Seminar Series on SNCC and Grassroots Organizing

The SNCC Legacy Project is offering a SNCC and Grassroots Organizing: Building a More Perfect Union discussion series on SNCC’s grassroots community organizing and its relevance to ongoing efforts to build a more just, inclusive, and sustainable society.

The series, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is focused on six 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.

Session Descriptions and Registrations

April 26, 2025: Museum of Mississippi History & Mississippi Civil Rights Museum (Jackson, Mississippi)
Featuring SNCC veteran Judy Richardson and movement scholar Emilye Crosby

10:30 am–2:00pm CT Black Power Learning Toolkit Workshop & Discussion (register here – in-person only)

Past Events

Women & Gender, a Community Conversation, April 21, 2025

A virtual conversation with SNCC veterans Judy Richardson and Dorothy Zellner, movement historian Emilye Crosby, and moderator, educator, and PhD student Jessica Rucker.

Women & Gender Roundtable, Claflin University, April 4–5, 2025

SNCC veterans Jennifer Lawson and Judy Richardson, and movement historian and humanities scholar Emilye Crosby led these two days of grassroots organizing roundtable discussions and learning toolkit workshops at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Women & Gender Learning Toolkit Workshop, March 22, 2025

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (Birmingham, Alabama) hosted this event, featuring SNCC veteran Judy Richardson and movement scholar Emilye Crosby.

Organizing Tradition Community Conversation, February 24, 2025

Featuring SNCC veterans Judy Richardson and Zoharah Simmons, and movement historian Emilye Crosby; moderated by educator and PhD student Jessica Rucker.

Organizing Tradition Roundtable, SNCC & Black Power Roundtable, and Learning Toolkit Workshop at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, February 7–8, 2025
Featuring SNCC veterans, Jennifer Lawson and Charles McLaurin, and humanities scholars, Emilye Crosby and Robert Greene

February 7, 2025

• • • The Organizing Tradition in the Movement Roundtable Discussion (in-person & livestreamed)

February 8, 2025

• • • Black Power Roundtable Discussion & Workshop (in-person only)
    • Organizing Tradition Learning Toolkit Workshop (in-person only)

Freedom Teaching Learning Toolkit Workshop & Discussion at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, Dec. 14

Movement scholars Wesley Hogan and Danita Mason-Hogans aided participants as they explored documents and audiovisual materials, learned about Freedom Teaching in SNCC’s movement building, and collectively explored how those lessons might be relevant today.

Virtual Freedom Teaching Community Conversation, Dec. 9

Freedom Teaching in the Movement conversation with SNCC veterans Judy Richardson and Zoharah Simmons, and movement historian Emilye Crosby about SNCC and voting rights and how those lessons are be relevant today. This conversation was moderated by educator and PhD student, Jessica Rucker.

Morehouse College Community Gathering in Atlanta, Nov. 15 – 16

November 15, 2024

• • • Freedom Teaching in the Movement Roundtable Discussion with SNCC veterans Judy Richardson and Charlie Cobb, and Movement scholars Hasan Kwame Jeffries and Emilye Crosby (in-person and livestreamed).

November 16, 2024

• • • Organizing Tradition Roundtable Discussion Workshop with SNCC veterans Judy Richardson and Charlie Cobb, and Movement scholars Hasan Kwame Jeffries and Emilye Crosby (in-person only).
    • Freedom Teaching Learning Toolkit Workshop (in-person only). Participants analyzed exciting SNCC documents and audiovisual materials, learned about freedom teaching in SNCC’s movement building, and collectively explored how those lessons are relevant today.

Voting Rights Learning Toolkit Workshop, Oct. 19

October 19, 2024 In-person only, at the National Center for Civil & Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia, with SNCC veteran and film producer, Judy Richardson, and movement historian, Emilye Crosby.

SNCC & Voting Rights, Sept. 30

September 30, 2024 Virtual Community Conversation: SNCC & Voting Rights with SNCC veterans Judy Richardson and Jennifer Lawson, and movement historian Emilye Crosby.

Prairie View A&M University Gathering in Prairie View, Texas, Sept. 12 – 13

September 12, 2024

• • • Voting Rights Roundtable Discussion.

September 13, 2024

• • • Women and Gender Roundtable Discussion.
    • Voting Rights Toolkit Workshop.
    • Presenters included Judy Richardson, Courtland Cox, and Irving Joyner.