The Many accomplishments Of the SCLC.

Allisa Balke-Zimmerman History March 16, 2010

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was a group organized to make the Civil Rights Act go national and not in a violent manor. They did anything and everything very patiently and in a belief of non-violence. This group as the name demonstrates was a group formed by the church. Many people have wondered how they could have had so much patience with the white men, women, and some of the teenagers, and kids. Patience is a virtue and they sure had patience in man and in God. Many people had a huge impact on the Civil Rights Act but The Southern Christian Leadership Conference had the most impact. The SCLC was founded right after the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the year of 1955 when Rosa Parks was arrested. Martin Luther King Jr. was the president of this organization and Ralph David Abernathy was the Program Director. When they started they had three wants, 1) White men to make a stand for them and not sit back and watch them suffer. 2) That blacks were to be given justice and to not get injustice.3) When someone entered they had to agree with nonviolence and their motto was not one hair of one head of the white person shall be harmed. (histroylearning.co.uk)They SCLC group decided to spread it throughout the southern states and encouraged blacks to join. The SCLC was involved in many marches and special events that had taken place back then. In Birmingham of 1963 there was a very peaceful march and no harm was being done whatsoever. The SCLC and Martin Luther King were in it. The government had sent the police to come and stop the march using the fire hose, their dogs to abuse them, and arrest them for their right called freedom of speech. On that day Martin Luther King was arrested for marching.

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While in jail he wrote a speech called Letter From Birmingham Jail. It was to the white men and women to stop the racism, to help them, and not stand by and watch. That specific event had a huge impact in the civil rights movement. That event which many Americans had seen on TV had made them weep and grieve for the blacks. There was a march called the Selma March. This march was about equal rights for voting. The percent of whites and blacks were half and half. So when the votes came in and 99% of the votes were people of white color, Martin Luther King Jr. knew that something was going wrong. He arrived there with some of the SCLC group and went to march and petition Governor George Wallace for equal voting rights. Another special event they were involved in was the March on Washington. While there, many whites and blacks joined hands together and while they were there Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous speech, I Have a Dream. These are only some of the events the SCLC was involved in. Today the SCLC is still around. They still hold meetings and do things for the community. For example they help people who are in turmoil and have no job to support their family. They try and cease poverty as the SCLC says, The marches will revive King's "Poor People's March," which he was planning on April 4, 1968, when a sniper's bullet cut his life short outside a hotel in Memphis (Vargas, Ramon).They still till this day march for the rights we are granted due to the Constitution of the United States. They still hold onto those words in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had said Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. (www.quotations.home.worldnet.att.net). They always cleave to what they believe in. They know their rights and they deserve every one of those rights, we all do.

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The SCLC is a group of very strong convictions. They cleave to their convictions like a baby cleaves to their mother. The SCLC follow the rules and make sure everyone is getting what they deserve. Martin Luther King Jr. had a huge impact on this group. Not only did he found the group, he encouraged them to be non-violent and to have patience with ethnicities. The SCLC not only wanted the freedom and rights, they wanted men and women of all color to join hands. The SCLC wanted us to not discriminate one another because of race or color. They wanted us to never look upon those things and look beyond that, look inside each and every person and realize there is more to them than just color and race. It matters of whats in your heart. Just remember who the ones that fought for our rights and went through pain and agony to get to where we are today. The SCLC created a national eye opener in the topics of racial discrimination and hardship.Its sphere of influence and interests has become international in scope because the human rights movement transcends national boundaries. (www.sclcnational.org). They have come so far from what they began as. Everyone looks up to this group as a role model for patience and understanding. Today the SCLC strives to do what is best for the world and for the American people. Although the racial issues are somewhat over, they still are true to their original assignment; to make the racial discrimination go national through non- violence.

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Work Cited Page

1. Luther King Jr., Martin. "Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes." 1.1 (1963): Letter From Birmingham. Web. 16 Mar 2010. <http://quotations.home.worldnet.att.net/drmartinlutherkingjr.html>. 2. "Our HIstory." n. pag. Web. 16 Mar 2010. <http://www.sclcnational.org/core/item/page.aspx?s=25461.0.0.2607>. 3. Ananayamous, . "Southern Christian Leadership Conference." (2000-2010): n. pag. Web. 16 Mar 2010. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/southern_christian_leadership

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