Southern Christian Leadership Conference

{{short description|African-American civil rights organization}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2013}}
{{Infobox organization
|image        = Southern Christian Leadership Conference logo.svg
|motto        =
|formation    = {{Start date|1957|01|10}}
|type         = [[NGO]]
|status       =
|purpose      = [[Civil rights]]
|headquarters = [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]
|leader_title = Chairman
|leader_name  = [[Bernard Lafayette]]
|leader_title2 = President/CEO
|leader_name2  = [[Charles Steele Jr.]] 
|main_organ   =
|affiliations = 17 affiliates; 57 chapters
|budget       =
|remarks      =
|name         = Southern Christian Leadership Conference
|image_border =
|abbreviation = SCLC
|location     =
|region_served = [[United States]]
|membership   =
|num_staff    = 60
|num_volunteers =
|website      = {{URL|http://www.nationalsclc.org}}
}}
The '''Southern Christian Leadership Conference''' ('''SCLC''') is an [[African Americans|African-American]] [[civil rights]] organization based in [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], who had a large role in the American [[civil rights movement]].<ref>{{Cite web
  |last=King Research & Education Institute at Stanford Univ.
  |title=Southern Christian Leadership Conference
  |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/enc_SCLC.htm
  |access-date=March 14, 2008
  |archive-date=February 27, 2009
  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227005540/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/enc_SCLC.htm
  |url-status=dead
  }}</ref>

== Founding ==
On January 10, 1957, following the [[Montgomery bus boycott]] victory against the white establishment and consultations with [[Bayard Rustin]], [[Ella Baker]], and others, [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] invited about 60 black ministers and leaders to [[Ebenezer Baptist Church (Atlanta, Georgia)|Ebenezer Church]] in Atlanta. Prior to this, Rustin, in New York City, conceived the idea of initiating such an effort and first sought [[Charles Kenzie Steele|C. K. Steele]] to make the call and take the lead role. Steele declined, but told Rustin he would be glad to work right beside him if he sought King in Montgomery for the role. Their goal was to form an organization to coordinate and support [[Nonviolence|nonviolent]] direct action as a method of desegregating bus systems across the [[Southern United States|South]]. In addition to King, Rustin, Baker, and Steele, [[Fred Shuttlesworth]] of Birmingham, [[Joseph Lowery]] of Mobile, and [[Ralph Abernathy]] of Montgomery, all played key roles in this meeting.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Branch
  | first = Taylor
  | title = Parting the Waters
  | url = https://archive.org/details/partingwatersame00bran_0
  | url-access = registration
  | publisher = Simon & Schuster
  | year = 1988| isbn = 9780671687427
 }}</ref>
The group continued this initial meeting on January 11, calling it (in keeping with the recent bus segregation issue) a '''Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration''' when they held a press conference that day. The press conference allowed them to introduce their efforts:
* communicating what they had included in telegrams sent that day to applicable members  of the [[Federal government of the United States#Executive branch|executive branch]] of the U.S. government ([[Dwight D. Eisenhower|President Eisenhower]], [[Richard Nixon|Vice President Nixon]], and [[Herbert Brownell Jr.|Attorney General Brownell]])
* sharing an outline of their overall position regarding the restrictions against the "elementary democratic rights [''of America's''] Negro minority"
* and providing a short list of concerns they wished to raise with "white Southerners of goodwill".<ref>{{cite archive |item-url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/statement-south-and-nation-issued-southern-negro-leaders-conference |collection=Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project |item="A Statement to the South and Nation," Issued by the Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration |repository=Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute |institution=[[Stanford University]] |date=1957-01-11 |access-date=2020-09-22}}</ref>

On February 15, a follow-up meeting was held in New Orleans. Out of these two meetings came a new organization with King as its president. Shortening the name used for their January meetings, the group briefly called their organization '''Negro Leaders Conference on Nonviolent Integration''', then '''Southern Negro Leaders Conference'''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis57.htm|title=Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement -- History & Timeline, 1957|website=www.crmvet.org|access-date=2017-04-14}}</ref> King served as president, Steele as first vice president, [[Abraham Lincoln Davis|A.L. Davis]] as second vice president, [[T. J. Jemison]] as secretary, [[Medgar Evers]] as assistant secretary, Abernathy as treasurer, and Shuttlesworth as historian.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109071662/conference-called-by-king-to-air-rights/ | title=Conference Called by King to Air Rights Progress | newspaper=Alabama Tribune | date=August 2, 1957 | page=1 }}</ref> At its third meeting, in August 1957, the group settled on Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as its name, expanding its focus beyond buses to ending all forms of segregation.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/name-changed-southern-christian-leadership-conference-third-meeting-king-announces |title=Name changed to Southern Christian Leadership Conference at third meeting; King announces "Crusade for Citizenship" |date=1957-08-08 |encyclopedia=King Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Stanford University#Research centers and institutes|Stanford University {{!}} Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute]] |access-date=2020-09-22}}</ref> A small office was established in the Prince Hall Masonic Temple Building on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sweetauburn.us/princehall.htm |title=Sweet Auburn Avenue: The Buildings Tell Their Story |website=sweetauburn.us |access-date=2019-05-31}}</ref> with [[Ella Baker]] as SCLC's first—and for a long time only—staff member.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Garrow
  | first = David
  | title = Bearing the Cross
  | url = https://archive.org/details/bearingcross00davi
  | url-access = registration
  | publisher = Morrow
  | year = 1986| isbn = 9780688047948
 }}</ref>

