"We must organize ourselves to run for office as Black people. We must force the state to recognize that we are a distinct group of people who have been oppressed, and that we must unify to gain political power... The question is, how do we organize? Do we organize to integrate into the white community, or do we organize to build a black community? ... SNCC proposes that we build our own institutions, our own political parties, our own economic systems, rather than trying to join those that have oppressed us."
— Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) position paper, 1966
Which of the following developments within the Civil Rights Movement during the mid-to-late 1960s is most directly reflected in the excerpt?
- AA shift toward coordinating protest strategies with the federal administration to expand Great Society welfare programs.
- A growing debate over the goals and strategies of the movement, leading some activists to reject integration in favor of political and economic self-determination.Answer
- CThe alignment of racial justice goals with the federal containment doctrine to combat communist influence in urban areas.
- DA growing consensus among activists that integration into existing political parties was the only effective way to achieve racial equality.
Answer
A growing debate over the goals and strategies of the movement, leading some activists to reject integration in favor of political and economic self-determination.
The correct answer is correct because the SNCC position paper of 1966 marks a clear departure from the mainstream civil rights movement's focus on nonviolent integration into existing American systems. Instead, it advocates for building independent Black institutions and political parties, illustrating the internal debates and fragmentation that characterized the movement in the late 1960s.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
The ideological fragmentation and emergence of the Black Power movement within the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s