Preliminary Program

Friday, October 21, 2005; Morning

Registration:8:30 A.M.- 7:30 P.M.
Rolls and Coffee: 8:30 A. M. -9:00 A. M.

Friday, October 21, 2005, Morning

9:00 A.M.: Welcome: Dr. Pamela Trotman - Reid, Provost and Vice - President, Roosevelt University

9:15 A. M. - 9:30: Presentation of "Tell the Story : The Chicago SNCC History Project, 1960 -1965"

Session I: 9:30 A.M. - 10:15 A.M.. African American Struggles for Justice in Chicago, Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries:

*Dr. Christopher Reed, Roosevelt University : Dr. Reed is a professor of history, the former chair of the history department at Roosevelt and a long time social activist in Chicago. Included in his many works on African American history are The Chicago NAACP and the Rise of Black Professional Leadership, 1910 - 1966 and his recently released book, Black Chicago's First Century, 1833 - 1933. Among his many civic contributions, he serves as the President of the Better Boys Clubs and has a long history of commitment to maintaining and revitalizing Black communities on the West side of Chicago.

*Professor Timuel Black, Professor Black is an educator, professor emeritus of social sciences at the Chicago City Colleges, a civil rights and social justice activist and writer. Professor Black's work has been locally and nationally recognized. He has received countless citations and awards. His most recent work on the Black expiernce in Chicago, Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Black Migration, An Oral History with forwards by John Hope Franklin and Studs Terkel and published by Northwestern University Press, documents the early twentieth century mass Black migration to Chicago and the struggles against new forms of racism and discrimination

Ms. Rosie Simpson began working in the Chicago Stock Yards at age 15. She became part of the Packing House Workers Union. Ms. Simpson participated in the strike of 1948. She later became involved in many , union, civic and civil rights organizations. Ms. Simpson planned and organized one of the first retrospectives of the movement in Chicago at Harold Washington College, "The Civil Rights Movement Twenty Five Years Later "Before retiring, Ms. Simpson worked for the Department of Human Rights. She continues to be a involved in community and social justice work.

10:15- 10: 45 A.M. Questions, Commentary, Discussion:
Dr. Barbara Ransby, University of Illinois/Chicago, Facilitator:
Dr. Ransby is an associate professor of African American Studies and history, the author of numerous works on the African American expiernce, among them is her multi award winning work on the long time social activist and mentor to SNCC, Ella Baker entitled, Ella Baker & the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision. She is a regular contributor to the Progressive and is an editor of the London based journal, Race and Class. Dr. Ransby's academic accomplishments are paralleled by her ongoing commitment to social justice. Dr. Ransby was one of the founders of Ida B. Wells Comm University. She also served as the Executive Director of the Public Square. She is on the boards of The Chicago Reporter, Clergy and Laity Concerned and the Chicago Coalition in Solidarity with Southern Africa.

Coffee Break

SessionII:11:00 A.M. - 12:30: Southern Student Movement & Beginnings of SNCC;

Format: Round Table Discussion

Participants:
*Diane Nash was a leader of the Nashville Student Movement, one of the founding students of the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee and the director of the direct action arm of the movement. Ms. Nash was one of primary organizers of the Freedom Rides. For this, she was beaten and jailed. Among many others, her contribution to the Civil Rights Movement have been documented in the following works: Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin King, Jr., Stephen B. Oates, SNCC: The New Abolitionists, Howard Zinn, SNCC: The River of No Return, Cleveland Sellers, The Making of a Black Revolutionary, James Forman, Ready for Revolution, Stockley Carmichael, I've Got the Light of Freedom, Charles Payne, The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement, Aldon Morris, My Soul is Rested, Howell Raines, Freedom Song, Mary King, In Struggle, Clay Carson, "Fundi: The Ella Baker Story, " " Eyes on the Prize"and "Citizen King." Ms. Nash has appeared on the Today Show and the Oprah Winfrey Show. She has received numerous awards; among them are: John F. Kennedy Library, "Distinguished American Award" (2003,) and the " L.B.J. Award for Leadership in Civil Rights." Diane Nash was an early an out spoken critic of the Viet Nam War. She visited Hanoi to initiate a peace dialogue. Ms. Nash continues to be an advocate for peace and social justice.