SCLC was governed by an elected board, and established as an organization of affiliates, most of which were either individual churches or community organizations such as the [[Montgomery Improvement Association]] and the [[Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights]] (ACMHR). This organizational form differed from the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) and the [[Congress of Racial Equality]] (CORE) who recruited individuals and formed them into local chapters.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-06-08 |title=National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/sociology-and-social-reform/social-reform/national-association-advancement-colored-people |access-date=2022-05-18 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

The organization also drew inspiration from the crusades of evangelist [[Billy Graham]], who befriended King after he appeared at a Graham crusade in New York City in 1957. Despite tactical differences, which arose from Graham's willingness to continue affiliating himself with segregationists, the SCLC and the [[Billy Graham Evangelistic Association]] had similar ambitions and Graham would privately advise the SCLC.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WBKaYVni9Z8C&pg=PA92|title=Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South|page=92|first=Steven P. |last=Miller|year=2009|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-0-8122-4151-8|access-date=April 8, 2015}}</ref>

During its early years, SCLC struggled to gain footholds in black churches and communities across the South. Social activism in favor of racial equality faced fierce repression from the police, [[White Citizens' Council]] and the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Only a few churches had the courage to defy the white-dominated status-quo by affiliating with SCLC, and those that did risked economic retaliation against pastors and other church leaders, arson, and bombings.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Civil Rights Movement History & Timeline, 1957 |url=https://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis57.htm |access-date=2022-05-24 |website=www.crmvet.org}}</ref>

SCLC's advocacy of boycotts and other forms of nonviolent protest was controversial among both whites and blacks. Many black community leaders believed that segregation should be challenged in the courts and that direct action excited white resistance, hostility, and violence. Traditionally, leadership in black communities came from the educated elite—ministers, professionals, teachers, etc.—who spoke for and on behalf of the laborers, maids, farmhands, and [[working poor]] who made up the bulk of the black population. Many of these traditional leaders were uneasy about involving ordinary blacks in mass activity such as boycotts and marches.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kennedy |first=Randall |date=1989 |title=Martin Luther King's Constitution: A Legal History of the Montgomery Bus Boycott |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/796572 |journal=The Yale Law Journal |volume=98 |issue=6 |pages=999–1067 |doi=10.2307/796572 |jstor=796572 |issn=0044-0094}}</ref>

SCLC's belief that churches should be involved in political activism against social ills was also deeply controversial. Many ministers and religious leaders—both black and white—thought that the role of the church was to focus on the spiritual needs of the congregation and perform charitable works to aid the needy. To some of them, the social-political activity of King and SCLC amounted to dangerous radicalism which they strongly opposed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fairclough |first=Adam |date=1986 |title=Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Quest for Nonviolent Social Change |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/274690 |journal=Phylon |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.2307/274690 |jstor=274690 |issn=0031-8906}}</ref>

SCLC and King were also sometimes criticized for lack of militancy by younger activists in groups such as [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC) and CORE who were participating in [[sit-in]]s and [[Freedom Riders|Freedom Rides]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=SNCC {{!}} HISTORY |url=https://www.history.com/.amp/topics/black-history/sncc |access-date=2022-05-24 |website=www.history.com|date=August 24, 2021 }}</ref>

===Citizenship Schools===
Originally started in 1954 by [[Esau Jenkins]] and [[Septima Poinsette Clark|Septima Clark]] on the [[Sea Islands]] off the coast of [[South Carolina]] and [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], the Citizenship Schools focused on teaching adults to read so they could pass the voter-registration [[literacy test]]s, fill out driver's license exams, use mail-order forms, and open checking accounts. Under the auspices of the Highlander Folk School (now [[Highlander Research and Education Center]]) the program was expanded across the South. The [[Johns Island, South Carolina|Johns Island]] Citizenship School was housed at [[The Progressive Club]], listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2007.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref><ref name=scdah>{{cite web|title=The Progressive Club, Charleston County (3377 River Rd., Johns Island)|url=http://www.nationalregister.sc.gov/charleston/S10817710183/index.htm|work=National Register Properties in South Carolina|publisher=South Carolina Department of Archives and History|access-date=2014-08-01}}</ref>

According to Septima Clark's autobiography, ''Echo In My Soul'' (page 225), the Highlander Folk School was closed because it engaged in commercial activities in violation its charter; Highlander Folk School was chartered by the State of Tennessee as a non-profit corporation without stockholders or owners. However, in 1961, the Highlander staff reincorporated as the Highlander Research and Education Center and moved to [[Knoxville, Tennessee|Knoxville]]. Under the innocuous cover of adult-literacy classes, the schools secretly taught democracy and civil rights, community leadership and organizing, practical politics, and the strategies and tactics of resistance and struggle, and in so doing built the human foundations of the mass community struggles to come.

