Inside SNCC and The Civil Rights Student Movement: Life and Times in Activism

With Muriel Tillinghast.

Prior to the 1960s and continuing heavily through that period, working primarily with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Muriel Tillinghast had direct experiences in the Deep South. At times SNCC worked in tangent with Dr. Martin Luther King’s work in the same areas. Using her learning and awareness to give her a pathway to understanding some of the complexities of American life, this speech will reflect aspects germane to activism with a long-view. Believing that the best ingredients for social and political health are achieved through direct experiences, she has strived for clarity and truth as her own intelligence has grown. Ms. Tillinghast’s activism up to today is a long road rich with thought and encouragement to continue on, joining with others to move humanity forward progressively.

Muriel Tillinghast as a member of SNCC was one of three female project directors in the state of Mississippi in 1964 during “Freedom Summer.” As director, she was responsible for voter registration and other work in three river counties within the second congressional district. At a later point, Ms. Tillinghast headed state operations out of Jackson, MS, subsequent to which she handled regional administrative work at SNCC headquarters in Atlanta, GA. Government interference and reaction to a published recommendation for a 2-state solution on the issue of Palestine brought about the collapse of the organization.

Since that time, Muriel Tillinghast has pioneered in domestic violence abuse, worked at River’s Island and the Brooklyn House of Detention, built St. Margaret’s House for Trinity Church, aborted scientific experimentation on a child, worked in reviving landlord abandoned housing, tried to save a church and worked in a community garden.

Muriel Tillinghast is a member of BSEC’s board of trustees and chairs two committees. One of the committees, Lucy’s Children, named for one of the mankind’s oldest fossilized remains, was established for and is dedicated to the study of Black life in America and selected peoples’ history and events from around the world. She spends a great deal of time doing historical research as is a recognized autodidact in Black and American History. She and her cat live in Brooklyn, NY.