Civil Rights Organizations

The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most important and significant developments of 20th century US history. The movement was made possible by a variety of Civil Rights organizations that collected activists and organized protests, marches, and legal action to achieve far-reaching changes in US society. Learn about some of the most important Civil Rights organizations here.

Civil Rights Organizations Definition

The best Civil Rights organizations definition is a broad one that defines a Civil Rights organization as any entity, usually a nonprofit group, that seeks to effect change by promoting greater Civil Rights. Civil Rights organizations may be focused more broadly or may focus on advocating for a particular group. They may be focused more on public demonstrations, influencing legislation, or promoting legal action through the court system, or on all of these methods.

Fig. 1 - TheMarch on Washington of 1963, organized by several Civil Rights organizations.

Civil Rights Organizations in USA

For the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on Civil Rights organizations in the USA, with a particular focus on the organizations that were fundamental to the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, when many significant gains were made. There are countless Civil Rights organizations in the USA, many of which remain active today. However, there are some that stand out as particularly important.

Black Civil Rights Organizations

When considering the Civil Rights organizations in the USA, black Civil Rights organizations stand out as highly important. This importance is due to their outsize impact and leading role during the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s.

NAACP

The NAACP, or National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is one of the oldest, and arguable the most important, of the Civil Rights organizations in the USA.

It was founded in 1909 by a group of important early activists, including W.E.B. Dubois and Ida B. Wells, and grew out of the Niagara Movement. It focused primarily on promoting the end of race-based discrimination through political lobbying efforts and legal strategies.

Its victory in the Brown v. Board of Education court case, that declared segregation of schools unconstitutional in 1954, was an important catalyst to the broader Civil Rights movement that took place in the 1960s. Its organizing and lobbying power also played an important role in the eventual passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, although it is often overshadowed by the direct-action campaigns of other Civil Rights organizations in the 1960s.

Fig. 2 - NAACP leaders photographed in 1956.

CORE

CORE, or the Congress of Racial Equality, was founded in 1942 and advocated for the equality of all individuals regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, however it was especially important as a black Civil Rights organization.

CORE organized chapters throughout the country, but with a particular focus on the Jim Crow South, with democratically elected leaders modeled after trade unions. One of their most important early actions was the organization of the first Freedom Rides in 1947, which inspired later similar bus rides through the segregated south in the early 1960s. These campaigns received widespread publicity and sympathy, especially when they were met with violent reactions, such as the firebombing of buses and jailing of activists.

CORE worked with SNCC and other Civil Rights organizations in organizing the Freedom Rides and similar campaigns such as the Freedom Summer of 1964.

SNCC

SNCC, or the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was one of the most active Civil Rights organizations of the 1960s. It was the main group that mobilized university students during the Civil Rights movement and was founded as part of the legacy of student led sit-ins at lunch counters and was formally founded in 1960.

It formed out of a conference of students organized by the SCLC and CORE at Shaw University. Though it remained closely associated with and worked with these groups, it did consider itself independent and at times clashed with the top-down leadership of Martin Luther King's SCLC and adopted a democratic decision-making structure.

SNCC focused primarily on direct action and nonviolent civil disobedience. It played an important role in organizing the Freedom Rides, the Freedom Summer, the March on Washington, the March to Selma, and on the ground voter registration campaigns.

By 1965, the group had become increasingly splintered with differing goals and organizational strategies. Some activists joined the more radical Black Panther Party, while other, more moderate ones, joined with the now desegregated Democratic Party, and by 1970 the group had basically dissolved.

Fig. 3 - A sit-in at Woolworth's lunch counter in Durham, NC, part of the organizing effort that led to the formation of SNCC

SCLC

The SCLC, or Southern Christian Leadership Conferences, is the most well-known and celebrated of the black Civil Rights organizations of the 1960s. It was led by Martin Luther King, Jr., and was founded in 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia, after the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The SCLC had a central elected board and founded affiliate chapters throughout the South. It was partly inspired by Billy Graham's evangelical movement. The SCLC, along with SNCC, was fundamental in promoting the use of direct action and nonviolent protest and civil disobedience as a strategy to effect change, contrasting with the more traditional approach through political lobbying and court battles like that taken by the NAACP. The idea that the church should play a key role in organizing protest was also controversial at first but proved to be highly effective.

