The Civil Rights Movement:
Leaders and Strategies
NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Year Founded: 1910 (grew out of Niagara
Movement of early 1900s)
People Associated w/ Org: W.E.B. duBois,
Thurgood Marshall, Daisy Bates, Medgar
Evers, Rosa Parks
Interracial?: Yes!
DuBois and the NAACP in 1929
Goals of the NAACP
• Wanted to promote racial equality, remove
obstacles to voting for all Americans, and
secure full legal equality.
• Put an end to lynching.
• Make use of the U.S. court system to
promote change.
Successes of the NAACP
• Helped bring two anti-lynching
laws to Congress in the 1930s.
• Won a number of legal battles in
housing and education (Brown v.
Board of Education, admission of
James Meredith to Ole Miss in
1962).
• Helped integrate Little Rock High
School.
• Prosecuted Emmett Till’s
murderers.
Photos from Emmett
Till’s trial: The all-white
jury (above) and Milam
and Bryant with their
two sons leaving the
courthouse after being
acquitted (left).
CORE
Congress of Racial Equality
Year Founded: 1942 (founded by pacifists)
People Associated w/ Org: James Farmer
Interracial?: Yes!
Goals of CORE
• Bring about change through peaceful
confrontation and interracial cooperation.
Successes of CORE
• Organized demonstrations against segregation in
Detroit and Chicago during WWII.
• Introduced the concept of a sit-in in 1943.
• Helped launch the Freedom Rides in 1961 (which
they later abandoned because they could not find
a driver willing to drive them through the South).
• Helped plan the March on Washington and the
march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
Various images of sit-ins.
SCLC
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Year Founded: 1957 (founded by ministers
after their success with Montgomery Bus
Boycott)
People Associated w/ Org: Martin Luther
King, Jr., Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth
Interracial?: Yes!
Goals of SCLC
• Wanted African Americans to “assert their human
dignity” and to refuse “further cooperation with
evil.”
• Used non-violence as a way to “transform
weakness into strength and breed courage in the
face of danger.” (inspired by Ghandi)
• Shifted focus of Civil Rights Movement to the
South—other civil rights organizations had been
dominated by Northerners.
Successes of SCLC
• Helped plan “Project C” in
Birmingham, AL in 1963 (where
police chief Eugene “Bull”
Connor used police dogs and
fire hoses against protestors).
• Helped organize the March on
Washington in 1963 and the
march from Selma to
Washington in 1965.
• Often helped to call attention to
the movement through
speeches and appearances.
Birmingham, 1963
SNCC (“Snick”)
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
Year Founded: 1960 (organized at a SCLC
conference for students who were active in
the movement)
People Associated w/ Org: John Lewis,
Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Bob
Moses, Ella Baker
Interracial?: Yes!
Goals of SNCC
• Set up as a way for students to play a more
pronounced role in the Civil Rights Movement.
• More militant and willing to resort to more extreme
measures to achieve immediate change than older
organizations who sought gradual change.
• In the mid to late 1960s, some SNCC members
abandoned non-violence and sought to make SNCC
all black.
• Focused on grassroots organizing—moved into local
communities and helped people effect change on
their own (with the help and guidance of SNCC
workers)—like voter registration campaigns (as
opposed to the one-leader model).
Successes of SNCC
• Took over the Freedom Rides when CORE
abandoned them in 1961.
• Helped organized March on Washington in 1963.
• Participated in and helped plan Freedom
Summer in 1964.
• Helped newly registered Mississippi voters
organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party in 1964.
• Responsible for a lot of grassroots organizing
and voter registration.
Freedom Rides
March on Washington
Black Power / Black Panthers
Year Founded: ideas originated in 1960s;
political party formed in 1966
People Associated w/ Org: Malcolm X,
Stokely Carmichael, Huey P. Newton
Interracial?: No!
Goals of Black Panthers
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Wanted African Americans to lead their own communities.
Demanded that the federal government rebuild the nation’s
ghettos in repayment for years of discrimination.
Worked to develop a sense of civil pride i.e. “Black is
beautiful.”
Wanted restitution for years of slave labor and mass
murder.
Education to give black people knowledge of self and in
order to expose the true history of African-Americans and
American society.
Release from prison for all black people because they have
not received a fair and impartial trial.
Did NOT want integration; rather separate but TRULY equal
—a black society NOT dependent on whites for success.
Successes of the Black Panthers
• Gained attention for the Civil Rights
Movement and gave it a sense of
immediacy.
• Signified split in Civil Rights Movement
between radical groups and more
conservative organizations.
• Empowered many African Americans to
make a difference.