After graduating from Los Alamos High School in 1962, Carson attended the University of New Mexico for his first year on college during the 1962–1963 school year. At age 19, Carson met Stokely Carmichael at a national student conference in Indiana. Carmichael convinced him to attend the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick")."Clayborne Carson." Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2014. Biography In Context. Accessed 21 May 2019. On August 28, 1963, Carson was overwhelmed to find himself among hundreds of thousands of African Americans at the March. This was the first big thing Carson had done in contribution to the Civil Rights Movement.Carson, Clayborne. Interview. Valerie Lampman. 23 May 2019. Recalling the March, at which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Carson says, "I have a lot of vivid memories, but not of King's speech." What left the biggest impression, he says, were "the people I met there." The March was also the only time Carson had ever heard Dr. King speak in public.
