SNCC in Arkansas- Bill Hansen

In October 1962, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or “snick,” sent white Ohioan Bill Hansen to Little Rock to revive the student sit-in movement. Hansen mobilized Philander Smith students in a new wave of sit-ins that put pressure on downtown businesses to desegregate. In 1963, most of Little Rock’s downtown stores and public facilities desegregated. Hansen served asdirector of the Arkansas Project of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee between 1962 and 1966. SNCC pursued desegregation, voting rights, and black community empowerment from centers in Pine Bluff, Gould, Helena, and Forrest City. You can find out more about SNCC in Arkansas in a new book published this month by the University of Arkansas Press called Arsnick: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas, edited by Jennifer Jensen Wallach and John A. Kirk. I'm John Kirk of the UALR History Department and this has been an Arkansas moment.