The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was formed in the spring of 1960 to support the student sit-ins against segregation that were sweeping the south. By 1962, the group had metamorphosed into a cadre of activists who combined direct action with political organizing in the most repressive areas of Mississippi and southwest Georgia. Never a membership organization, SNCC (pronounced “Snick”) had 160 staffers at its largest. It lasted only eight years and it could take credit for no landmark civil rights legislation or policy. Yet, then and now, SNCC's influence far outstripped its size, longevity, or easily measurable accomplishments.