Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is one of the most important organizations to emerge out of the modern civil rights movement. An interdenominational alliance of activist clergymen, the SCLC drew upon and extended the institutional power base already present in the black church. The SCLC became the main organizational vehicle by which isolated instances of resistance against Jim Crow segregation were coordinated into a mass movement spanning the South. With the motto "To Save the Soul of America," the SCLC was committed to the philosophy of nonviolence in exercising the moral imperative to oppose unjust laws.

Founded in 1957 by a group of ministers, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) as its first president, the SCLC developed out of the successful Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott of 1955–1956. The SCLC was also instrumental in establishing affiliated organizations, one of which was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Founded in 1960 through the direct efforts of then acting executive director Ella J. Baker (1905–) and based primarily in black colleges and universities rather than in churches, the SNCC became the main organizational vehicle mobilizing student protest efforts across the South.

Between 1960 and 1965 the SCLC and SNCC, in concert with other organizations, gave the movement some of its greatest successes. The sit-ins (1960) and freedom rides (1961) helped integrate public facilities and interstate transportation; the SCLC's Operation Breadbasket boycotted certain businesses "not" operating in black communities for better job opportunities; the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, demonstration led to the March on Washington that same year, during which Dr. King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech; and passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) were particularly meaningful for the movement and for the SCLC as its leading organization.

After these major successes, the SCLC's attention began to shift to the plight of blacks in northern cities. Rev. Jesse Jackson (1941–) came to prominence during this time as director of Chicago's Operation Breadbasket. It was also during this period of transition that the growing Black Power movement, rejecting the principle of nonviolence, began to challenge the authoritative position of the SCLC. With Dr. King's assassination on April 4, 1968, Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy (1926–1990) became president of the SCLC. In 1977, when he stepped down, Rev. Joseph Lowery (1924–) took over leadership and remained as president until his retirement in 1997. At that time Martin Luther King III became the fourth president of the historic organization. Dr. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, remains on the board of directors.

In the decades since the civil rights movement, the SCLC has concentrated on maintaining those gains made earlier, continuing the struggle for the rights of the poor and the homeless, and keeping alive the legacy of Dr. King. Recent actions have included lobbying for congressional extension of the Voting Rights Act (1982), a march in support of establishment of the King national holiday (1983), protests against apartheid in South Africa, gun buy-back campaigns to help curb inner-city violence, and AIDS awareness and mentoring programs. The SCLC remains a politically engaged organization, working hard to continue the struggle for human rights and to realize Dr. King's dream.

See alsoCivil Rights Movement; Jackson, Jesse; King, Martin Luther, Jr.

Bibliography

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Peake, Thomas R. Keeping the Dream Alive: A History ofthe Southern Christian Leadership Conference from Kingto the Nineteen-Eighties. 1987.

Milmon F. Harrison