SNCC: THE BEGINNING OF IDEOLOGY
Staughton Lynd
Five years ago this fall C, Van Woodward published an essay entitled "The Populist Horitago and the Intellectual," directed against
"tho disonchantmont of the intollectual with the masses" so characteristic of tho Elsenhowor years. Woodx>rard callod on intellectuals to
maintain tho tradition of Henry Goorgo, Honry Demarost Lloyd and Upton
Sinclair, wtitors and thinkors who had thrown themselves into tho popular movomonts  of   their day.     Ho  said:
Ono  must  oxpoct  end  tsrvon  hopo  that   thore  will  bo  future
upheavals  to  shock tho  seats  of  power and  prlvilogo   and
furnish tho  periodic  therapy  that  sooms necessary "to  the
health of  our domocracy.     Nut  ono   cannot  expect  them to
bo  any moro  decorous  or  seemly  or  rational  than  their
prodocessors.
"The  intollectual," Woodward  concluded,   "must  not  bo  alienatod  from
tho   sources  of  revolt."
Woodward's  article  was   itself  part  of a tradition:     the  prophetic
tradition  of American  intellectuals who have  called on their fellow-
craftsmen  to  join them  in radical   action.     Emerson had  issued  such a
call   in his   "Mmorican   Scholar."    Ho  said,   in 1837:     "Action  is with the
scholar subordinate,  but  it  is ossontial.    Without it ho   is  not yot man.
Without  it  thought  can  never ripen   into  truth,"     Emerson wont   on:     "Only
so much do  I  know,   as   I havo  lived.     Instantly wo  know whose words  are
loaded with'life,   and whose  not."    As   if anticipating tho   circle  of
students   singing  "Wo   Shall  Overcome,"  Emerson wrote:
I grasp the  hands  of those  next  me,   and   tako  my  place  in
ftho ring to suffer and  to  work,   taught  by an instinct   that
so shall  the  dumb abyss bo  vocal with speech.
The  speech of which Emerson wroto,   issuing from sharod   suffering
and  action,   and  articulating what  Is  latent  there,     is  not easy.     Ife  is
all too easy to write  about  one's   summer in Mississippi:     so many have. -
But  thoso  reports  raroly roach tho   level' of intellectual encountor.
Too  often  thoir  tono   is  merely adulatory,   and  consciously   or unconsciously tho   fund-raising purpose  hovers   over  tho  words.     I   believe   that
tho   intellectual   who fully  engages himself must  omorgo  with  critical   as
woll as  positive  responses,   and"  his  responsibility ends  only whon ho hes
attomptod  to communicato  thses.
It  is   just hero  that inhibitions  crowd  in.     For,   to begin with,
surely  "tho  movement"   is   already magnificently articulate?     Its  leaders
aro  thomselves  scholars-in-action.     James  Porman loft  graduate work in
African studios  to  go  to Fayotto   County,  Tennessee.    Robert Moses,  bo-
foro  ho went  to  Mississippi,   had  majored  in philosophy  and  mathomatics
at  Havorford and  Harvard.     The young man at   tho   Jackson COPO off ico-who,'
lato  on Juno  21,  rocoivod   tho   telephone  report  that Michael  Schwornor,
James  Chanoy and Andrew Goodman were  missing,   is   a specialist  in Japanese   culture.     Tho  young woman who took my place  at  the  end  of  tho
summor  as  diroctor  of  tho   Mississippi Proedom  Schools  had  been an English instructor  at  the  University   of Washington.     Now SNCC  oven  has  its
own   research department,   headed  by  Jack Minnis,   a candidate  for  tho
doctorate   in  Political   Science  at  Tulane.     SNCQ  offices   are  uniformly
strewn with magazines  and  paperback books;     the   songs   of   the   movement
testify,   in a different way,   to  its   articulateness.     Nor  is   SNCC   anti-
intelloctual  in  tho   manner of  the   Hussion Narddniks,  who were  ready to
exchange  Shakospoaro  for  a  pair  of  boots.     At  tho   Oxford  oriontation
sos-sion which proceeded  the   Mississippi   Summor  Project,  Bob Mosos  twice
drew on Camus  In public  speeches:     onco,   comparing race   prejudice  to   tho
plague which infocts  every   one;     again,   after the   throe wero reported
missing,  to  say that  there was  no  escape  from guilt,  that  so long as  tho
problem oxistod we would   all   bo  both victim .   and  exocutionor.
Such a movement  would   soom to  leave  little  more  to bo   said.     And
there  arc   other  inhibitions.     Sometimes   one  hesitates  to  spoa'-c because
one   has  been  asked  not  to.     Thus  I  attended  a  SNCC  staff meeting   just
boforo  tho   Summer Projects  began,   about which I feel free  to  say only
that  it   onco  more  affirmed the   position  that SNCC  staff members  should
not  carry woapons.     Sometimes   ono  hesitates  to   speak because  the   thing
experienced   appears   to  lie  too deep for  words.     I attended  a  SNEFC  staff
mooting at   Oxford  after the  disappearance  of tho  three which began with
tho   song   "Como by here,  Lord,"  verso  after vorso  after verso with  ono
person after  anothor  in tho   room taking   tho  load.    And  that   is  all I
Know to  say about  it.