STAMP FOR SNCC felt pen and pencil drawing on paper 8-3/4” x 7-1/2” signed label verso, The Jewish Museum, NY Illustrated: Joseph, Cliff. “Art, Politics, and the Life Force.” Forward: Journal of Socialist Thought 9, no. 1 (Spring 1989): 41. This work was done for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to be made into a stamp used by SNCC workers all over the country. The SNCC was formed in 1960 by Ella Baker at Shaw University with an initial grant of $800 from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SNCC organized sit-ins, protests, freedom rides and aided in black voter registration in the South. The SNCC played a significant role in the March on Washington in 1963. After the Watts riots of 1965, many members of the SNCC were becoming disillusioned by working within the system and felt that blacks needed to develop power independently; also migrating from the philosophy of non-violence. Marion Barry, who later became the mayor of Washington, DC was an early chairman of the SNCC, and Stokely Carmichael, a more militant black power figure acted as chair in 1966-67. In 1969, the organization formally changed its name to the Student National Coordinating Committee. Jacob Lawrence, Benny Andrews, Cliff Joseph, and Phillip Evergood all donated works to raise funds for this organization.
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