Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) – Susan Shannon
In Albany, GA I learned about the work of Charles Sherrod, Cordell Reagon, and Charles Jones with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). I’m including their names so I don’t forget them. Each played a role in supporting efforts that included registering people to vote and training students in non-violence.
Cordell was a freedom singer along with Rutha Harris. Songs gave members of the freedom movement strength when marching, when being arrested and when in jail. We were introduced to Rutha as she sang and marched with a freedom sign into the church we visited. It was all I could do to not jump out of the pew and march behind her. Rutha was amazing! She taught us songs and we ended our visit singing This Little Light of Mine together.
I’ve been offered opportunities to participate in direct non-violent action in the past few years and have not been brave enough to participate. I see a strength in the individuals we are meeting and learning about and wonder what will happen given my next opportunity.
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The stirring account of the struggle against racial oppression in South Africa cannot be told without the role of music in that struggle, and that’s the context and subject of the documentary film, Amandla!.
For every song, there was pain, for every tune there was joy and heartbreak as South Africans at home and abroad sought solace and encouragement. Amandla! is an impassioned chronicle of the role of music as a means of protest and survival through more than 40 years of struggle against apartheid.
I encourage you all to watch Amandla.