Birth of the SCLC

In January 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called ministers from church-led movements in Southern cities, including Montgomery and Birmingham, to meet in Atlanta and form a national organization to support their efforts. Bayard Rustin, a civil rights activist, student of Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent methods, and advisor to Dr. King, sought to build on the Montgomery Bus Boycott’s success by creating a broader nonviolent strategy against all forms of racial discrimination. Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Rev. Joseph Lowery of Mobile, Rev. Ralph Abernathy of Montgomery, Rev. C.K. Steele of Tallahassee, and Dr. King organized 60 Black ministers, and their meeting led to a larger civil rights organization across the South. At first the ministers called it the Negro Leaders Conference on Nonviolent Integration, but when they met again in New Orleans in February 1957, they renamed it the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Because Rev. Shuttlesworth was a co-founder, he was appointed secretary. The organization expanded its focus beyond buses to ending all forms of racial segregation and sought to “redeem the soul of America.” It became the major organization at the heart of the modern American Civil Rights Movement, and under Rev. Shuttlesworth’s leadership, the ACMHR became its most active and effective affiliate among more than 85 local chapters.

Birmingham, Alabama · United States