Created in 2004, it was created to be an environment of equality and for non-violent social change. Charlotte Mann, Mr. Linton Mann Sr. and Rev. Fred Taylor were instrumental in forming a Cobb County SCLC. Meetings were held at the Marietta Chapel AME Church, 312 Rigby St. in Marietta, GA- Rev Gloria Bennett, Pastor. Prior to 2011 meetings were held at Emmanuel Tabernacle Christian Church, 2692 Sa
ndy Plains Rd. NE, Suite A32, Marietta, GA- Rev. Dwight Graves, Pastor. Presently, meetings are still held at Emmanuel Tabernacle Christian Church, 1588 Willie Dr. Marietta, GA. Founded on Christian principles, the SCLC promotes an end to discrimination, increased voter registration, education and participation in community enhancement. The key issue is to improve the quality of life for all people. The SCLC as an organization continues to grow from achievements by the Montgomery Improvement Association of 1956, the SCLC‟s civil disobedience and direct action helped secure passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 while Lyndon Johnson was president. “I Have a Dream” continues to be a powerful speech. Now, “Transforming The Dream into Reality; What is Your Role?" is our 2013 theme. We must ensure that we “Keep The Dream Alive” for generations to come. The very beginnings of the SCLC can be traced back to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began on December 5, 1955 after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. The boycott lasted for 381 days and ended on December 21, 1956, with the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system. The boycott was carried out by the newly established Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). Martin Luther King, Jr. served as President and Ralph David Abernathy served as Program Director. It was one of history’s most dramatic and massive nonviolent protests, stunning the nation and the world.The boycott was also a signal to Black America to begin a new phase of the long struggle, a phase that came to be known as the modern civil rights movement. As bus boycotts spread across the South, leaders of the MIA and other protest groups met in Atlanta on January 10 – 11, 1957, to form a regional organization and coordinate protest activities across the South.Despite a bombing of the home and church of Ralph David Abernathy during the Atlanta meeting, 60 persons from 10 states assembled and announced the founding of the Southern Leadership Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration. They issued a document declaring that civil rights are essential to democracy, that segregation must end, and that all Black people should reject segregation absolutely and nonviolently. Further organizing was done at a meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 14, 1957. The organization shortened its name to Southern Leadership Conference, established an Executive Board of Directors, and elected officers, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as President, Dr. Ralph David Abernathy as Financial Secretary-Treasurer, Rev. Steele of Tallahassee, Florida as Vice President, Rev. T. J. Jemison of Baton Rouge, Louisiana as Secretary, and Attorney I. M. Augustine of New Orleans, Louisiana as General Counsel. At its first convention in Montgomery in August 1957, the Southern Leadership Conference adopted the current name, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Basic decisions made by the founders at these early meeting included the adoption of nonviolent mass action as the cornerstone of strategy, the affiliation of local community organizations with SCLC across the South, and a determination to make the SCLC movement open to all, regardless of race, religion, or background. SCLC is a now a nationwide organization made up of chapters and affiliates with programs that affect the lives of all Americans: north, south, east and west. Its sphere of influence and interests has become international in scope because the human rights movement transcends national boundaries.
