Marion Barry, Charles F. McDew, John Lewis and Stokely Carmichael were early chairmen of which civil rights organization?

• A. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
• B. NAACP
• C. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
• D. SCLC

Answer: (A)

These leaders are linked to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a student-led civil rights group formed in 1960 to coordinate sit-ins, voter registration drives, and other nonviolent actions across the South. Charles F. McDew was the first national chair, establishing the group’s early direction, followed by John Lewis who steered SNCC through major campaigns in the early 1960s. Stokely Carmichael then led the organization and helped shape its shift in rhetoric and strategy during the mid- to late-1960s. Marion Barry, active in SNCC’s activism in Washington, D.C., also played a leadership role in those formative years. This chain of leadership is specific to SNCC, differentiating it from other groups like the NAACP, CORE, and SCLC, which had different leadership histories and organizational focuses.