Case Study: Southern Christian Leadership Conference

SNCC strategy was to organize mass demonstrations, boycotts, sit-ins and freedom rides. They used the newspaper to reach the homes of the people, went to their houses and traveled state to state to publicize and raise money for the organization. One of their focuses was to get blacks to vote. The committee organized non-violent mass demonstrations to provoke the government so they would eventually intercede. They based their beliefs off the beliefs of the SCLC whose leader was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Eventually, they saw no progress and began to aggressively protest under a new “Leader.” Since the original goal of the group began to fade away many of its members lost interest and drew away from

With the use of Civil Disobedience, Martin Luther King Jr. was able to end segregation and bring justice to African Americans, while using Mohandas K. Gandhi’s philosophy of a non-violent approach, which used more strength than violence. Established in 1957 after the Montgomery bus boycott ended, the Southern Christian Leadership was formed in Atlanta, Georgia, and Martin Luther King Jr. was the president. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also known as SCLC, was formed to end discrimination towards African Americans with the use of Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent protesting or civil disobedience. The SCLC was made of churches and the ministry of the church from throughout the South, and was developed to organize the protests influenced by the accomplishment of the bus boycott. This group caused the desegregation of some cities in southern states; some of these cities were

Dr. King finally impacted history with by helping establish and then lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference(SCLC) was designed as a way to offer leadership in the civil rights movement, which MLK was elected President in 1957 and continued as the head until 1968, the year of his assassination. Then in 1963, the organization created a strategic effort to end economic policies that discriminated against blacks, termed the Birmingham Campaign. Also, known as the “most segregated city in Alabama” (TheKingCenter). What first started as boycotting morphed into sit-ins and marches, with King encouraging any type of nonviolent behavior that would result in the jails becoming overflowed. When

Its charismatic, Nobel-prize winning first president was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who along with Malcolm X, is often seen as the non-violent voice of the Civil Rights movement. The SCLC organized several key marches and boycotts such as the relatively unsuccessful Albany Movement, which provided lessons learned which were applied successfully during the Birmingham Campaign. The SCLC also was the primary organization responsible for the March on

“King addressed the huge late afternoon crowd of more than 250,000” (Garrow). The Civil Rights Movement was at its peak through the 1950’s and 1960’s. People like Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, the Black Panthers, and Americans against segregation helped take the first step to stopping racism from spreading to further generations. “The Black Panthers Platform,” by: Alexander Bloom and Wini Brienes is a book that helps spread light onto what the black communities wanted and to show how daily life was for a African American under a racist government. The theme of this book is to fight for what brings justice and equality to the people so that they could have the opportunity to be treated fairly. The civil

Since Brown v. Board of Education of 1954 did not demand any time limit, educational segregation existed well into the 1960s. To due its lack of demand in time this represented an almost insurmountable obstacle to economic opportunity for African Americans. But because of Brown v Board of Education it was brought into the general public eye that this is was a serious matter and not only in the U.S, but also internationally. The Civil Rights Movement emerged as an organized fight to secure basic rights and privileges for all U.S. citizens. It later turned into a mass movement, which included organizations like the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference). The Civil Rights Movement was a non-violent movement, employing civil disobedience and non-violent protestors to achieve their goals. The most prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement was Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. There were many

Led by Martin Luther King, Jr, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was a group of sixty black ministers and pastors that met in Atlanta to make plans to end discrimination in a non-violent, civil disobedient way. Their goal was to “redeem the soul of America” through peaceful resistance according to Dr. King, "because we have no moral choice, before God, but

The Civil Rights Movement, which turned ten in 1964, grew worse as the 1960s neared the halfway mark. It was at this time where rivalries were mad, only to be pushed aside so groups can work together to get to one goal: gaining civil rights African-Americans have been fighting for since the Black Codes were put into place in the 1870s. With this, Student Nonviolent Coordinate Committee (SNCC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and many other organizations created under one of these group’s members worked together to pave way for African-American civil rights during these times. While they did have the nonviolent strategy through and through, the only