Eventually, close to 69,000 teachers, most of them unpaid volunteers and many with little formal education taught Citizenship Schools throughout the South.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Payne
  | first = Charles
  | authorlink = Charles M. Payne
  | title = I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle
  | url = https://archive.org/details/ivegotlightoffre00payn
  | url-access = registration
  | publisher = University of California Press
  | year = 1995| isbn = 9780520085152
 }}</ref> Many of the [[Civil Rights Movement]]'s adult leaders such as [[Fannie Lou Hamer]] and [[Victoria Gray Adams|Victoria Gray]], and hundreds of other local leaders in black communities across the South attended and taught citizenship schools.<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis54.htm#1954ccs Citizenship Schools] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref>

Under the leadership of Clark, the citizenship school project trained over 10,000 citizenship schoolteachers who led citizenship schools throughout the South, representing a popular education effort on a massive scale.<ref name="Payne, Charles 1997">Payne, Charles. ''[[I've Got the Light of Freedom:  The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle]].'' University of California, 1997.</ref> On top of these 10,000 teachers, citizenship schools reached and taught more than 25,000 people.<ref name="Charron, Katherine Mellen 2009">Charron, Katherine Mellen (2009). Freedom's Teacher: The Life of Septima Clark. The University of North Carolina Press.</ref> By 1968, over 700,000 African Americans became registered voters thanks to Clark's dedication to the movement.<ref name="Brown-Nagin 2006">Brown-Nagin, Tomiko 2006. The Transformation of a Social Movement into Law? the SCLC and NAACP's campaigns for civil rights reconsidered in the light of the educational activism of Septima Clark. Routledge.</ref>

As a result of the SCLC acquiring the already-established Citizenship Schools program, as its director, Clark became the first woman allowed a position on the SCLC board, despite continued resistance from the other (exclusively male) SCLC leaders.<ref>Brown-Nagin, Tomiko (2006). The Transformation of a Social Movement into Law? the SCLC and NAACP's campaigns for civil rights reconsidered in the light of the educational activism of Septima Clark. Routledge.</ref> [[Andrew Young]], who had joined Highlander the previous year to work with the Citizenship Schools, also joined the SCLC staff. The SCLC staff of citizenship schools were overwhelmingly women, as a result of the daily experience gained by becoming a teacher.<ref name="Charron, Katherine Mellen 2009"/>

Clark would struggle against relentless sexism and male supremacy during her time on the SCLC, much as [[Ella Baker]] had, with particularly harsh sexism emanating from [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] himself.<ref name="Payne, Charles 1997"/>  [[Ralph Abernathy]] also objected to a woman being allowed to participate in SCLC decision making and leadership, as Clark said: {{Blockquote |text="I can remember Reverend Abernathy asking many times, why was Septima Clark on the Executive Board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference? And Dr. King would always say, 'She was the one who proposed this citizenship education which is bringing to us not only money but a lot of people who will register and vote.' And he asked that many times. It was hard for him to see a woman on that executive body."<ref>[http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/playback.html?base_file=G-0017&duration=01:26:08 "Interview with Septima Poinsette Clark, July 30, 1976"]. Documenting the American South.</ref>}} Clark attested that deliberate and widespread discrimination and even overt suppression of women was "one of the greatest weaknesses of the civil rights movement."<ref name="Brown-Nagin 2006"/>

=== Albany Movement ===
{{Main|Albany Movement}}
In 1961 and 1962, SCLC joined SNCC in the [[Albany Movement]], a broad protest against segregation in [[Albany, Georgia]]. It is generally considered the organization's first major nonviolent campaign. At the time, it was considered by many to be unsuccessful: despite large demonstrations and many arrests, few changes were won, and the protests drew little national attention. Yet, despite the lack of immediate gains, much of the success of the subsequent Birmingham Campaign can be attributed to lessons learned in Albany.<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961albany Albany GA, Movement] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref>

=== Birmingham campaign ===
{{Main|Birmingham campaign}}
By contrast, the 1963 SCLC [[Birmingham campaign|campaign]] in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], was an unqualified success. The campaign focused on a single goal—the desegregation of Birmingham's downtown merchants—rather than total desegregation, as in Albany. The brutal response of local police, led by Public Safety Commissioner [[Bull Connor|"Bull" Connor]], stood in stark contrast to the nonviolent civil disobedience of the activists.