The 1963 Birmingham Campaign launched the SCLC to national prominence, which was further solidified by King's "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington later that year. The Selma Campaign in 1965 further highlighted the group's outsize influence and importance to the national movement.

After its achievement of desegregation and voting rights, it became increasingly involved with the promotion of economic justice with its Poor People's Campaign of 1968. After King's assassination, his close associate Ralph Abernathy led the organization.

While at first seen as more radical than traditional Civil Rights organizations like the NAACP, the SCLC eventually came to be seen as more moderate compared to SNCC and other more militant Civil Rights organizations.

Fig. 4 - Martin Luther King Jr, leader of the SCLC and Malcolm X

Black Panther Party

The most well-known of the more militant black Civil Rights organizations was the Black Panther Party or BPP. Unlike many of the other prominent black Civil Rights organizations, the Black Panther Party focused many of its activities in the north, where large numbers of African American had moved during the Great Migration.

The BPP was a self-identified Marxist organization and advocated for social revolution. It also took a more hardline stance than the nonviolent strategies employed by the SCLC and SNCC, calling for activists to openly carry firearms and use violence to defend themselves if necessary. Their approach and rhetoric were more closely aligned with Malcolm X than with Martin Luther King. They also were vocal opponents of the Vietnam War and the military draft.

They were therefore heavily targeted for repression by the US government. Several prominent leaders were killed in clashes with police, and the group's tactics and legacy remain controversial today, with some historians seeing them as highly influential in promoting black nationalism and pride and others seeing them as achieving little real gains compared to other black Civil Rights organizations.

Other Civil Rights Organizations

It was not only black Civil Rights organizations that were influential among Civil Rights organizations in the 1960s. Below, learn about some other important Civil Rights organizations in the USA that advocated for other minorities.

Mexican American Political Association

The Mexican American Political Association, or MAPA, was organized in California in 1960. Its goal was to promote the interests of Latino and Spanish-speaking immigrants, the majority of whom were Mexican, and give them greater voice and participation in US politics.

It was active in the Civil Rights movement and the Chicano Movement, qualifying it as one of the most important Latino Civil Rights organizations. It organized voter registration and support for both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and also worked to elect Latinos to public office and place them in leadership positions in politics more broadly.

Fig. 5 - Farm workers march in favor of Mexican and Latino Civil Rigths.

American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement, or AIM, was founded in Minnesota in 1968. With the broader Civil Rights Movement underway, Native Americans also desired to address long-standing discrimination and neglect for their communities. They protested the poor treatment of Native American communities and sought greater control over their destiny.

Their organization resulted in the occupation of the abandoned prison on Alcatraz and the takeover of the community of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, chosen as a symbolic site due to the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. They also organized a march on Washington known as the Trail of Broken Treaties. They continue to work on advocating for American Indian Civil Rights and implementing community development and social programs today.

Fig 6 - A tipi set up during the march on Washington by the American Indian Movement..

National Indian Youth Council

The National India Youth Council, or NIYC, was the first Native American Civil Rights organization run by students. In the 1960s, it was very active as a Civil Rights organization. Among its achievements was the preservation of tribal fishing rights, and they also helped communities fighting against environmental damage from practices such as strip mining on reservation and tribal lands.

Civil Rights and Liberties Organizations

The Civil Rights Movement is most closely associated with the movement by minority groups to ensure the protection of their Civil Rights and end discrimination, but there are also some Civil Rights and Liberty organizations that focused on protecting the civil liberties of all people.

The most outstanding of these is the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, which focuses primarily on bringing lawsuits against laws they consider to be unfair restrictions on freedom of speech and thought. They are also a strong advocate against police and law enforcement encroachment on US citizens' civil liberties.

Achievements of Civil Rights Organization in the 1960s

The 1960s are often seen as the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement, with good reason. There were a number of important achievements of Civil Rights Organizations in the 1960s.

Among these are the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed legal discrimination because of race, age, gender, national origin, and sexual orientation, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed unfair voter registration requirements. The Civil Rights organizations of the 1960s are generally seen as being largely successful in achieving equality in front of the law.

Although less concrete, the violent response to protests and the success of these Civil Rights organizations in highlighting injustice towards minorities helped turn the majority of public opinion against discrimination and towards a more integrated and fairer society.

In other areas, such as economic and social justice, Civil Rights organizations have been less successful as the Equal Rights Amendment was never passed and addressing historic economic inequality has been difficult.