Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is a civil rights organization in the United States. It works to gain equal rights for African Americans and other minority groups through nonviolent civil protest and community development programs. The SCLC also focuses on internal problems of the black community, including crime and drug abuse. Most SCLC affiliates are church and civil rights groups.
Membership in the SCLC is open to all, but most of the organization’s leaders are black Protestant ministers. The SCLC is financed by contributions from individuals and groups. It also gets grants from foundations.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders founded the SCLC in 1957 to coordinate civil rights work in the South. King headed the SCLC from 1957 until his assassination in 1968. Headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia.