Following the non-violent principles of Gandhi, King ignited hope into the eyes of thousands of African Americans for equal rights. Early in his career he realized that non-violent protest was the most efficient way of achieving his goal. He stated that: "I had come to see early that the Christian doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of non-violence was one of the most potent weapons available to the Negro in his struggle for freedom." In seeking to continue and expand the non-violent struggle against discrimination, King, along with other Black ministers, set up the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. As a result of his consistent commitment to nonviolence, black college students began to launch a series of sit-ins at lunch counters and public places where segregation was existent (King 39).

Under the leadership of Martin Luther King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), bought the Black Civil Rights Movement and his desegregation concepts to Birmingham in 1963 for several reasons. The most pivotal of these reasons being his African American racial status and his Christian faith which drove him to fight for the rights his people deserved.

“The S.C.L.C is an African-American civil rights organization, joined the SNCC in a desegregated coalition called “the Albany Movement” in 1961-1962.”- Southern Christian Leadership Conference. (2017, March 06). Retrieved March 07, 2017. “This Movement was formed in Albany, Georgia on November 17, 1961 by many local activists, the S.N.C.C, and the N.A.A.C.P, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (an organization that protest black inequality and racial injustice, led by William G. Anderson, a local black Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and founded by black and white activists).”- Albany Movement. (2017, February 16). Retrieved March 07, 2017. “In 1962 the S.N.C.C, N.A.A.C.P and the Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E) helped organize the Freedom Summer campaign which had a purpose of ending the political disenfranchisement of African Americans in the Deep South.”- Congress of Racial Equality. (2017, March 06). Retrieved March 07,

Meanwhile, in 1963 King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), continued to fight for civil rights but this time they marched to Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham was the worst city for the blacks in the south. King went to the city’s leaders and demanded that they change the laws about public places being segregated, but the leaders of Birmingham refused to change. Many blacks were afraid to protest because they were scared that they would end up in jail. King responded with, “If the road to freedom leader through the jailhouse … then, turnkey, swing wide the gates!” (Hakim 18). On April 12, 1963 King led a march down the streets of Birmingham. They headed towards City Hall, but never made it because the police stopped the

As head of the South Christians Leadership Conferences (SCLC), Martin L. King, Junior., in the year 1963 acknowledged Birmingham, Alabama, as "possibly the most carefully segregated city in the United States". His decision to make Birmingham the next battlefield on which to implement his nonviolent civil disobedience strategy brought him condemnation and criticism from fellow

would not be seen involved in any boycotts or protest but after taking part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, several civil activist elected him president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). The Montgomery Bus Boycott was the MIA’s idea of boycotting the buses and all other types of transportation in protest to Rosa Park’s arrest (“Martin Luther”). This protest started the chain of events that would change how Americans see society and how it is structured. Near the end of the boycott, pastors from eleven southern states met at Martin’s Church, the Ebenezer Baptist Church. They wanted to create a permanent organization of African American Ministers to create civil rights activities and protest in the South. This organization became widely known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) (“Martin Luther”). The purpose of this organization was to create something of a safe haven for African Americans, in hope that they would not feel defenseless. King connected with other members of the SCLS and created a plan that would present himself as the most influential man in the 1960 - the March on Washington with A. Philip Randolph on August 28, 1963. At the end of this March, several SCLC members and Civil Rights Leaders including himself, gave speeches to an enormous crowd on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (“Martin Luther”). These speeches laid down the most important stepping stones to changing how Americans

He was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, a nonprofit organization aiming to redeem “the soul of America” through nonviolent resistance. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. ed a nonviolent campaign aimed at Birmingham, Alabama, which was known as the one of the most segregated city in the United States during that time. During this campaign, Martin Luther King Jr. advocated nonviolence in “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”. Later on, the SCLC decided to use young children in demonstrations. However, more than 1,000 children were attacked by police troops. The images of children being assaulted by dogs and water hoses were captured