Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

(noun)

A civil rights organization created in 1957 to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct non-violent protests in the pursuit of civil rights reform. It is closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and had a large role in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Related Terms

Examples of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in the following topics:

  • Civil Rights and Voting Rights

    • The bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964, and the "Southern Bloc" of 18 southern Democratic Senators and one Republican Senator led by Richard Russell launched a filibuster to prevent its passage.
    • Russell stated: "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states."
    • While Congress played an important role by passing the Acts, the actions of civil rights groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) were instrumental in forging new paths, pioneering new techniques and strategies, and achieving breakthrough successes.
    • Attempts to register southern African American voters continued to encounter white resistance, and protests against this interference often met with violence.

  • Martin Luther King, Jr.

    • He is best known for his practice of nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.
    • King's first involvement in the Civil Rights Movement that attracted national attention was his leadership over the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.
    • In 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Joseph Lowery, and other civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
    • King led the SCLC until his death.
    • As a Christian minister, King's main influence was the Christian gospels, which he would almost always quote in his religious meetings, speeches at church, and in public discourses.

  • The Expansion of the Civil Rights Movement

    • While Congress played a role by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the actions of civil rights groups such as CORE, the SCLC, and SNCC were instrumental in forging new paths, pioneering new techniques and strategies, and achieving breakthrough successes.
    • Grassroots civil rights activist Ella Baker pushed for a “participatory Democracy” that built on the grassroots campaigns of active citizens instead of deferring to the leadership of educated elites and experts.
    • In 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) led by King mounted protests in some 186 cities throughout the South.

  • The Role of Religion in the Civil Rights Movement

    • The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization that  was central to the Civil Rights Movement.
    • Traditionally, leadership in black communities came from the educated elite—ministers, professionals, teachers, etc.
    • King (SCLC's first president) and SCLC amounted to dangerous radicalism which they strongly opposed.
    • Similarly to the arguments used by earlier proponents of slavery, many segregationist used Christianity to justify racism and racial violence.
    • Shortly after Martin Luther King's death, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference used this poster—issued in an edition of one hundred—for a fundraising drive.

  • Protestantism

    • There are different kinds of Protestant denominations such as Methodists and Baptists, which are both Christian.
    • The Christianity of the black population was grounded in evangelicalism.
    • Today, the NCC is a joint venture of 35 Christian denominations in the United States.
    • As the center of community life, Black churches played a leadership role in the Civil Rights Movement.
    • He helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957), serving as its first president.

  • Women of the Civil Rights Movement

    • Though often overlooked, many women played integral leadership roles in the advancements of the civil rights movement in the United States.
    • She was a critic of professionalized, charismatic leadership and a promoter of grassroots organizing and radical democracy.
    • In 1952, Daisy Bates was elected president of the Arkansas Conference of NAACP branches.
    • She became President of the Arkansas Conference of NAACP Branches in 1952 at the age of 38.
    • Height was also a founding member of the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership.

  • The Peace of Westphalia and Sovereignty

    • The southern states, mainly Roman Catholic, were angered by this.
    • The Thirty Years' War devastated entire regions, with famine and disease significantly decreasing the populations of the German and Italian states, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Southern Netherlands.
    • However, under the leadership of the exiled William the Silent, the northern provinces continued their resistance.
    • Since Lutheran Sweden preferred Osnabrück as a conference venue, its peace negotiations with the Holy Roman Empire, including the allies of both sides, took place in Osnabrück.
    • Christians living in principalities where their denomination was not the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will.