Diane Nash - SNCC and SCLC

SNCC and SCLC

In April 1960, Nash helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and quit school to lead its direct action wing. In early 1961, Nash and ten fellow students were put under arrest in Rock Hill, South Carolina for protesting segregation. Once jailed, they would not accept the chance for bail. These dramatic events began to bring light to the fight for racial justice that was beginning to emerge. It also highlighted the idea of "jail, no bail", which was utilized by many other civil rights activists as the fight for rights progressed.

Nash was also an important organizer in the 1963 Birmingham campaign. Originally fearful of jail, Nash was arrested dozens of times for her activities. She spent 30 days in a South Carolina jail after protesting segregation in Rock Hill in February 1961. In 1962, although she was four months pregnant with her daughter Sherri, she was sentenced to two years in prison for teaching nonviolent tactics to children in Jackson, Mississippi, where she and her husband, movement leader James Bevel, were living, but was released on appeal after serving a shorter term.

In August 1962, Diane Nash and her husband moved to Georgia, where they became actively involved with SCLC. The two activists were a productive couple and played an important part in producing several SCLC campaigns. Bevel and Nash were awarded the Rosa Parks Award from SCLC for their dedication to achieving racial justice through passive resistance and nonviolent direct action. She worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others from 1961 to 1965, serving as an organizer, strategist, field staff person, race-relations staff person and workshop instructor. Nash later questioned the SCLC because of its dominance by males, especially clergymen.