A Message From Reverend Eric P. Lee
Thank you for visiting the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles.
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 mission of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles is to promote the philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of non-violent progressive social change. Our roots extend deeply into the African American religious experience with its biblical vision of liberation of all humankind. Our goal is to realize the dream of freedom, justice, peace and equality for all by recognizing the inalienable dignity and worth of every human being. We accomplish this through the continued advocacy of justice for all people, regardless of social status, religious belief, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. We affirm nonviolence as the only reasonable basis for social change and interpersonal living. These two principles are reflected in our work.
Therefore, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles will always struggle against employment and housing discrimination, substandard health and human services and police abuse! We will always work for quality integrated education, full political participation, the economic rights of workers, equal pay for equal work, and the redress and reconciliation all international human conflicts and violations. The SCLC mission and mandate is unchanged: To organize and mobilize the strength of America’s moral consciousness.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles is committed to this vision and the Greater Los Angeles community.
