This report covers a New York gathering of leading civil rights figures—including Bayard Rustin, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, James Farmer, and John Lewis—where SNCC and CORE declined to endorse a proposed moratorium on demonstrations until after the upcoming November election, signaling a split over tactics between direct-action proponents and calls for strategic pause.
Amid rising internal tensions in the civil rights movement of 1964, moderate factions—supported by the NAACP, SCLC, and Urban League—urged a temporary halt to protests to avoid jeopardizing legislation and electoral gains. SNCC and CORE leaders resisted, insisting that ongoing injustices—particularly in the Mississippi Delta—demand continuous nonviolent direct action. This clash presaged later divisions over pragmatic versus militant approaches within the broader struggle for racial equality.
“SNCC and CORE Reject Protest Moratorium at New York Strategy Meeting,” The Student Voice, August 5, 1964.
