Nicaragua with Daniel Ortega, 1979

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) photographs sub-series contains photographs and reproductions of images of activities, events and operations of the SCLC national office. Photographs were primarily organized and labeled by topic by SCLC staff. Images were mainly used for inclusion in SCLC publications including the SCLC magazine and other publicity. Many of the photographs in this sub-series were undated. Archivists grouped the undated photographs together by content; then labeled and assigned circa date ranges based on the context clues in the images.

Of particular interest are photographs from the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom (1957), photographs from the founding and operation of Operation Breadbasket (1962-1968, 1969), an organization started by SCLC to improve the economic conditions of Black communities throughout the United States; images of the Citizenship Education Program (1963-1972), which educated potential African-American voters; images of the Selma to Montgomery marches, known as “Bloody Sunday,” (1965) in which protesters were attacked by police; photographs from the March on Washington (1963); the Poor People’s Campaign (1968); images related to SCLC’s trip to Russia (1972); images of a car windshield shattered by a bullet from the Ku-Klux Klan (1979); and several photographs from SCLC National Conventions (1973-1997).