SNCC believed that nonviolence was a tactic, not a way of life. What does this mean?
Answers
The SNCC was also known as the "Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee" which was a civil-rights group formed to give younger blacks more of a voice in the civil rights movement after world war 2.
In 1966, Stokely Carmichael played an important role in this committee when he was elected as the head of SNCC and popularized the term “black power” to characterize the new tactics and goals.
A different direction:
Later the newly energized activists founded a new, student-led civil rights organization dedicated to nonviolent direct action, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
For many of the students, nonviolence was not simply a tactic; It was a way of life that many of them connected to their religious faith. These people believed that their bodies would suffer in order to redeem the country for its sins. This was a way of non violence.
In their statement of purpose, SNCC leaders, including James Lawson, eloquently described the spirit of nonviolence. They explained how the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence were the foundation of their purpose.
Nonviolence as expanded by Judaic-Christian tradition looked at the social order of justice permeated by love and that integration of human endeavor represented the crucial first step towards such a society.
They believed that through nonviolence, courage displaces fear; love transformed hate.
That peace dominates war.
They explained how this was not a way of life, because they it was a way to encourage people to gather as one, because this was merely a strategy.