Northern Student Movement

Northern Student Movement

Founder(s)	Peter J. Countryman
Type	Civil rights organization
Founded	1961
Location	New Haven, Connecticut and New York City
Origins	Conference of the New England Student Christian Movement (1961)
Key people	Peter J. Countryman William Strickland
Focus	Tutoring 3,500 inner city youth in northeastern cities (1963); later sent students to sit-ins in the South and organized direct-action protests in the North.
Method	Volunteerism, education, community organizing
Volunteers	2,200 (1963)
Employees	50 (1963)
Motto	"...to build community organizations so that the deprived can use their power for change." --William Strickland [1]
Dissolved	1966?

External images
	http://gatheringforjustice.ning.com/photo/freedom-north-the-northern?context=latest NSM veterans Bill Strickland, Frank Joyce and Joan Cannaday Countryman in a 2010 panel discussion in Raleigh, N.C., sponsored by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

The Northern Student Movement (NSM) was an American civil rights organization founded at Yale University in 1961 by Peter J. Countryman (1942–1992). It grew out of the work of a committee formed by the New England Student Christian Movement.^[1]

Countryman began NSM's work by collecting books for a predominantly African American college and raising funds for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He then turned to organizing tutoring programs for inner city youth in northeastern cities. By 1963, NSM was reported to be helping as many as 3,500 children using 2,200 student volunteers from 50 colleges and universities.^[2] NSM also encouraged direct-action protests, sending volunteers to sit-ins in the South and organizing rent strikes in the North.^[1][3][4]

Originally headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut, NSM moved to New York City.^[5] Countryman stepped down as NSM's executive director in 1963 and was replaced by William Strickland.^[6]

The records of the Northern Student Movement, including a complete run of its periodical, Freedom North, are on file with the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division of the New York Public Library.^[6]

Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b c} Nina Mjagkij (ed.), Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations, New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 2001, pp. 462-463. ISBN 0815323093 In 1967, the New England Christian Student Movement changed its name to the University Christian Movement in New England. [1]
2. ^ "Education: Down-to-Earth Idealism," Time, May 17, 1963.
3. ^ Mandi Issacs Jackson, "Harlem's Rent Strike and Rat War: Representation, Housing Access and Tenant Resistance in New York, 1958-1964," American Studies, University of Kansas, v. 47, no. 1, (2006) pp. 53-79.
4. ^ Jack Newfield, "The Student Left," The Nation, May 10, 1965.
5. ^ Abstract: Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) Conference, Raleigh, N.C., 2010
6. ^ ^{a b} Northern Student Movement Records, 1961-1966, New York Public Library.

External links

• Northern Student Movement: A collection of articles and links to resources that describe the work of a civil rights organization founded by Peter Countryman and others....