Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The Rev. Will D. Campbell was a poor white boy from Mississippi who preached his first sermon from a pulpit stocked with a Bible from the Ku Klux Klan. But this son of the segregated South - a self-avowed "good ol' boy with crazy ideas" - did not follow the conventional career path for a Southern Baptist minister in the 1950s. He became the only white man admitted to the founding meeting of the seminal Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. That same year, when nine black students attempted to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., he was one of three white ministers who guided them past a fierce white mob. Later, when civil rights workers targeted Nashville lunch counters, he rounded up sympathetic whites to nudge the business owners toward integration.

The Rev. Will D. Campbell was a poor white boy from Mississippi who preached his first sermon from a pulpit stocked with a Bible from the Ku Klux Klan. But this son of the segregated South - a self-avowed "good ol' boy with crazy ideas" - did not follow the conventional career path for a Southern Baptist minister in the 1950s. He became the only white man admitted to the founding meeting of the seminal Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. That same year, when nine black students attempted to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., he was one of three white ministers who guided them past a fierce white mob. Later, when civil rights workers targeted Nashville lunch counters, he rounded up sympathetic whites to nudge the business owners toward integration.

Richard Jackson was walking past the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's handsome $3-million headquarters this month, just blocks from the grave of its first president, Martin Luther King Jr. Jackson, an aspiring rap producer, hadn't heard about the outbreak of scandal and infighting rocking the storied civil rights group. But the 32-year-old also confessed, a little sheepishly, that he had trouble recalling their story at all: "Who are they, exactly?" he said. Such is the plight of the modern-day SCLC.

The Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, a blunt-talking preacher who braved beatings, bombings and fire-hosings to push Birmingham, Ala., to the forefront of the civil rights movement and advanced the historic fight with a confrontational strategy that often put him at odds with its most charismatic leader, died Wednesday. He was 89. Shuttlesworth had been in poor health for the last year and was hospitalized with breathing problems three weeks ago at Birmingham's Princeton Baptist Medical Center, where he died, said family spokeswoman Malena Cunningham.

The civil rights group founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. opened its five-day annual meeting Saturday, a year after the gathering was racked by turmoil so intense that police had to be called to keep the peace. As the Southern Christian Leadership Conference meeting began, members said they had restored the group's financial footing and planned to expand overseas in search of long-term stability. President Charles Steele Jr.

Forty-one years after his father co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Martin Luther King III was sworn in as its new leader and announced a membership drive to revitalize the image of the financially ailing organization. King, 40, replaced the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, whose 20-year reign was troubled by questions about the group's mission and difficulty in raising funds.

Three years ago, when Charles Steele Jr. became president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he worked out of a cramped headquarters without power or light. The embattled civil rights group's funds were scant, and so, too, was it's sense of mission. Its fortunes have since changed, and the organization that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. co-founded is marking its 50th anniversary today with the opening of a $3-million international headquarters here.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights group partly founded by Martin Luther King Jr., has threatened to fire the president of its Los Angeles chapter because he supports same-sex marriage. The Rev. Eric P. Lee, president of the local SCLC chapter for two years, became an outspoken advocate of same-sex marriage during the recent campaign against Proposition 8, an amendment to the state Constitution that banned such unions.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference announced it has joined the boycott of Colorado over a new state measure that prohibits enactment of anti-bias legislation protecting homosexuals. SCLC President Joseph E. Lowery said the civil rights organization endorsed the boycott because "we think it's just un-American to single out a class of people to deny them their civil rights."

The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, considered the dean of the civil rights movement, is resigning as leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization he co-founded with the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy Sr. and other clergymen. Inheriting a group in turmoil and in debt 20 years ago, Lowery, 74, guided it on a new course that embraced more mainstream social and economic polices and restored its financial health.

Richard Jackson was walking past the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's handsome $3-million headquarters this month, just blocks from the grave of its first president, Martin Luther King Jr. Jackson, an aspiring rap producer, hadn't heard about the outbreak of scandal and infighting rocking the storied civil rights group. But the 32-year-old also confessed, a little sheepishly, that he had trouble recalling their story at all: "Who are they, exactly?" he said. Such is the plight of the modern-day SCLC.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights group partly founded by Martin Luther King Jr., has threatened to fire the president of its Los Angeles chapter because he supports same-sex marriage. The Rev. Eric P. Lee, president of the local SCLC chapter for two years, became an outspoken advocate of same-sex marriage during the recent campaign against Proposition 8, an amendment to the state Constitution that banned such unions.

The Rev. Simmie Lee Harvey, 90, a civil rights stalwart who worked alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and helped plan the march on Washington in 1963, died Sept. 10 in New Orleans of complications from a stroke, according to Rhodes Funeral Home. He had been hospitalized for about two weeks. Harvey was a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was created in 1957 to advance racial equality. The Washington march he helped plan culminated in King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

At the end of it all, Daphna Ziman and the Rev. Eric Lee were joking about the good cry they had together, pledging to work together to help children, and hugging each other goodbye Thursday. The two, who clenched hands at one point during the conversation at Ziman's Beverly Hills home, had clearly gotten over the controversy that erupted around a speech Lee made at a banquet April 4.

An e-mail alleging anti-Semitic remarks by the local leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference set off a weeklong firestorm in the Jewish community that was only beginning to cool Friday. The e-mail was sent to friends April 4 by Jewish philanthropist Daphna Ziman after she attended an awards ceremony that day sponsored by the Western Province of Kappa Alpha Psi, a historically African American fraternity. She described the Rev.

Three years ago, when Charles Steele Jr. became president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he worked out of a cramped headquarters without power or light. The embattled civil rights group's funds were scant, and so, too, was it's sense of mission. Its fortunes have since changed, and the organization that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. co-founded is marking its 50th anniversary today with the opening of a $3-million international headquarters here.

Marchers in a cross-country pilgrimage for the poor stepped off from the small Memphis, Tenn., motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died 20 years ago. "We're trying to stir up the countryside. We're trying to bring people out to express their outrage about poverty," said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organization founded by King.

The civil rights group founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. opened its five-day annual meeting Saturday, a year after the gathering was racked by turmoil so intense that police had to be called to keep the peace. As the Southern Christian Leadership Conference meeting began, members said they had restored the group's financial footing and planned to expand overseas in search of long-term stability. President Charles Steele Jr.

More than 100,000 people are expected to line Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard this morning for the 19th annual Kingdom Day parade in honor of the slain civil rights leader. But the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a national organization that King founded, will not be among scores of parade participants. "Dr. King never led a parade," said the Rev. Norman Johnson, executive director of the conference's Los Angeles chapter.