+Robert Moses(?,) : Robert Moses left his graduate studies in philosophy to go South to work for social justice. He participated in the Freedom Rides. He suffered numerous beatings and jailings. He became a field secretary and the architect of SNCC's Mississippi voting rights program. He was one of the principal organizers of the Mississippi Summer Project designed to bring large numbers of northern college students South to work on voter education and to focus attention on the deplorable subjugation of African American people in the 1960's South. He was one of the major figures in organizing and shaping the strategy of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. After the demise of the Civil Rights Movement in the South, Moses went to Tanzania Africa where he worked as a teacher from 1969 - 1975. He returned to Harvard to finish his doctorate. Since, he has received many honorary degrees and awards, among them are: De Paul University, Heinz Award for the Human Condition, Mary Chase Smith Award for American Democracy, James Conant Bryant Award from the Education Commission of the States and a MacArthur ,Genius Grant. Currently , he is the director of the Algebra Project designed to bring math and computer literacy to under served urban populations, particularly in the African American and Latino communities. He is co author with Charles Cobb Jr . of Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project.

*Charles Cobb Jr.: Charles Cobb Jr. was involved in support work for the southern student movement at Howard University. He went South and became a field secretary for SNCC. He was involved in numerous projects throughout the state of Mississippi. He worked on both the Mississippi Freedom Summer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Charles Cobb Jr was the creator and principal planner of, one of SNCC's most important campaigns, the Freedom Schools. He coordinated those efforts throughout the areas where SNCC was involved. They later became a premier part of alternative pedagogy in the United States as other organizations and agencies adapted their strategy. Mr. Cobb Jr. is an award winning journalist and one of the founders of the National Association of Black Journalists. As a free lance writer for National Geographic he has written articles on Civil Rights Movement sites and an article, "Traveling the Blues Highway," featuring the historic Palm Tavern in Chicago. He is a senior correspondent for All Africa and a respected commentator and advocate on African affairs. He is a collaborator and co author with Bob Moses on , Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project.

*Ivanhoe Donaldson: Ivanhoe Donaldson was a student at Michigan State University when the southern student movement began. He became involved driving food caravans to the South. He became a field secretary for SNCC in the early days of the organization. He traveled to campuses organizing student groups and recruiting for the Mississippi Summer Project. He was a project director for Mississippi and worked closely with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the party's struggle to be seated as the legitimate, representative delegation in the Democratic national Convention of 1964. He was a resident fellow of the Washington based Institute for Policy Studies, served as an advisor and deputy mayor of Washington D.C. Mr. Donaldson was also a political consultant to the Harold Washington campaign.

*Curtis (Hayes,n ) Muhammad: Curtis Muhammad is a native of Mississippi who was one of the first wave of young people in the deep South to become involved in the Civil Rights Movement He was one of the founding students of SNCC, became a SNCC field secretary, served as a campus traveler encouraging other young people to join the movement and worked on voter registration in some of the most difficult areas of the South. He worked on the Freedom Vote Project, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Jackson Bus Boycott. Although he was jailed, beaten and shot at, his involvement and commitment remained steadfast. Curtis Hayes continues to organize throughout the South working on issues such as the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union. He is currently organizing survivors of hurricane Katrina in support of their rights and demands for government accountability in this national disgrace.

