I think the basic reason for the reactions of N.A.A.C.P. and S.C.L.C. to
S.N.C.C. is the fact that they elected to be independent and they
exercised the independence that only young people or unattached people,
those who are not caught in a framework of thought, can exercise. They
were open to ideas that would not have been certainly cherished, or in
some instances certainly, tolerated by either the N.A.A.C.P. or S.C.L.C.
As a chief example, the moving into Mississippi. When they decided, they
called it "Move On Mississippi" and they called it "MOM". I think a
delegation went to talk to Thurgood Marshall, who was then the chief
counsel of the N.A.A.C.P. regarding
Page 72 this and to
seek legal help. And Thurgood was not responsive. In the first place
because the young people had expressed the opinion and the determination
that they were going to accept help from wherever they could get it.
Which meant that people like Crocket in Troy and other members of what
is called the National Lawyers
[unclear]
—many white lawyers—which is leftist oriented, would be
objectionable to the N.A.A.C.P. because they didn't want to introduce
this conflict of ideologies, of pro-communist ideology, and leave
themselves open to the charge on the part of the authorities that the
communists were taking over. So the young people had taken the position
[unclear] (I'm not sure of the
sequence of whether this memo… I'm not sure when this memo but it had to
be after when Wyatt came in) that they accept help wherever they could
get it. One aspect of the help, for instance, that was being sought in
Mississippi was the utilization of untried or unpopular methods of
dealing legally with the question that arose out of the conflict of
struggle in Mississippi. Persons like those who were not within the old
framework, [unknown] framework, were much more open to
trying these new things. (We can later deal with some of the specifics;
I can refresh myself sometime and somewhere and find some docuementation
for you.) But this I think was the basis. Behind that I think, to be
very honest, was the feeling
Page 73 that here was this
group of upstarts that nobody could control and that they ought to be
part of either my organization or your organization. I think we have
dealt somewhat in our conversation with the fact that at the initial
meeting there was this very strong effort on the part of representations
from at least a couple of organizations to have the young people as part
of them. Of course, it was almost a foregone conclusion on the part of
S.C.L.C. that because the meeting…