The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights records

Repository: Library of Congress. Manuscript Division

Collection Description (Extant): The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a national association of civil rights organizations, was founded 1949-1950 by Roy Wilkins (chairman), A. Philip Randolph, and Arnold Aronson. The records include correspondence, memoranda, minutes, notes of meetings, position papers, reports, financial records, congressional testimony, clippings, printed material, and other records documenting efforts by the organization to lobby for and monitor enforcement of civil rights legislation at the national level.

Part I of the records of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) spans the years 1922-1981 with the majority of the material concentrated between 1960 and 1978. The records reflect the post-World War II civil rights movement, development of federal civil rights legislation during the 1960s and 1970s, and the internal administration of the LCCR. Series include General Correspondence, Administrative File, Subject File, Organizations File, Legislative File, Financial Papers, and Miscellany. Prominent among the Organizations File is material relating to the Advisory Council of National Organizations, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the NAACP and government agencies including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The Subject File includes material relating to federal civil rights and voting rights legislation, school desegregation, and the nomination of G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court.

Part II of the records of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights spans the years 1943-1991 with the bulk of the items dating between the 1975 and 1987. The records document the organization's lobbying for national civil rights legislation and includes correspondence, memoranda, minutes and notes of meetings, position papers, reports, financial records, and assorted background material such as press releases, reports, congressional testimony, clippings, and printed matter complementing the original acquisition.

Sound recordings of annual meetings for 1971 and 1976-1983, including prominent speakers such as Jimmy Carter, Philip Hart, Jacob Javits, George Meany, Walter Mondale, Joseph Rauh, and Leonard Woodcock, were transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library.

Access Copy Note: The records of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.

Sound recordings have been transferred to the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division where they are identified as part of these papers.

Date(s): 1943-1991

Digital Status: No

Existing IDs: MSS52480

Extent: 90,000 items ; 254 containers ; 101.6 linear feet

Finding Aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms997011

Language: English

Rights (Extant): The status of copyright in the unpublished writings in the records of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).

Subjects:

African Americans--Civil rights
Civil rights--Cases
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Randolph, A. Philip (Asa Philip), 1889-1979
Wilkins, Roy, 1901-1981

Genres:

Manuscripts
Sound recordings
Speeches