+Hollis Muhammad (Watkins)

*SNCC Freedom Singers: There have been several groups of SNCC Freedom Singers. The group continued even when individual participants went in separate directions. This particular group of Freedom Singers consists of Matthew Jones, Marshall Jones, Emory Harris and Chuck Neblett. The songs that they have created all originated in specific historical moments of struggle. The Jones brothers are originally from Detroit Michigan. Their entire family is involved in music and ministry. Matthew Jones became involved in the southern student movement in Nashville. They both continue to work as artist who raise social concerns through their music. They have preformed with people involved in social struggles around the world including the peace movement in northern Ireland. Emory Harris is from Albany Georgia and was very involved in the Albany Movement before he became a SNCC field secretary and member of the group. He is now a school teacher in Albany. Charles Neblett is originally from Tennessee. He became involved with SNCC while attending Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Illinois, a city that was among the most segregated in the North and where the Civil Rights workers met extremely violent opposition. He now lives in Kentucky where he became the first Black elected magistrate in Logan County, Kentucky.

*Moderator: Mildred Page: Mildred Page is a native of Chicago. In the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, she met and married James Forman. Their life in Chicago was interrupted by the call of the movement. She worked with him first on the Tent City Campaign and later when he was asked by the southern student movement leaders to help with organizing SNCC, she left her home in Chicago and went South where she worked in the Atlanta office of SNCC coordinating SNCC activities across the nation. After their marriage ended, Ms. Page returned to Chicago, remarried and started a family. She is active in community and church work. She is an active member of Trinity United Church of Christ.

12:30 P.M. -1:30 P.M. Box Lunch on Campus / Simultaneous Screenings of "Fundi," "Freedom Song," "Eyes on the Prize"

Friday, October 21, 2005, Afternoon

Workshops on Session II: 1:45 P.M. - 3:15 P.M.: A(Nash,) B(Moses,) C(Cobb,) D(Donaldson,) E (Muhammad/ Hayes ,) F (Page,) G(Hutchings)
H(Dewberry -Aldrich)
Session III: 3:30 P.M. - 4:45 P.M.: Founding of Chicago Area Friends of SNCC, Sylvia Fischer, Ron Dorfman , Chuck Mc Dew (?,) Lorne Cress-Love
Format: Round Table Discussion:
Participants:

*Sylvia Fischer: Sylvia Fischer became involved with the Civil Rights Movement through raising food for Tent City. She was one of the founders of the Chicago Area Friends of SNCC (CAFSNCC.) She co chaired the organization from its beginnings and through its most activist period in Chicago particularly on the anti Willis campaign and the subsequent school boycotts. Ms. Fischer was also on the national board of the U.S. China Friendship Committee, an organization dedicated to normalizing relationships with China and promoting people to people cultural exchanges. She is a retired public school teacher who has continued to work on community, school and peace issues.

*Ron Dorfman: Ron Dorfman became involved in the movement for social justice while a student at the University of Chicago. He was the editor of the Chicago Journalism Review , articles editor of Chicago Magazine, editor of The Quill, magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists and as director of publications for the Field Museum. Mr. Dorfman was involved with the historic American Indian- All Tribes -Conference in Chicago, the Medical Committee for Human Rights, an organization, that provided medical care for civil rights workers who had been beaten and brutalized as part of the movement. He was one of the founders of CAFSNCC. He worked on the Harold Washington campaign for mayor of Chicago. Mr Dorfman continues to work with a number of social justice and peace organizations such as the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights. He is currently editing a photographic essay on the Harold Washington years.

+Chuck McDew, Former Chairperson of SNCC

*Lorne Cress - Love: Ms Cress- Love is a native of Chicago. After working with CAFSNCC, she went South to work on voter registration in Mississippi. Ms. Cress- Love was one of the founders of Pacifica Radio in Washington D. C. She is currently the director of small charter school on the South side of Chicago.

Reception for Advisory Committee

5:00P.M. - 6:45 P.M. Dinner Break

Friday, October 21, 2005, Evening

7:00 P.M. - 8:30 P.M.: Memorial Service for James Forman, Lawrence Landry and all those freedom fighters who have died.

