Campus Activism in the White South: An Examination of the Southern Student Organizing Committee

The work of students was instrumental to the "New Left" movements of the 1960s in the United States. This paper examines one nearly forgotten group of student activists from the period, the Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC). The SSOC, active from 1964 to 1969, was a group of mostly white students working to bring white students into the progressive movements of the period such as the black freedom struggle, the antiwar movement, and campus free speech movements. This paper explores the impact of this student group, focusing on their commitment to southern regionalism in their outreach and organizing, as well as how these activists confronted the hostility that came with organizing in a largely conservative environment. Their work was essential for introducing these movements to campuses and communities that would have otherwise never engaged with the New Left. The group's struggles engage with their peers and enter communities combined with internal organizational fissures to bring about the dissolution of the SSOC in 1969. The examination of the SSOC from their founding to their downfall demonstrates that the challenges faced by white organizers in the South were indeed unique to the South, and it helps to further our understanding of student activism in the South during the 1960s and how regionalism can be implemented into activist strategies.