Abstract
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) grew out of the Montgomery bus boycott to become one of the leading organizations of the civil rights movement in the US. On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to relinquish her seat on a public bus to a white person. Local black clergy, activists, and the women's political council called a bus boycott. The boycott organization elected Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as its president. Tens of thousands participated in the nonviolent campaign, drawing violent reprisals from white supremacists and crippling Montgomery's bus system until they succeeded in integrating it in December 1956. Bayard Rustin wrote a series of working papers proposing a permanent organization to carry the movement to other cities. In January 1957, King, Rustin, Ella Baker, and 60 young black ministers met at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to form the SCLC. Coupling Christian ethics with activism, their goal was to “redeem the soul of America” through nonviolent resistance to Jim Crow. SCLC intentionally cultivated a principled but pragmatic image of King as a leader, capable of appealing to a wide range of interests. An association of organizations, with no individual members, the SCLC emphasized networking between black churches, supporting local action, and spreading civil rights struggle.
Published Version
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