SNCC, CORE, and SCLC: Civil Rights Activism 1954–1964

Three Organizations, One Movement

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was organized for the express purpose of taking real action against segregation laws throughout the South. The primary action advocated by the group, however, was really a non-action — boycotting. While this finally proved effective in Montgomery, Alabama, and eventually in other locales, many activists believed that this method was still too slow and non-confrontational. Though they practiced methods of nonviolence for most of their existence, the younger radicals who became members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) took more direct action than did their counterparts in the SCLC.

These differences were not especially significant throughout most of the 1960s. Though the actions of the SNCC and CORE brought more attention to many of the Jim Crow laws than did the SCLC, the leadership was not as prominent, and these groups were helping to focus attention on an agenda shared by the older and more established members of the SCLC. Rightly or wrongly, it was those leaders — especially Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — who had the ear of the national public, both among most African Americans and certainly among white sympathizers. Given the close alignment of the groups' ideals, the more direct actions of the SNCC and CORE did not lead to any significant conflict with the SCLC.

Tactical Differences Between SNCC, CORE, and the SCLC

That said, more direct action tends to produce more direct results. The sit-ins and Freedom Rides organized by the SNCC and CORE galvanized attention and passion throughout the Civil Rights movement.

Despite the continued struggle for true equality since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the decade leading up to that Act's passage must be considered one of the most successful in the timeline of the Civil Rights movement. Beginning with the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and culminating with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this decade saw the eradication of many Jim Crow laws. Though the Act only marked the beginning of achieving legal equality — with many court battles still to be fought — it was a major and necessary step forward.

The Decade of Progress: 1954–1964

The Montgomery Bus Boycott, the formation of the SCLC and SNCC, and the many sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, libraries, parks, and pools that are remembered as milestones of the Civil Rights movement all occurred in the years between 1954 and 1964. These actions led to direct changes in policy and law, with shifts in public sentiment to follow — slower, to be sure, but following nonetheless. The sit-ins and Freedom Rides, in addition to changing policy, also brought international attention to the level of racial inequality that was senselessly practiced in the United States prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The nonviolent nature of the majority of these protests made it very easy to discern the right and wrong sides of the situation, which made the political pressure for change that much greater.

It is true that racial equality still does not fully exist in this country, but that does not mean the most prominent decade in Civil Rights history was not successful. It provided a clear step forward where none had existed for decades.