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The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), first known as Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration is a civil rights organization founded in January 1957.
Origins
It was proposed by Bayard Rustin, and co-founded by Joseph Lowery, Ella Baker, T. J. Jemison and others. It was later headed by one of its founders, Martin Luther King Jr. The organization expressed these individuals' belief that a wider organization could be built upon the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, hence the original name.The organization focused on non-violent civil disobedience and believed that it could use that to gain the civil rights that African Americans lacked at the time.
Tactics
The SCLC, under Martin Luther King, believed in Nonviolence, and used Protests and Marches to gain support for the Civil Rights Movement. The SCLC was often seen, especially in the Albany Movement between 1961 and 1962, provoking violence to gain Media coverage, hence gaining support around the world. This was ineffective in his campaign, as the Albany Police Chief, Laurie Pritchett prevented the breakout of violence.
Members
The most popular Member of the SCLC was Martin Luther King, who led the organization until his assassination on April 4th 1968. Other prominent members of the organization included Ralph Abernathy, the Reverend Al Sharpton, Fred Shuttlesworth, Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young.
Involvements
The SCLC was involved in many events during the Civil Rights Movement, including the Albany Movement between 1961 and 1962, the Birmingham, Alabama Campaign and the March on Washington in the Summer of 1963. Also Viola Gregg Liuzzo was in the SCLC and she was in most of the marches. The KKK killed her for helping colored people.
Relationships with other organizations
During the early 1960's, the group was considered more radical than the older NAACP and more conservative than the younger Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. SCLC had a mentoring relationship with SNCC in its earlier years, before SNCC abandoned its exclusive policy of nonviolence.
The importance of its name
Much thought went into the naming of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. They wanted to attract attention from both African American and White people, without mentioning the name of any race to distance themselves from other races. They cleverly decided on the name, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which didn't indicate any particular race, thus ensuring people across America could relate to it, even the most radical Southern whites. Southern could be related to by all people in the south of the USA, Christian could be related to all Christians across the USA, Leadership could relate to all leaders in the USA and Conference was wisely used as a conference does not exclude anyone, which the word 'Organization' could have.
External links
1957 establishments | Political advocacy groups in the United States | African Americans' rights organizations
"Southern Christian Leadership Conference"