Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons

## Overview

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons was Civil Rights activist during the Civil Rights Movement. She was born in Memphis and moved to Mississippi to join SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) (Pronounced "snick"). During her time at SNCC, she dealt with sexism, and racism, and had to earn her respect. At SNCC, she became a member of The Atlanta Project. Shortly after the Atlanta Project's formation, it was dissolved, and Simmons joined the National Council of Negro Women. In the NCNW she dealt with more reasonable people, and had an easier time in activism than during her time in SNCC.

## Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

### The beginning

Simmons remembers her grandmother telling her to never go to Mississippi, because of the rampant racism. However, against her grandmother's advice, Simmons went to Mississippi to begin her activism with SNCC. She and other members of SNCC went on the search for a base of operations, however, no one was willing to sell to them. After a long time, they were able to find a building to use, but only by not telling the owner what it was to be used for. Weeks later, someone fire-bombed the building, blowing up the gas pipes. Luckily, though, the explosion was in the opposite direction of the building, so no one was fatally wounded, and, believing it was an act of God, the group decided to remain in the building, even after the fire-bombing.

### SNCC's Involvement in Activism

One of SNCC's first projects was a mock-election made to prove that Black people would vote if given the choice, and inspired by the Black people who would campaign in the churches, despite not actually being allowed to run for office. During her time with SNCC, Simmons and a group of elderly people were threatened by a cop with a gun simply for walking on the sidewalk. Simmons pretended not to notice him, and fortunately, this was enough for the policeman to holster his weapon and deescalate the issue. Eventually, a black man named Julian Bond was elected for state office, but was not allowed to take his seat. This would prompt SNCC to form The Julian Bond Reelection Campaign (later The Atlanta Project), with Simmons as was of the lead organizers.

### The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of SNCC

Though SNCC was an organization dedicated to racial equality, it was not without its fair share of issues. For instance, men were given their choice of materials and assets over women, and (despite pushing for racial equality) White people got first pick over Black people. Whenever Simmons or other Black people working within SNCC needed extra resources, they would need permission from the White members, but the White members just got the resources without any extra work. Most horrifically, sexual harassment and assault could not be reported, and in order to avoid getting in trouble, women would have to say they were "strongarmed."

## The Atlanta Project

### Forming the Julian Bond Reelection Campaign.

Julian Bond was a Black man running for Atlanta's mayoral position. He won the vote, but was denied his seat in office. A few months ago, Simmons was involved in two car accidents during a span of two weeks after having been brutalized after an arrest, and she moved to NYC. One of her coworkers in SNCC asked her to move to Atlanta and help organize a reelection campaign for Julian Bond. This would later be known as The Atlanta Project.

### Working on the Atlanta Project

During her time in Atlanta, Simmons discovered alcoholism and drug addiction. In Memphis, she had never encountered such things, and she was shocked to see how bad things were in the city. Around this time, the phrase "Black Power," sprang up. This phrase destabilized SNCC as a whole, but especially the Atlanta Project. Simmons got into an argument with one of her White colleagues, about being able to exist peacefully in society, and this is when she learned that even the white people in SNCC had been outcast from society. Soon, though, even more problems would arise.

### The Downfall of The Atlanta Project

The Atlanta Project received a check in the mail that was meant for the main SNCC organization. SNCC ordered The Atlanta Project to hand over the money, but they refused, wanting to use the money for their own operations. Arguments continued for months, and SNCC still hadn't recovered from the Black Power controversy. When The Atlanta Project continued to return the money meant for SNCC, SNCC decided to shut down The Atlanta Project. This meant Simmons had to look for a new organization.

## Life After SNCC

### The National Council of Negro Women.

After being kicked out from SNCC, Simmons joined The National Council of Negro Women. She began her career in the council by interviewing activists in her area. The members of the Council were much easier to deal with than the members of SNCC, since there was virtually no racism or sexism. Because of government intervention, however, trust within the organization was low, since spies were everywhere.

### The FBI

The director of the FBI at the time was extremely racist, so he went out of his way to destabilize Black Movements, such as SNCC and The National Council of Negro Women. The FBI would hire spies or arrest existing members of specific movements, like The Black Panther Party, in order to collect information and raid buildings more easily. This information would also be given to other anti-Black groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan so that the movements would die out, and Black people would be "discouraged." This was the cause for the mistrust described in the above portion.

### Simmons' Philosophy

When Simmons was interviewed years later, she talked about her personal philosophy about social activism. She says about change, "Not only do we have to change things legally, politically, structurally... We also have to change things in people's hearts." Simmons also proves to be a pacifist, "[nonviolence is] not the easy way, it's the only way."

## Links and Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil\_rights\_movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian\_Bond

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black\_Power

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National\_Council\_of\_Negro\_Women

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black\_Panther\_Party

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku\_Klux\_Klan