After his arrest in April, King wrote the "[[Letter from Birmingham Jail]]" in response to a group of clergy who had criticized the Birmingham campaign, writing that it was "directed and led in part by outsiders" and that the demonstrations were "unwise and untimely."<ref>{{cite web|author=C.C.J. Carpenter |title=Statement by Alabama Clergymen |format=.PDF |publisher=Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/popular_requests/frequentdocs/clergy.pdf |date=April 12, 1963 |access-date=February 12, 2008 |display-authors=etal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216045015/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/popular_requests/frequentdocs/clergy.pdf |archive-date=February 16, 2008 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> In his letter, King explained that, as president of SCLC, he had been asked to come to Birmingham by the local members:

{{blockquote|I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. ... Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here I am here because I have organizational ties here.<ref name=Birmingham>{{cite web |first=Martin Luther Jr. |last=King |author-link=Martin Luther King Jr. |title=Letter from Birmingham Jail |format=.PDF |publisher=Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/popular_requests/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf |date=April 16, 1963 |access-date=February 12, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326092809/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/popular_requests/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf |archive-date=2009-03-26}}</ref>}}

King also addressed the question of "timeliness":

{{blockquote|One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. ... Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights.<ref name=Birmingham/>}}

The most dramatic moments of the Birmingham campaign came on May 2, when, under the direction and leadership of [[James Bevel]], who would soon officially become SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education, more than 1,000 Black children left school to join the demonstrations; hundreds were arrested. The following day, 2,500 more students joined and were met by [[Bull Connor]] with police dogs and high-pressure fire hoses. That evening, television news programs reported to the nation and the world scenes of fire hoses knocking down schoolchildren and dogs attacking individual demonstrators. Public outrage led the [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration to intervene more forcefully and a settlement was announced on May 10, under which the downtown businesses would desegregate and eliminate discriminatory hiring practices, and the city would release the jailed protesters.

=== March on Washington ===
{{Main|March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom}}
[[File:March on washington Aug 28 1963.jpg|thumb|[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] at the March on Washington]]
After the Birmingham Campaign, SCLC called for massive protests in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington, DC]], to push for new civil rights legislation that would outlaw segregation nationwide. [[A. Philip Randolph]] and
[[Bayard Rustin]] issued similar calls for a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. On July 2, 1963, King, Randolph, and Rustin met with [[James Farmer|James Farmer Jr.]] of the [[Congress of Racial Equality]], [[John Lewis]] of [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee|SNCC]], [[Roy Wilkins]] of the NAACP, and [[Whitney Young]] of the [[Urban League]] to plan a united march on August 28.

The media and political establishment viewed the march with great fear and trepidation over the possibility that protesters would run riot in the streets of the capital. But despite their fears, the March on Washington was a huge success, with no violence, and an estimated number of participants ranging from 200,000 to 300,000. It was also a logistical triumph—more than 2,000 buses, 21 special trains, 10 chartered aircraft, and uncounted autos converged on the city in the morning and departed without difficulty by nightfall.

The crowning moment of the march was King's famous "[[I Have a Dream]]" speech in which he articulated the hopes and aspirations of the [[Civil Rights Movement]] and rooted it in two cherished gospels—the Old Testament and the unfulfilled promise of the American creed.<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/tim63b.htm#1963mow March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref>

===St. Augustine protests===
{{Main|St. Augustine movement}}
When civil rights activists protesting segregation in St. Augustine, Florida were met with arrests and Ku Klux Klan violence, the local SCLC affiliate appealed to King for assistance in the spring of 1964. SCLC sent staff to help organize and lead demonstrations and mobilized support for St. Augustine in the North. Hundreds were arrested on sit-ins and marches opposing segregation, so many that the jails were filled, and the overflow prisoners had to be held in outdoor stockades. Among the northern supporters who endured arrest and incarceration were Mrs. Malcolm Peabody, the mother of the governor of Massachusetts and Mrs. John Burgess, wife of the Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060311100813/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/saint_augustine.htm St. Augustine Movement] King Research and Education Institute (Stanford Univ)</ref>

Nightly marches to the Old Slave Market were attacked by white mobs, and when blacks attempted to integrate "white-only" beaches they were assaulted by police who beat them with clubs. On June 11, King and other SCLC leaders were arrested for trying to lunch at the Monson Motel restaurant, and when an integrated group of young protesters tried to use the motel swimming pool the owner poured acid into the water. TV and newspaper stories of the struggle for justice in St. Augustine helped build public support for the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]<ref name="cra64">{{Cite web|url=https://finduslaw.com/civil-rights-act-1964-cra-title-vii-equal-employment-opportunities-42-us-code-chapter-21|title=Civil Rights Act of 1964 - CRA - Title VII - Equal Employment Opportunities - 42 US Code Chapter 21 {{!}} findUSlaw|website=finduslaw.com|access-date=2019-05-31}}</ref> that was then being debated in [[United States Congress|Congress]].<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/info/staug.htm St. Augustine Movement 1963–1964] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref>

===Selma Voting Rights Movement and the march to Montgomery===
{{Main|Selma to Montgomery marches}}

When voter registration and civil rights activity in [[Selma, Alabama]] were blocked by an illegal injunction,<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis64.htm#1964selmainj The Selma Injunction] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref> the [[Dallas County Voters League]] (DCVL) asked SCLC for assistance. King, SCLC, and DCVL chose Selma as the site for a major campaign around voting rights that would demand national voting rights legislation in the same way that the [[Birmingham campaign|Birmingham]] and St. Augustine campaigns won passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]].<ref name=cra64/><ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/disc/selma.htm#ala65proj SCLC's "Alabama Project"] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref>
In cooperation with SNCC who had been organizing in Selma since early 1963, the Voting Rights Campaign commenced with a rally in [[Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church (Selma, Alabama)|Brown Chapel]] on January 2, 1965, in defiance of the injunction. SCLC and SNCC organizers recruited and trained blacks to attempt to register to vote at the courthouse, where many of them were abused and arrested by [[Dallas County, Alabama|Dallas County]] Sheriff Jim Clark&nbsp;—&nbsp;a staunch segregationist. Black voter applicants were subjected to economic retaliation by the [[White Citizens' Council]], and threatened with physical violence by the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Officials used the discriminatory [[literacy test]]<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm Are You "Qualified" to Vote? The Alabama "Literacy Test"] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref> to keep blacks off the voter rolls.

