Civil Rights: Thinking Big

"When a baby is little, it needs someone to teach it how to eat," said an official of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee last week. "This baby is now big enough to eat by itself." S.N.C.C., he also made clear, is now tall enough to look down upon older, less militant civil rights organizations, and strong enough to purge most whites from its own councils.

Born in the sit-ins of 1960, S.N.C.C.—commonly known as SNICK—immediately became the most aggressive of the civil rights groups, sometimes appalling older outfits by its sheer bullheadedness....