What was it like to be involved in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the height of the civil rights movement? What was the philosophy of education for liberation advanced by SNCC at their first residential freedom school they launched in Chicago, and what lessons does it have for higher education today? How did SNCC practice direct democracy, what value does that kind of decision-making have, and could it be integrated into higher education today? How should higher education in the Americas address its legacy of participation in the slave trade, segregation, and other dimensions of white supremacy?
Today we explore these questions and more with are guest Dr. Fannie Rushing. Rushing was a SNCC field secretary and co-founder of SNCC’s first residential freedom school in Chicago in the early sixties. She was a key co-leader of the movement. She is also a historian of the movement as co-chair of the Chicago Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee History Project. She received her Ph.D. in Latin American and Caribbean History from the University of Chicago. Rushing is currently an associate professor in the Department of History at Benedictine University.