February marks Black History Month. Follow the AJC this month for a series of short stories and videos and people, places and events that played a significant role in the development of black people in America.

No. 4

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In early 1957, less than a month after orchestrating victory in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King Jr. found himself in need of an organizational base to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action as a method of fighting racism. On Jan. 10, 1957, King invited Bayard Rustin and Ella Baker -- along with a host of ministers including, Joseph Lowery, Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth – to Ebenezer Baptist Church to talk about forming what would be known as the SCLC. King was elected president, a post he held until his death in 1968.

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FILE - Medgar Evers, Mississippi field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), poses for a photo, Aug. 9, 1955, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo, File)

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University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue said joining neighboring states to form a new accreditation agency will “keep Georgia’s universities among the best in the nation." (Jason Getz/AJC)

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC