SCLC

SCLC - Southern Christian Leadership Conference

"In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is renewing its commitment to bring about the promise of "one nation, under God, indivisible" together with the commitment to activate the "strength to love" within the community of humankind." (Taken from their website)

The origin of SCLC can be tracked all the way back to the Montgomery bus boycott (1955-1956). The group was originally called the Southern Leadership Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration and was formed 1957 as an effect of the bus boycott declaring that civil rights are essential to democracy.

Basic decisions made by the founders at these early meeting included the adoption of nonviolent mass action as the cornerstone of strategy, the affiliation of local community organizations with SCLC across the South, and a determination to make the SCLC movement open to all, regardless of race, religion, or background.

SCLC is a now a nation wide organization made up of chapters and affiliates with programs that affect the lives of all Americans: north, south, east and west. Its sphere of influence and interests has become international in scope because the human rights movement transcends national boundaries.