Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, an important American lobbying organization for civil rights legislation in the last half of the 20th century.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) was formed in 1950 in response to the federal government's elimination of the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), an agency that had been created to end racially discriminatory hiring practices in the federal government.

After failing to persuade the administration of President Harry S. Truman to revive the FEPC, Roy Wilkins and Arnold Aronson of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) organized a conference in Washington, D.C. called the National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization.

Out of that conference, which was held on January 15, 1950, and was attended by 4000 African Americans representing over 100 civil rights groups, came the LCCR, a broad coalition dedicated to lobbying Congress for the passage of civil rights laws and serving as an information clearinghouse for its member organizations.

The LCCR became a force in U.S. politics, mainly through the efforts of Clarence Mitchell, its chief strategist, who was seen so often roaming the halls of Congress he became known as "the 101st Senator."

The LCCR played a pivotal role in the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its extension in 1976. The organization expanded its scope in the 1960s and 1970s, working with other minority groups such as women's, Asian American, and Latino groups.