SNCC 60th

Black August is a tradition which originated in 1979 within the California penal system to honor fallen Freedom Fighters, Jonathan Jackson, George Jackson, William Christmas, James McClain, and Khatari Gaulden.

Today, we continue to demand freedom for all political prisoners, such as former SNCC chairman Jamil Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown), who currently serves a life sentence.

A core tenet of #BlackAugust is to remember, honor, and study the legacies all those who have struggled for our liberation.

1. This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed — As noted in 1964 by Robert P. “Bob” Moses, director of the Mississippi project of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC):

“It’s not contradictory for a farmer to say he’s nonviolent and also pledge to shoot a marauder’s head off.” In this riveting account, Charles “Charlie” Cobb Jr. describes the vital role that armed self-defense played in the survival + liberation of black communities in America.

2.Hands on the Freedom Plow In this collection of personal narratives, fifty-two women--northern and southern, young and old, urban and rural, Black, white, and Latinx--share their courageous personal stories of working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

3.I’ve Got the Light of Freedom This momentous work offers a groundbreaking history of the early civil rights movement in the South. Using wide-ranging archival work and extensive interviews with movement participants...