SNCC 50th Anniversary Conference Volume 17 - Luncheon Keynote: Harry Belafonte, "Why Can't Our Children Find Us?"
FEATURED SPEAKER: Harry Belafonte
Rev. David Forbes, one of Raleigh's student sit-in leaders in 1960 opens this luncheon with a short political prayer. In formally welcoming attendees, Shaw University Interim President Dr. Dorothy Yancy recalls joining the sit-in movement as a student at Johnson C. Smith College in North Carolina. In his keynote, Harry Belafonte challenges SNCC members to resist sinking into sentimentalism but instead ask "What can we do with our lives using that same kind of commitment and determination to continue the important work of transforming the United States into a 'more perfect' union?" Belafonte holds up his new organization, the Gathering for Justice, which consists of an intergenerational group of activists, as a model. He implores SNCC Veterans to join the organization and ask themselves "Where are we, who are we talking to, and what are we talking about?"
Executive Producer: SNCC Legacy Project, Inc., Documentary Sub-Committee, Karen Spellman, Courtland Cox, Sharlene Kranz, Jennifer Lawson Gittens, Judy Richardson, Joyce Ladner, Charlie Cobb Producer: Natalie Bullock Brown/Ascension Productions Series Editor: Joseph Brandon Johnson Volume Editor: Joseph Brandon Johnson