Diane Nash

*Phil Hutchings: Phil Hutchings was the last chairperson of SNCC. He was very active in the Newark community during the urban rebellions. He was actively involved in the anti Viet Nam War and peace movements. Mr. Hutchings was one of the founders of the Venceramos Brigade. For many years, he lived in Detroit where he was involved in organizing young people around issues of education, community control of educational institutions and drug abuse. He was a regular columnist for the Guardian newspaper and a board member of PRSC, an organization in support of independence for Puerto Rico. After moving to the Bay Area of San Francisco, he has worked on organizing multi- racial/multi- ethnic coalitions, neighborhood organizing and serves as a technical and financial consultant for non profit organizations. He was the grants director for the Vanguard Foundation. He is an active participant in the Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement and consultant to neighborhood organizations.

*Attorney, James Forman Jr.: James Forman Jr. is the son of James Forman. He is a professor of law at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He also established and currently directs a small alternative school in Washington. He has organized with his brother Chaka, an elementary school teacher and actor in Los Angeles, and established with Roosevelt University a social justice scholarship in the name of James Forman at Roosevelt University.

Performances by the SNCC Freedom Singers, Church Choirs, Maggie Brown: Ms Brown is the granddaughter of the long time civil rights activist, Oscar Brown Sr. and daughter of the legendary, Oscar Brown Jr. . I n addition to carrying on a family tradition of commitment to civil rights and social justice, Ms. Brown is an extraordinarily talented, song writer, singer and performer.

8:30 - 9:00 p.m.: Reception

Tell the Story: The Chicago SNCC History Project,1960 1965
Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois

Saturday, October 22, 2005: Morning

Preliminary Program

Registration:8:30 A.M.- 1:30 P.M.
Coffee & Rolls: 8:30 A.M. - 9:00 A.M.
9:00 A.M.- 9:15 A.M.: Welcome: Dr. Pamela Trotman - Reid, Provost and Vice - President, Roosevelt University

9:15 A. M. - 9:30 Presentation of Chicago SNCC History Project

Session I: 9:30 A.M.- 10:30 A.M.:Black Chicago on the Eve of the 1960s:

Ms. Rosie Simpson: began working in the Chicago Stock Yards at age 15. She became part of the Packing House Workers Union. Ms. Simpson participated in the strike of 1948. She later became involved in many , union, civic and civil rights organizations. Rosie Simpson was very active in the Civil Rights Movement as well as community and parent organizations for the improvement of schools in the 1960s. Ms. Simpson planned and organized one of the first retrospectives of the movement in Chicago at Harold Washington College, "The Civil Rights Movement Twenty Five Years Later "Before retiring, Ms. Simpson worked for the Department of Human Rights. She continues to be a involved in community and social justice work.

*Dr. Quentin Young, Clinical Professor of Preventative Medicine and Community Health, University of Illinois/Chicago:
Dr. Young is the senior attending physician at Advocate Michael Reese Hospital, the former chair of internal medicine at Cook County Hospital where he established the Department of Occupational Medicine and the former president of American Public Health Association. He was an active participant of CAFSNCC and treated numerous civil rights workers free of charge. Dr. Young was one of the principal organizers of Physicians for Social Responsibility. He is chairman of the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group and the National Coordinator for Physicians for a National Health Program.

*Bennett Johnson:
Bennett Johnson is known throughout the city and suburbs for his life long involvement in issues of civil rights and social justice. He was actively involved in the campaigns against Benjamin Willis and for the desegregation of Chicago schools. He has managed a number of independent political campaigns and was very involved in the campaign to elect Harold Washington. He is now the vice president of Third World Press.

