Rise of the SCLC after the Montgomery Bus Boycott

  • Period: to

    Montgomery Bus Boycott takes place.

    This civil rights nonviolent protest happened in Montgomery, Alabama, where African Americans refused to ride public transportation to protest segregation.
  • Bayard Rustin contemplates expansion of nonviolent protest efforts in the south.

    Bayard Rustin questioned whether an organization was needed to help those in the south with these types of protests for civil rights, urging for nonviolence (Carson, 2008).
  • Southern Christian Leadership Conference Established

    Conference was established to help with nonviolent resistance of local protest groups in the south. This group was largely inspired by the Montgomery bus boycott.
  • Staff "trained local communities in the philosophy of Christian nonviolence" (Carson, 2008).

  • Period: to

    First major campaign started called the Crusade for Citizenship.

    "The campaign’s objective was to register thousands of disenfranchised voters in time for the 1958 and 1960 elections, with an emphasis on educating prospective voters" (Carson, 2008). This campaign was meant to double the vote for African Americans in the south.
  • Operation Breadbasket begins.

    This was an operation to help create jobs in Atlanta for the black community.
  • Helped with guidance in Birmingham campaign.

    This was a campaign in Alabama that made efforts in bringing attention to integration in Birmingham, Alabama.
  • SCLC aided the March on Washington movement.

    The SCLC brought visibility to this protest in Washington, leading to bills like the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act to pass (Carson, 2008).
  • Helped with guidance in Selma campaign.

    This was another campaign that took place in Selma, Alabama that was for civil rights in which the SCLC helped in the guidance of the protests.
  • Operation Breadbasket spreads to Chicago

    Dubbed as part of the Chicago Campaign, Operation Breadbasket spreads to Chicago.
  • Poor People's Campaign planning begins.

    Planning for this campaign underwent as a way "to push for federal legislation that would guarantee employment, income, and housing for economically marginalized people of all ethnicities" (Carson, 2008) in Washington, D.C..
  • MLK is assassinated.

    With the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the SCLC was stunted in their campaigns, especially ruining the Poor People's Campaign (Carson, 2008).
  • References

    Carson, C. (2008). Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King Encyclopedia | The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/southern-christian-leadership-conference-sclc