[SNCC Petition Letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson]

May 1964
Edwin Hamlett Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) petitioned President Lyndon B. Johnson for federal protection for students working in Mississippi on the 1964 Freedom Summer Project initiatives. By assisting Black voter registration and education, student-led groups often faced immense danger and sought help from the federal government to protect against racist state institutions. The petition chillingly predicts the Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner murders and other hate crimes of that summer.