10:00 a.m.: Art & Culture Roundtable Discussion & Workshop, NCCU

Feb. 3, 1:30 p.m.: Black Power Learning Toolkit Workshop

Date TBD: Virtual conversation: Black Power (online)

Check out where we’ll be for 2024-2025 academic year events. Details will be posted on this page when they’re available.

Stay in Touch

Sign up for our newsletter: [[Not available yet]]

Give us feedback on an event: [[Still working on this]]

Who We Are

In 2013, the SNCC Legacy Project, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the Duke University Libraries, and humanities scholars formed a partnership—now called the Movement History Initiative (MHI)—to tell SNCC’s history of grassroots organizing with activists’ voices at the center and to pass movement knowledge on to subsequent generations. Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, SNCC and Grassroots Organizing Discussion Series is a collaborative project of the MHI, six Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and six civil rights and African American museums. It’s based at the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, another core MHI partner.

HBCU Partners:  Claflin University (Orangeburg, South Carolina); Howard University (Washington, D.C.); Morehouse College (Atlanta, Georgia);  North Carolina Central University (Durham, North Carolina); Prairie View A&M University (Prairie View, Texas); Tougaloo College (Jackson, Mississippi)

Museum Partners: Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, (Birmingham, Alabama);  International Civil Rights Center and Museum (Greensboro, North Carolina); Mississippi Civil Rights Museum (Jackson, Mississippi);  National Center for Civil and Human Rights (Atlanta, Georgia;  National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, Tennessee); National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, D.C)

Our Collaborators: Catherine Adams; Electra Bolotas; Sheila Bonner; Daphne Chamberlain; Charles Cobb, Jr.; Courtland Cox; Vicki Crawford; Emilye Crosby; Deirdre Cross; Kaley Deal; Karlyn Forner; John Gartrell; Robert Greene II; Jarvis Hall; Will Harris; Wesley Hogan; Hasan Kwame Jeffries; Irving Joyner; Jennifer Lawson; Dory Lerner; Monet Lewis-Timmons Pamela Montgomery; Nicole Moore; Michael Morris; Josh Myers; Naomi Nelson; Nathalie Frédéric Pierre; Derecka Purnell;  Judy Richardson; Marco Robinson; Jessica Rucker; John Swaine; DeJuana Thompson; Maria Varela