Southern+Christian+Leadership+Conference

adam smith =Southern Christian Leadership Conference=

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is a civil rights foundation formed in 1957 which had close ties to its first leader Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.

Founding
In 1957, with the aftermath of the victory of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, MLK invited some 60 prominent black leaders to Ebenezer Church in Atlanta with the goal to form an organization that would combat segregation and work as the focal point of MLK's campaigns. Originally, the SCLC's goals were to end complete segregation of busing but they expanded its focus beyond busses to ending all forms of segregation. During its early years, the SCLC struggled to gain popularity with the southern black community. Social activism in favor of racial equality faced fierce repression from police and the Ku Klux Klan. Churches and organizations who did support the SCLC faced economic retaliation, arson, and bombings so many pastors and ministers feared black retaliation in the community, therefore limiting the amount of protest that could possibly exist.

Birmingham:
the 1963 campaign in Alabama, unlike previous failed campaigns for SCLC, was an unprecedented success. The campaign focused on a single goal — the desegregation of Birmingham's downtown merchants — rather than total desegregation. This campaign was met with incredibly police retaliation, even to the point of jailing MLK, where he wrote his famous "Letters From Birmingham Jail" as a symbol for the Civil Rights movement and to further the movement he was so passionate about.

The most dramatic moments of the Birmingham campaign came on 2 May, when more than 1,000 Black children left school to join the demonstrations; hundreds were arrested. outrage for this led to the Kennedy administration banning discriminory hiring based on race, which completed the goal of the birmingham campaign.

March on Washington
The most famous of movements led by the SCLC was the march on washington, where they led almost 300,000 people up to The Linclon Memorial where MLK Gave his famous, "I Have a Dream" Speech, where he finally addressed the major picture of the civil rights movement and gave the inspiration to the public of the country, and not only the south. media type="custom" key="3618367"

Ending
Thus, the SCLC was a major player in the civil rights movement by desegregating the employment field of birmingham, supporting the civil school movement, and finally, working to forward King's progress through support and undying faith that still exists even today.