Moses resigned from COFO in late 1964. He later commented that his role had become ‘‘too strong, too central, so that people who did not need to, began to lean on me, to use me as a crutch’’. He temporarily dropped his surname, going by his middle name, Parris, and began participating in the campaign against the Vietnam War. Speaking at the first massive anti-war demonstration on April 17, 1965, at the Washington Monument, Moses linked his opposition to the war to the civil rights struggle. As his involvement in the anti-war movement increased, he took a leave of absence from SNCC to avoid criticisms from fellow members who did not support his stance. Following a trip to Africa in 1965, Moses came to believe that blacks must work independently of whites, and by 1966 Moses had cut off all relationships with whites, even former SNCC activists.