- Browse All Southern Christian Leadership Conference The
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an American
civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its
first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The SCLC had a
large role in the American Civil Rights Movement. In January
1957, in the afterglow of the Montgomery Bus Boycott victory and
consultations with Bayard Rustin, Ella Baker, and others, Dr
King invited some 60 black ministers and leaders to Ebenezer
Church in Atlanta. Their goal was to form an organization to
coordinate and support nonviolent direct action as a method of
desegregating bus systems across the South. In addition to
Rustin and Baker, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth of Birmingham, Rev
Joseph Lowery of Mobile, Rev Ralph Abernathy of Montgomery, Rev
C.K. Steele of Tallahassee, all played key roles in this
meeting. On February 14, a follow-up meeting was held in New
Orleans. Out of these two meetings came a new organization with
Dr. King as its president. Initially call