Nonviolent mass marches demanded the right to vote and the jails filled up with arrested protesters, many of them students. On February 1, King and Abernathy were arrested. Voter registration efforts and protest marches spread to the surrounding [[Black Belt (region of Alabama)|Black Belt]]  counties&nbsp;—&nbsp;[[Perry County, Alabama|Perry]], [[Wilcox County, Alabama|Wilcox]], [[Marengo County, Alabama|Marengo]], [[Greene County, Alabama|Greene]], and [[Hale County, Alabama|Hale]].
On February 18, an Alabama State Trooper shot and killed [[Jimmie Lee Jackson]] during a voting rights protest in [[Marion, Alabama|Marion]], county seat of Perry County. In response, James Bevel, who was directing SCLC's Selma actions, called for [[Selma to Montgomery marches|a march from Selma to Montgomery]], and on March 7 close to 600 protesters attempted the march to present their grievances to Governor [[George Wallace|Wallace]]. Led by Reverend [[Hosea Williams]] of SCLC and [[John Lewis]] of SNCC, the marchers were attacked by State Troopers, deputy sheriffs, and mounted possemen who used tear-gas, horses, clubs, and bullwhips to drive them back to Brown Chapel. News coverage of this brutal assault on nonviolent demonstrators protesting for the right to vote&nbsp;—&nbsp;which became known as "Bloody Sunday"&nbsp;—&nbsp;horrified the nation.<ref>{{Cite web
 |publisher   = King Research & Education Institute at Stanford University
 |title       = Selma to Montgomery March
 |url         = http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/selma_montgomery.htm
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20090122214150/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/selma_montgomery.htm
 |archive-date = January 22, 2009
 |df          = mdy-all
}}</ref>

King, Bevel, [[Diane Nash]] and others called on clergy and people of conscience to support the black citizens of Selma. Thousands of religious leaders and ordinary Americans came to demand voting rights for all. One of them was [[James Reeb]], a white [[Unitarian Universalist]] minister, who was savagely beaten to death on the street by Klansmen who severely injured two other ministers in the same attack.

After more protests, arrests, and legal maneuvering, Federal Judge [[Frank Minis Johnson|Frank M. Johnson]] ordered Alabama to allow the march to Montgomery. It began on March 21 and arrived in Montgomery on the 24th. On the 25th, an estimated 25,000<ref>{{cite book
  |last=Garrow
  |first=David
  |title=Bearing the Cross
  |publisher=Morrow
  |year=1986
  |isbn=0-688-04794-7
  |url=https://archive.org/details/bearingcross00davi
  }}</ref> protesters marched to the steps of the Alabama capitol in support of voting rights where King spoke.<ref>{{Cite web
  |last=King Research & Education Institute at Stanford University
  |title=Our God Is Marching On!
  |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/speeches/Our_God_is_marching_on.html}}</ref> Within five months,  Congress and President [[Lyndon Johnson]] responded to the enormous public pressure generated by the Selma Voting Rights Movement by enacting into law the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]].

===Grenada Freedom Movement===
When the [[March Against Fear|Meredith Mississippi March Against Fear]] passed through [[Grenada, Mississippi]] on June 15, 1966, it sparked months of civil rights activity on the part of Grenada blacks. They formed the Grenada County Freedom Movement (GCFM) as an SCLC affiliate, and within days 1,300 blacks registered to vote.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.crmvet.org/info/grenada.htm|title=Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement -- Grenada Mississippi—Chronology of a Movement|website=www.crmvet.org|access-date=2019-05-31}}</ref>
 
Though the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]<ref name=cra64/> had outlawed segregation of public facilities, the law had not been applied in Grenada which still maintained rigid segregation. After black students were arrested for trying to sit downstairs in the "white" section of the movie theater, SCLC and the GCFM demanded that all forms of segregation be eliminated, and called for a boycott of white merchants. Over the summer, the number of protests increased and many demonstrators and SCLC organizers were arrested as police enforced the old [[Jim Crow]] social order. In July and August, large mobs of white segregationists mobilized by the [[Ku Klux Klan|KKK]] violently attacked nonviolent marchers and news reporters with rocks, bottles, baseball bats and steel pipes.

