The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

In 1960, as a result of his demonstrated leadership skills, exceptional organizing ability, and burning passion for civil rights and equality, Marion Barry was elected as the first Chairman of SNCC. At SNCC, Barry helped develop an organizing project in McComb, Mississippi. The project was both a voter registration and direct action effort. He and other activists stayed with locals in order to stay safe, as well as to learn firsthand what it was like to live there. As head of SNCC, Barry led multiple protests against racial segregation and discrimination. He traveled the country lobbying state legislatures to vote to make the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) the recognized Democratic Party of the US at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Despite his activism and travels, Marion Barry was just as poor as he was as a child growing up in Mississippi. He never sought personal enrichment. After addressing the New Jersey legislature, he slept on the boardwalk in Atlantic City because he could not afford a hotel room.

Noted Civil Rights activist, James Forman, asked Mayor Barry to go to Washington to manage SNCC’s DC office, and in 1965 he moved to Washington, D.C. At SNCC DC, he coordinated peaceful street demonstrations as well as a boycott to protest bus fare increases. In successfully organizing this economic boycott, while providing private transportation for those who needed to get to work, Barry solidified his role as one of the most powerful organizers in the country. Barry was succeeded in his role of first elected Chairman by Stokely Carmichael.