CHARLES "Chuck" F. MCDEW
Charles McDew has devoted his life to issues of social and
political change, to the empowerment and development of local
black leadership, to civil and human rights, and to the fight
against racism. An activist as well as a theoretician, he
led his first demonstration in the eighth grade, to protest
violations of the religious freedom of Amish students in his
hometown of Massillon, Ohio.
Mr. McDew’s career as an activist expanded in scope
while he was a freshman at South Carolina State College in
Orangeburg, South Carolina. Inevitably involved in the newborn
sit-in movement, he was elected as student leader by his fellow
demonstrators. Influenced by Rabbi Hillel’s dictum,
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am
only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?,”
Mr. McDew participated in the founding of the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. Described by fellow
SNCC activist Bob Moses as a “black by birth, a Jew
by choice and a revolutionary by necessity,” Mr. McDew
was elected as Chairman of SNCC in 1961 and served in that
capacity until 1964.
California Congressman Tom Hayden characterized Mr. McDew
as a “combination of intellectual and jock, possessed
of an absolutely arrogant fearlessness.” Under Mr. McDew’s
leadership, SNCC expanded its community organizing activities,
penetrating into those parts of the South deemed too dangerous
for organizers by traditional civil rights programs. With
its commitment to developing and empowering local leadership
and challenging racist laws and practices, SNCC’s field
secretaries led the way in desegregating local facilities,
operating freedom schools and registering voters. In one of
the most extraordinary and sustained displays of courage and
resolve in the history of American activism, SNCC field workers
endured years of savage and continuous repression to challenge
the most racist state in the Union, Mississippi. Their activities
culminated in the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964, and
the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenge to the
party establishment at the Democratic National Convention
in Atlantic City in 1964. The SNCC policy of developing local
leadership bears fruit today in the increasing number of black
elected officials all over the Deep South, whose entry into
political life was inaugurated by SNCC’s presence in
their communities.
Since that time, Mr. McDew has been active in organizations
for social and political change, working as a teacher and
as a labor organizer, managing anti-poverty programs in Washington,
D.C., serving as community organizer and catalyst for change
in Boston and San Francisco, as well as other communities.
He has appeared on countless radio and television programs
as a speaker against racism. He continues to be involved in
programs for social and political change designed to develop
local leadership and break down racial and cultural barriers.
Mr. McDew recently retired from Metropolitan State
University, Minneapolis, MN, where his classes in the history
of the civil rights movement, African-American history, and
classes in social and cultural awareness are always oversubscribed.
Charles McDew's resume (PDF version)
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