Southern Christian Leadership Conference

In his 1967 speech at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. King issued this warning: “If America does not respond creatively to the challenge to banish racism, some future historian will have to say, that a great civilization died because it lacked the soul and commitment to make justice a reality for all men.”

He led seminars throughout the region and became a roving troubleshooter for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

He was co-chair of the Gathering, a group of 200 South Los Angeles clergymen who protested the Los Angeles police shooting of Eula Love in 1979, and headed the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Used by Black leaders as a tool of humiliation, it’s why he quit the powerful Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

He worked with King during the civil rights movement by setting up the local office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization that was led by King.