In Chap­ter Four, titled “SNCC,” the nar­ra­tive explores the for­ma­tion and ear­ly activ­i­ties of the Stu­dent Non­vi­o­lent Coor­di­nat­ing Com­mit­tee (SNCC) amid the civ­il rights move­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly focus­ing on the Nashville sit-ins. The chap­ter begins by high­light­ing the sit-ins’ suc­cess­ful deseg­re­ga­tion efforts in Nashville, while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly strength­en­ing the bonds of trust and com­mu­ni­ty among activists like John Lewis and his peers. In April 1960, they gath­ered at the High­lander Folk School—known for its role in civ­il rights training—for a retreat that drew eighty-two sit-in activists from var­i­ous col­leges. High­lander, found­ed by Myles Hor­ton, empha­sized the need for dis­en­fran­chised indi­vid­u­als to address their own polit­i­cal issues in an inter­ra­cial set­ting.

Lewis had pre­vi­ous­ly attend­ed High­lander, where he was inspired by lead­ers like Sep­ti­ma Clark, who ini­ti­at­ed cit­i­zen­ship schools for African Amer­i­cans. Dis­cus­sions at the retreat addressed the poten­tial for­ma­tion of a South-wide stu­dent orga­ni­za­tion. A sig­nif­i­cant amount of time was spent delib­er­at­ing on non­vi­o­lence, which divid­ed par­tic­i­pants. Lewis’s group advo­cat­ed for non­vi­o­lence as a moral prin­ci­ple, while oth­ers viewed it as a tac­ti­cal approach.

The chap­ter recounts meet­ings and dis­cus­sions about the role of stu­dents in the civ­il rights strug­gle and the stu­dents’ desire for auton­o­my from estab­lished orga­ni­za­tions like the South­ern Chris­t­ian Lead­er­ship Con­fer­ence (SCLC). Ulti­mate­ly, the stu­dents formed the Tem­po­rary Stu­dent Non­vi­o­lent Coor­di­nat­ing Com­mit­tee, which quick­ly became known as SNCC. Their mis­sion cen­tered around the core val­ue of non­vi­o­lence, derived from Judeo-Chris­t­ian tra­di­tions.

As the Nashville move­ment con­tin­ued to address inte­gra­tion issues, events esca­lat­ed to protests tar­get­ing local busi­ness­es. Lewis and oth­ers orga­nized fur­ther sit-ins, fac­ing vio­lent respons­es from estab­lish­ment own­ers and white crowds. These protests solid­i­fied their cama­raderie, while the Nashville group gained recog­ni­tion and respect with­in the broad­er civ­il rights move­ment. The chap­ter con­cludes on a high note, cel­e­brat­ing the suc­cess­ful inte­gra­tion of Nashville’s movie the­aters as an ear­ly vic­to­ry for SNCC and the ongo­ing strug­gle for civ­il rights.