11:45 A.M. - 12:30 P.M.:Questions, Commentary, Testimonials & Discussion, Moderated by: Dr. Alice Palmer

10:30 A. M. - 10:45 A.M., Rolls & Coffee

Session II:10:45 A.M. - 11:45 A.M. :Founding of Chicago Area Friends of SNCC, *Sylvia Fischer, *Ron Dorfman, +Chuck Mc Dew (?), *Loren Cress Love, CAFSNCC and the Chicago Civil Rights Movement, Campaigns of CAFSNCC:

Professor Earl Durham, Earl Durham, M.S.W.,has a long commitment to improving the quality of schools and communities. He has been involved numerous civil rights campaigns in Chicago and the nation. He was an integral part of the Harold Washington campaign for mayor. Mr Durham holds a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Chicago. Before retiring, he was Clinical Associate Professor and Chair of the Social Policy Division at Jane Adams School of Social Work at the University of Illinois/Chicago. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Hazen Foundation and Senior Training Advisor and Chair of the Board of Directors of Designs for Change.

Bob Lucas, Robert Lucas was actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. He was particularly concerned with housing and health care. He was one of the principal figures and long time directors of one of the oldest community organizations in Chicago, the Kenwood - Oakland Community Organization (KOCO.)

Fr. Dan Mallette, Father Daniel Mallette is the pastor of Saint Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church. In the 1960s, he was pastor of Saint Agatha's Church on the West side of the city. His church was a headquarters for food drives in support of the southern student movement. He was one of the major figures involved in struggles for desegregation in Chicago.

*Atty. Richard Morrisroe:Attorney Richard Morrisroe is a former Catholic priest who served Saint Columbanus parish in the heart of the African American community. It was from there that he went South to work with SNCC on voter registration and justice in Lowndes County, Alabama. It was there that Jonathan Daniels, a young Episcopal seminarian was killed and Morrisroe gravely wounded. Both were shot by an Alabama deputy sheriff who opposed the Civil Rights Movement and resented their presence . Richard Morrisroe is now the Director of City Planning for East Chicago Indiana and a professor of law at the Gary campus of Purdue University.

Moderated by: Dr. Charles Payne :Dr. Charles Payne is Chair of African American Studies at Duke University. He received his doctorate in sociology from Northwestern University where he also served as Chair of the Department of African American Studies before being recruited by Duke. He was one of the architects of the school reform movement in Chicago. Dr. Payne has researched and written extensively on the Civil Rights Movement and on issues of Education these include, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Movement, Getting What we asked For: The Ambiguity of Success and Failure in Urban Education, Debating the Civil Rights Movement. He is co: author of Time Longer than Rope: A Century of African American Activism.

12:30 - 1:30 :Box Lunch on Campus: Simultaneous Screenings of "Freedom Song," Fundi" & "Eyes on the Prize," Video tapes of previous days sessions

Saturday, October 22, 2005: Afternoon

Workshops1:45 P.M.- 3:45 P.M.:
Beginning The Chicago SNCC History Project :: Workshop A(Fischer,) B(McDew,) C( Cress-Love,) D(Dorfman,) E (Durham,) F(Lucas,) G(Mallette,) H (Morrisroe,) I (Black,) J (Kennon,)

Purpose of the Workshops: The workshops will ( as will all the sessions) be video taped. In the workshops people will be encouraged to share their own personal stories of the Chicago movement
Goals of the Workshops: The primary purpose of the workshops is to allow for intimate, intense interaction among the participants about the importance and preservation of their histories. They should establish mechanisms for remaining in contact with the project for the purposes of preserving any memorabilia of the movement, a full recording of their oral histories and supporting the project of creating a permanent CAFSNCC archive, resource and documentation center.

Closing Session: 4:00.P M. - 6:00 P.M.: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow:
Report Back from Workshops; "Tell the Story: Chicago SNCC History Project , 1960 - 1965 . This session may include a discussion of current efforts in relation to social justice by local and national groups, such as the Algebra Project, Educators for Liberation, Southern Echo, Young People's Project. Because so many SNCC veterans are now actively organizing those most effected by Hurricane Katrina, this session will also be a forum for the long range implications of this national tragedy and the issues raised and highlighted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.