When the new school year began in September, SCLC and the GCFM encouraged more than 450 black students to register at the formerly white schools under a court desegregation order. This was by far the largest school integration attempt in Mississippi since the ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' ruling in 1954. The all-white school board resisted fiercely, whites threatened black parents with economic retaliation if they did not withdraw their children, and by the first day of school the number of black children registered in the white schools had dropped to approximately 250. On the first day of class, September 12, a furious white mob organized by the Klan attacked the black children and their parents with clubs, chains, whips, and pipes as they walked to school, injuring many and hospitalizing several with broken bones. Police and Mississippi State Troopers made no effort to halt or deter the mob violence.<ref>{{cite web|title=Negroes Beaten in Grenada School Integration|url=http://digital.library.pitt.edu/u/ulsmanuscripts/pdf/31735061655571.pdf|work=The New York Times|access-date=10 September 2013}}</ref>

Over the following days, white mobs continued to attack the black children until public pressure and a Federal court order finally forced Mississippi lawmen to intervene. By the end of the first week, many black parents had withdrawn their children from the white schools out of fear for their safety, but approximately 150 black students continued to attend, still the largest school integration in state history at that point in time.

Inside the schools, blacks were harassed by white teachers, threatened and attacked by white students, and many blacks were expelled on flimsy pretexts by school officials. By mid-October, the number of blacks attending the white schools had dropped to roughly 70. When school officials refused to meet with a delegation of black parents, black students began boycotting both the white and black schools in protest. Many children, parents, GCFM activists, and SCLC organizers were arrested for protesting the school situation. By the end of October, almost all of the 2600 black students in Grenada County were boycotting school. The boycott was not ended until early November when SCLC attorneys won a Federal court order that the school system treat everyone equal regardless of race and meet with black parents.

===Jackson conference===
In 1966, [[Allen Johnson (activist)|Allen Johnson]] hosted the Tenth Annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the Masonic Temple in [[Jackson, Mississippi]].<ref name=king>{{cite web|title=Program from the SCLC's Tenth Annual Convention|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/program-sclcs-tenth-annual-convention|publisher=The King Center|access-date=7 September 2015|archive-date=September 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926015755/http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/program-sclcs-tenth-annual-convention|url-status=dead}}</ref> The theme of the conference was human rights - the continuing struggle.<ref name=king/> Those in attendance, among others, included: [[Edward Kennedy]], [[James Bevel]], [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], [[Ralph Abernathy]], [[Curtis W. Harris]], [[Walter E. Fauntroy]], [[C. T. Vivian]], [[Andrew Young]], [[The Freedom Singers]], [[Charles Evers]], [[Fred Shuttlesworth]], [[Cleveland Robinson]], [[Randolph Blackwell]], [[Annie Bell Robinson Devine]], [[Charles Kenzie Steele]], [[Alfred Daniel Williams King]], [[Benjamin Hooks]], [[Aaron Henry (politician)|Aaron Henry]] and [[Bayard Rustin]].<ref name=king/>

===Chicago Freedom Movement===
{{Main|Chicago Freedom Movement}}

===Poor People's Campaign===
{{Main|Poor People's Campaign}}


==1968–1997==
In August 1967, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) instructed its program "[[COINTELPRO]]" to "neutralize" what the FBI called "black nationalist hate groups" and other dissident groups.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/actions/actions_cointelpro.html "COINTELPRO" A Huey P. Newton Story], Public Broadcasting System website.</ref> The initial targets included Martin Luther King Jr. and others associated with the SCLC.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=COINTELPRO |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/COINTELPRO |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=October 19, 2023 }}</ref>

After the [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]] in 1968, leadership was transferred to [[Ralph Abernathy]], who presided until 1977. Abernathy was replaced by [[Joseph Lowery]] who was SCLC president until 1997. In 1997, MLK's son, [[Martin Luther King III]], became the president of SCLC. In 2004, for less than a year, it was [[Fred Shuttlesworth]]. After him, the president was [[Charles Steele Jr.]], and in 2009, Howard W. Creecy Jr. Next were Isaac Newton Farris Jr. and [[C. T. Vivian]], who took office in 2012.{{Contradict-inline|section=Leadership|reason=The other section does not have Farris nor Vivian, and shows Steele twice.|date=September 2020}}
==1997 to present==
In 1997, [[Martin Luther King III]] was unanimously elected to head the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, replacing [[Joseph Lowery]]. Under King's leadership, the SCLC held hearings on police brutality, organized a rally for the 37th anniversary of the "[[I Have a Dream]]" [[public speech|speech]] and launched a successful campaign to change the Georgia [[Flag of Georgia (U.S. state)|state flag]], which previously featured a large [[Confederate battle flag|Confederate cross]].<ref name="LAT0804" />

Within only a few months of taking the position, however, King was being criticized by the Conference board for alleged inactivity. He was accused of failing to answer correspondence from the board and take up issues important to the organization. The board also felt he failed to demonstrate against national issues the SCLC previously would have protested, like the disenfranchisement of black voters in the [[Florida election recount]] or time limits on welfare recipients implemented by then-[[President of the United States|President]] [[Bill Clinton]].<ref name="NYT0726" /> King was further criticized for failing to join the battle against [[AIDS]], allegedly because he feels uncomfortable talking about [[condom]]s.<ref name="LAT0804">[[Jeffrey Gettleman|Gettleman, Jeffrey]]. [http://articles.latimes.com/2001/aug/04/news/mn-30468 "M.L. King III: Father's path hard to follow."] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', August 5, 2001. Retrieved on September 14, 2008.</ref> He also hired Lamell J. McMorris, an executive director who, according to ''[[The New York Times]]'', "rubbed board members the wrong way."<ref name="NYT0726">Firestone, David. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06EFDC173DF935A15754C0A9679C8B63 "A civil rights group suspends, then reinstates, its president."] ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 26, 2001. Retrieved on August 28, 2008.</ref>

