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The formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960 was primarily catalyzed by the Sit-In Movement. This movement emerged as young African American students began to protest segregated seating policies at lunch counters across the southern United States, starting primarily in Greensboro, North Carolina. The success of these sit-ins not only garnered national attention but also inspired a wave of activism among students and young people, leading to the desire to create an organization that could effectively coordinate their efforts and sustain their activism.

The formation of SNCC was significant because it aimed to empower young people and encourage them to take an active role in the civil rights movement, emphasizing nonviolent protest as a strategy for social change. The committee played a critical role in major civil rights campaigns throughout the 1960s, including voter registration drives and Freedom Summer.

Other movements and organizations mentioned, like Freedom Summer, which occurred in 1964, and the Montgomery Improvement Association, which was formed to support the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the 1950s, were connected to the broader civil rights struggle but did not directly lead to the establishment of SNCC. The Black Panther Movement, founded later in 1966, had different goals and methods compared to