© 2015 Anna Lillian Kurhajec IMPOSSIBLE ALLIES: SNCC, BLACK FREEDOM, AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS LIBERAL ALLIANCE BY ANNA LILLIAN KURHAJEC DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Chair Professor David R. Roediger, Director of Research Associate Professor Emeritus Mark H. Leff Associate Professor Clarence E. Lang ABSTRACT On the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of Black Power and amidst a resurgence of national interest in African American grassroots political mobilizations under the Black Lives Matter umbrella, this dissertation argues for a reformulation of how we understand the history of the civil rights movement, Black Power, and their respective, though interrelated, relationships to Black-defined liberation, mainstream liberalism, and radical politics. By analyzing and reframing familiar debates this project pursues a more usable history for ongoing liberation struggles. It first argues that though it was politically valuable to the civil rights establishment to align itself with mainstream white liberals in the national politics, in media, and in the public sphere, this civil rights liberal alliance ultimately de-centered Black-defined interests, visions, and goals from the Black freedom struggle. While grassroots, Black-centered direct action was a key part of the civil rights liberal framework, maintaining strategic alliance with white liberals in positions of power continued to be a movement priority. From this basis this dissertation re-interprets the liberal framework of the mainstream civil rights movement by examining the uneasy relationship between the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the civil rights liberal alliance. SNCC’s political trajectory illustrates these tensions well. They were an organization of young people who were both independent from but highly influenced by existing civil rights organizations. Yet, over the course of SNCC’s organizational life, they eventually eschewed the liberal framework out of which they came. This project examines this trajectory, highlighting their call for Black Power in 1966 to demonstrate the ways in which Black Power represented a reassertion of Black-centered struggle and simultaneously, how that re-assertion was unacceptable within the framework of the civil rights liberal alliance. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, David Roediger. I would not have completed this project without his wisdom, patience, humor, and guidance. I owe much gratitude to my dissertation chair, Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua. His political passion and shrewd intellect have inspired and challenged me since I first stepped into his class in my second year of graduate school. Though he might be surprised to know it, no one has given me more support in navigating the discipline and profession than Clarence Lang. Not only does his research undergird my work, his commitment to teaching and dedication to community engagement model the kind of academic I aspire to be. Finally, I want to thank and honor the late, great historian, teacher and mentor, Mark Leff. I had the privilege of having Mark on my dissertation committee. Even in the final weeks of his life, he held true to his reputation, asking the most important and most challenging questions with the utmost humility and kindness. He is deeply missed and never forgotten. I would be remiss if I did not thank Antoinette Burton, whose brilliant work, generosity, and guidance helped me through one of the most challenging phases of my writing process. Similarly, I would like to thank members of faculty, past and present, from the department of History at the University of Illinois, especially: Jim Barrett, Kristin Hoganson, Jean Allman, Fanon Che Wilkins, Adrian Burgos, Jr., Betsy Esch, Kathy Oberdeck, Jessica Millward, Shefali Chandra, Kevin Mumford, and Tamara Chaplin. I greatly appreciate research funding from the Department of History at the University of Illinois, the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, and the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. I would also like to recognize the continual support from my union, the Graduate Employee’s Organization, throughout my graduate career. Many colleagues and friends have given me invaluable feedback, support, and inspiration during my research and writing process. First, I thank my colleagues and cohort at the University of Illinois. Especially Sarah Frohardt-Lane, Genevieve Clutario, Andy Bruno, Ed Onaci, Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, Kwame Holmes, Brandon Mills, Emily Skidmore, Nathan Chio, Ian Hartman, Kerry Pimblott, Alonzo Ward, Martin Smith, Natalie Havlin, Joel Miyasaki, and Sarah Lazare. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the students who took my Social iii Movements of the 1960s course at Danville Correctional Center in fall 2009. I learned so much from all of you. Finally, to friends and family who I have not yet mentioned: you have supported me in so many ways. I thank Austin McCoy, Brook Lillard, Elizabeth Sauer, Larry Brent, and James Kilgore for their solidarity, shared struggle, and continued friendship. I would not have made it without some of my oldest and dearest friends, especially Abby and Bill Caperton, Rita Lindahl- Lynch, Sarah May, Mara Schanfield, Brendan Roediger, and Sean McPherson. To my family of origin: Dana, Hannah, David, Bonnie, Neil, Matt, Greg, Marianne, Lamont, Tyler, Deion, Roger, Rosemary, Corwin, and everyone else (especially the little ones) thank you! To my mother, JoAnne Kurhajec, I have no words. You are my greatest confidant, trusted adviser, and dearest friend and now I’ve thrown the paint against the wall! I love you as big as the sky. I must also thank Popeye Blanket Roboris “Bubba” Kraken Kurhajec Livingston Seagull: no one was by my side throughout this process more than you. Our daily walks were what kept me going on many days. I know you, at least as much as me, are grateful for Jarvis Beach and Rogers Park. We will miss them everyday. Finally, to Amy Livingston, with all my heart. Absolutely no one was more integral to the completion of this project than you. You’ve graciously given so much time, energy, labor, and love supporting me in this project. You are brilliant (and the most amazing research assistant in the world). I feel so lucky to have you in my life everyday and can’t wait for all the rest. Thank you, Amy, I love you. To everyone I’ve mentioned and the many I’ve not— you know who you are. I have so much gratitude—I love you all! iv For my Mother v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………….....…1 CHAPTER ONE: THE CIVIL RIGHTS LIBERAL ALLIANCE………….....................….24 CHAPTER TWO: THE ORIGINS OF NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT………………………..…….....…........53 CHAPTER THREE: LIBERALISM AND BLACK HUMANITY IN SNCC’S “GOLDEN ERA”……..……………………………………………90 CHAPTER FOUR: BLACK POWER AND THE MARCH AGAINST FEAR…………...137 CHAPTER FIVE: FRAMING HISTORICAL NARRATIVES OF BLACK POWER AND SNCC.………………………………………………...176 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………..…………..……..209 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………..……………………218 vi INTRODUCTION In spite of compounding evidence to the contrary, most popular historical narratives (liberal and conservative) continue to celebrate the classical civil rights movement period (1954- 1965) as a hallmark of American progress. In these narratives, the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act on the heels of the 1964 Civil Rights Act ensured that African Americans were no longer second-class citizens in the United States. Though racist white outliers still existed in backwards and parochial pockets, particularly in the South, the predominant narrative tells us that the lion’s share of what was needed to overcome racial inequality in the United States had been accomplished. Such celebrations ignore the advances in systemic white supremacy and anti-Blackness that have developed in the last half-century, in the wake of, and often in direct response to, the gains of the civil rights movement. The rise of mass incarceration and mass criminalization, for example, which continue to disproportionately impact people of color and Black communities in particular, emerged after the supposed achievement of a post-civil rights racial equality. Mainstream explanations of these trends have relied on narratives of Black pathology, immorality, and individual responsibility. In fact, the legal achievements of the civil rights movement have been mobilized as justification for these narratives: African Americans caught up in the system had no one to blame but themselves. While pathologizing narratives and dehumanizing characterizations of Black people have had a continual presence in American history, they took new form in the post-civil rights era. The angry Black criminal and the undeserving welfare queen shared an inappropriate sense of entitlement and ungratefulness.1 1For more on framing entitlement see: Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, “‘The Crime of Survival’: Fraud Prosecutions, Community Surveillance, and the Original ‘Welfare Queen’,” Journal of 1 These tropes arose in juxtaposition to the image of Black humility, morality, and respectability embodied by the mythic civil rights movement figure. It is not circumstantial that the heroic civil rights leaders we often memorialize were, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,