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference suspended King from the presidency in June 2001, concerned that he was letting the organization drift into inaction. In a June 25 letter to King, the group's national chairman at the time, Claud Young, wrote, "You have consistently been insubordinate and displayed inappropriate, obstinate behavior in the (negligent) carrying out of your duties as president of SCLC."<ref name="NYT0726" /> King was reinstated only one week later after promising to take a more active role. Young said of the suspension, "I felt we had to use a [[lumber|two-by-four]] to get his attention. Well, it got his attention all right."<ref name="NYT0726" />

After he was reinstated, King prepared a four-year plan outlining a stronger direction for the organization, agreeing to dismiss McMorris and announcing plans to present a strong challenge to the [[Presidency of George W. Bush|George W. Bush administration]] in an August convention in [[Montgomery, Alabama]].<ref name="NYT0726" /> He also planned to concentrate on racial profiling, prisoners' rights, and closing the digital divide between whites and blacks.<ref name="LAT0804" /> However, King also suggested in a statement that the group needed a different approach than it had used in the past, stating, "We must not allow our lust for 'temporal gratification' to blind us from making difficult decisions to effect future generations."<ref name="NYT0726" />

Martin Luther King III resigned in 2004, upon which [[Fred Shuttlesworth]] was elected to replace him. Shuttlesworth resigned the same year that he was appointed, complaining that "deceit, mistrust, and a lack of spiritual discipline and truth have eaten at the core of this once-hallowed organization".<ref>{{cite news
   | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43758-2004Nov11.html
   | title = President of Beleaguered Civil Rights Group Resigns
   | newspaper = [[The Washington Post]]
| date=November 12, 2004
| access-date=May 23, 2010}}</ref> He was replaced by [[Charles Steele Jr.]] who served until October 2009.

On October 30, 2009, Elder [[Bernice King]], King's youngest child, was elected SCLC's new president, with [[James Bush III]] taking office in February 2010 as Acting President/CEO until Bernice King took office. However, on January 21, 2011, fifteen months after her election, Bernice King declined the position of president. In a written statement, she said that her decision came "after numerous attempts to connect with the official board leaders on how to move forward under my leadership, unfortunately, our visions did not align."<ref>{{cite news
   | url = http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/bernice-king-declines-sclc-811426.html
   | title = Bernice King Declines SCLC Presidency
   | work = [[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]]
| date=January 21, 2011
| access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref>

==Leadership==
The best-known member of the SCLC was [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], who was president and chaired the organization until he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Other prominent members of the organization have included [[Joseph Lowery]], [[Ralph Abernathy]], [[Ella Baker]], [[James Bevel]], [[Diane Nash]], [[Dorothy Cotton]], [[James Orange]], [[C. O. Simpkins Sr.|C. O. Simpkins Sr]], [[Charles Kenzie Steele]], [[C. T. Vivian]], [[Fred Shuttlesworth]], [[Andrew Young]], [[Hosea Williams]], [[Jesse Jackson]], [[Walter E. Fauntroy]], Claud Young, [[Septima Poinsette Clark|Septima Clark]], [[Martin Luther King III]], [[Curtis W. Harris]], [[Maya Angelou]], and [[Golden Frinks]].

;Presidents
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!{{abbr|No.|Number}}
!Image
!Name
!Term
|-
|1
|[[File:08-15-1964 20069 Martin Luther King (4086739403) greyBack.jpg|80px]]
|[[Martin Luther King Jr.]]
|1957–1968
|-
|2
|[[File:Ralph Abernathy portrait by Robert Templeton.jpg|80px]]
|[[Ralph Abernathy]]
|1968–1977
|-
|3
|[[File:Joseph Lowery 2000 (cropped).jpg|80px]]
|[[Joseph Lowery]]
|1977–1997
|-
|4
|[[File:Martin Luther King III 1998.jpg|80px]]
|[[Martin Luther King III]]
|1997–2004
|-
|5
|[[File:Fred Shuttlesworth (49070846811).jpg|80px]]
|[[Fred Shuttlesworth]]
|2004–2004
|-
|6
|[[File:Charles Steel Jr. - 2019.jpg|80px]]
|[[Charles Steele Jr.]]
|2004–2009
|-
|7
|
|Howard W. Creecy Jr.
|2009–2011
|-
|8
|[[File:Charles Steel Jr. - 2019.jpg|80px]]
|[[Charles Steele Jr.]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=National Staff|url=https://nationalsclc.org/about/national-staff/|access-date=2020-10-01|website=The All-New National SCLC|date=March 26, 2018|language=en-US}}</ref>
|2012–present
|}

