Civil Rights Group Struggles To Remain Relevant : NPR: Hooks and Height were longtime leaders of the movement age — the organizations that were in the forefront of the fight for equal rights. These days, those organizations are struggling to stay relevant.
And nowhere is that struggle more evident than in the organization founded by Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Just answering questions about the SCLC is a challenge these days. Take last week when two factions of the group held dueling board meetings.
Board member Bernard Lafayette: 'The meeting of the board, the national board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is here in Atlanta.'
And hundreds of miles away in rural Eutaw, Ala., board member Markel Hutchins: 'This is the only official meeting of the national board of directors of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.'
The venerable civil rights group has been embroiled in a power struggle for months — ever since it elected Bernice King to be president of the organization her father helped form. That was October and she's yet to be installed, and has not returned phone calls from NPR.
