The River of No Return: The Autobiography of a Black Militant and The Life and Death of Sncc

Jazmine Jones

Professor McCarthy

HIST 202-50

April 4, 2018

River of No Return

Cleveland Sellers wrote “The River of No Return: The Autobiography of a Black Militant and The Life and Death of SNCC” to display the personal involvement, outcome, and impact of the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s African Americans were protesting, boycotting, and much more for their equality rights. Blacks and whites were publically segregated whether it be a classroom, bathroom, or water fountain. Sellers described what his life was like as an African American during this time. There were a lot traumatic events that he and others faced because of their skin color. He wanted equality, and he fought for it.

Sellers was born in Denmark, South Carolina in 1944. During that time living in the South was very challenging because of the inevitable awareness and expansion of the Civil Rights Movement. Sellers watched protests on tv and read about the Movement in the newspapers consistently. He was aware of what was going on around him, and he soon wanted to become involved. His father disagreed with his son wanting to join such politics though. He had already witnessed the struggle of a black man, his son had too somewhat, and it was very dangerous. Sellers, despite his dad’s disapproval, soon became actively involved and learned the true meaning of racism.

        A story about the brutal death and disposal of a young African American named Emmett Till really affected Sellers and the community. Emmett Till was a fourteen year old boy who was killed and left in a river to die by white men. He was whipped until his flesh was showing, lynched, and thrown in a river because he supposedly whistled at a young, white woman. His death was because of racism and inequality. Also in Birmingham, Alabama, a young black man was murdered by some members of the Ku Klux Klan. Neither of these young mens killers were persecuted, and justice was not served. These actions added fuel and anger to everyone. As time passed, and Sellers got older racism started to really take a toll and affect him.

        The first sit-in was put together by four men from North Carolina, on February 1, 1960. It was at a Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro. Sellers was present during the sit-in, and even though he didn’t necessarily contribute much the sit-in meant a lot to him. It meant so much to him that he decided to construct his own sit-in in Denmark. As time passed sit-ins became more and more popular. Students were conducting kneel- ins, worship-ins, and sit-ins in more than 125 Southern cities (Sellers 33). Sellers decided he wanted to do more, and be more active so he became a volunteer on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) after attending Howard University.

        The SNCC was highly favored because of their courageous acts for equality. Some people didn’t favor the SNCC because they didn’t believe they would stay and fight for them during tough times. The SNCC was determined to fight for their rights until “every vestige of racial segregation and discrimination are erased from the face of the earth” (Sellers 44). Sellers really experienced some tragedies and events that he never thought he would during the summer he spent with the SNCC. He was unaware how bad racism was until he got to Mississippi. It was his longest nightmare, he’d never seen anything like it. He realized that as a result of being in the committee that “they were in for a long, hard, struggle” (Sellers 44). People from the committee were murdered, and him and his friends were often stopped by the police. Some of his friends were even tormented and killed too. The results from that summer in Mississippi were a crisis. Civil rights workers and blacks who supported the movement were killed. Volunteers and local people were arrested. Churches, black owned businesses, and homes were burnt down or bombed. The SNCC engaged and talked to schools and businesses despite the consequences. They promoted black power. Sellers was devoted to promoting black power. He realized that “integration has little or no effect on such problems” (Sellers 156), therefore they needed to be fighting for power instead of integration. Before he became interested in being an activist, he was committed to the gospel. His commitment to black power pulled him away from the gospel though. He spoke about the SNCC and about whites not being welcomed in it. He watched the expansion and growth of the SNCC as well as the deterioration of it.