==Relationships with other organizations==
Because of its dedication to direct-action protests, [[civil disobedience]], and mobilizing mass participation in boycotts and marches, SCLC was considered more "radical" than the older NAACP, which favored lawsuits, legislative lobbying, and education campaigns conducted by professionals.  At the same time, it was generally considered less radical than [[Congress of Racial Equality]] (CORE) or the youth-led [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC).<ref>{{Cite web |last1=University |first1=© Stanford |last2=Stanford |last3=California 94305 |date=2017-06-20 |title=Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/student-nonviolent-coordinating-committee-sncc |access-date=2022-05-24 |website=The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute |language=en}}</ref>

To a certain extent during the period 1960–1964, SCLC had a mentoring relationship with SNCC before SNCC began moving away from nonviolence and integration in the late 1960s. Over time, SCLC and SNCC took different strategic paths, with SCLC focusing on large-scale campaigns such as [[Birmingham campaign|Birmingham]] and [[Selma to Montgomery marches|Selma]] to win national legislation, and SNCC focusing on community-organizing to build political power on the local level. In many communities, there was tension between SCLC and SNCC because SCLC's base was the minister-led Black churches, and SNCC was trying to build rival community organizations led by the poor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.crmvet.org/|title=Civil Rights Movement Archive - CORE, NAACP, SCLC, SNCC|website=www.crmvet.org|access-date=2019-05-31}}</ref> SCLC also had its own youth volunteer initiative, the [[SCOPE Project]] (Summer Community Organization on Political Education), which placed about 500 young people, mostly white students from nearly 100 colleges and universities, who registered about 49,000 voters in 120 counties in 6 southern states in 1965–66.<ref name="Tuck2003">{{cite book|author= Stephen G. N. Tuck |title=Beyond Atlanta: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Georgia, 1940-1980|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2y674_8pGXkC|year=2001|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-2528-6}}</ref>

In August 1979, the head of the SCLC, Joseph Lowery, met with the [[Palestinian Liberation Organization]] (PLO) and endorsed [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] self-determination and urged the PLO to "consider" recognizing [[Israel]]'s right to exist.<ref name="'70s 273">{{cite book|title= How We Got Here: The '70s|last= Frum|first= David|author-link= David Frum|year= 2000|publisher= Basic Books|location= New York, New York|isbn= 0-465-04195-7|page= [https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/273 273]|url= https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/273}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|40em}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |last=Aguiar |first=Marian |author2=Gates, Henry Louis |title=Southern Christian Leadership Conference |encyclopedia=Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience |location=New York |publisher=Basic Civitas Books |year=1999 |isbn=0-465-00071-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/africanaencyclop00appi }}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |last=Cooksey |first=Elizabeth B. |encyclopedia=The new Georgia encyclopedia |title=Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2743&sug=y |date=December 23, 2004 |publisher=Georgia Humanities Council |location=Athens, GA |oclc=54400935 |access-date=February 12, 2008 |archive-date=October 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012112917/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2743&sug=y |url-status=dead }}
* Fairclough, Adam. "The Preachers and the People: The Origins and Early Years of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1955-1959." ''Journal of Southern History'' (1986): 403–440. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2209569 in JSTOR]
* Fairclough, Adam. ''To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr.'' (University of Georgia Press, 2001)
* Garrow, David. ''Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference'' (1986); Pulitzer Prize
* {{Cite book |last=Marable |first=Manning |author2=Mullings, Leith  |title=Freedom: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle |location=London |publisher=Phaidon |year=2002 |isbn=0-7148-4270-2}}
* Peake, Thomas R. ''Keeping the dream alive: A history of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from King to the nineteen-eighties'' (P. Lang, 1987)
* {{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Juan |title=Eyes on The Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965 |location=New York |publisher=Viking |year=1987 |isbn=0-670-81412-1 }}
{{refend}}.

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
* {{Official|http://www.nationalsclc.org}}
* [http://www.crmvet.org Civil Rights Movement Archive]
* [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/90wfs Southern Christian Leadership Conference records, 1864 (''sic'')–2012] at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Library, [[Emory University]]
* [http://www.crmvet.org/docs/dochome.htm#docssclc SCLC Documents] Online collection of original SCLC documents ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive.
* [http://onevotesncc.org/profile/sclc/ "SCLC," One Person, One Vote] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161031175949/http://onevotesncc.org/profile/sclc/ |date=October 31, 2016 }}
*[https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library], Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/90wfs Southern Christian Leadership Conference records, 1864-2012]

{{Civil rights movement}}
{{SCLC presidents}}
{{African American topics}}
{{Martin Luther King Jr.|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Christian organizations established in 1957]]
[[Category:1957 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:African Americans' rights organizations]]
[[Category:Christian advocacy groups]]
[[Category:COINTELPRO targets]]
[[Category:Martin Luther King Jr.]]
[[Category:Civil rights organizations in the United States]]
[[Category:Nonviolence organizations based in the United States]]
[[Category:Organizations based in Atlanta]]
[[Category:Civil rights movement]]
[[Category:Selma to Montgomery marches]]
[[Category:Non-profit organizations based in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Poor People's Campaign]]
[[Category:Birmingham campaign]]
[[Category:Chicago Freedom Movement]]