Part I

Part I of the records of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) spans the years 1922-1981 with the majority of the material concentrated between 1960 and 1978. The records reflect the post-World War II civil rights movement, development of federal civil rights legislation during the 1960s and 1970s, and the internal administration of the LCCR. Series include General Correspondence , Administrative File , Subject File , Organizations File , Legislative File , Financial Papers , and Miscellany . Prominent among the Organizations File is material relating to the Advisory Council of National Organizations, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the NAACP and government agencies including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The Subject File includes material relating to federal civil rights and voting rights legislation, school desegregation, and the nomination of G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court.

The LCCR developed largely as the result of efforts by civil rights leaders to coordinate and mobilize disparate advocacy groups. Its mission is to lobby for civil rights laws and to monitor their enforcement. Consisting of autonomous member groups and acting only on the basis of consensus, the LCCR mainly pursues issues of national importance. As the conference has expanded, it has increased the scope of its mission. Recent efforts include active participation in the confirmation process of federal judges and other public officials charged with interpreting the law.

Part II

Part II of the records of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights spans the years 1943-1991 with the bulk of the items dating from 1975 to 1987. The records document the organization's lobbying for national civil rights legislation and includes correspondence, memoranda, minutes and notes of meetings, position papers, reports, financial records, and assorted background material such as press releases, reports, congressional testimony, clippings, and printed matter complementing the original acquisition.

The Issues File reflects the concern of the LCCR in the 1980s that the Reagan administration and the federal judiciary did not uphold or support previous civil rights legislation. Another concern related to the possible reduction of federal funding of social programs. Appointed to the new position of executive director in March 1981, Ralph G. Neas guided the LCCR through the 1980s. A substantial amount of material in this file traces lobbying campaigns for civil rights bills culminating in the passage of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 restoring prohibitions on the use of federal funding in programs discriminating against minorities, women, disabled persons, and older Americans. Earlier prohibitions had been stripped from existing civil rights law by the Supreme Court's decision in Grove City College v. Bell in 1984. The Voting Rights Act extension (1981-1982) and the Fair Housing Amendments Act (1988) are other major legislative initiatives documented in the Issues File. The file for the Voting Rights Act extension (1981-1982) contains a day-by-day account by Neas of the successful campaign for this legislation.

Another important topic in the Issues File relates to Senate confirmation of judges and other federal officials. Especially well documented is the major lobbying campaign launched by the LCCR in 1987 to defeat the nomination of Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court. Included are correspondence, memoranda, transcripts of testimony, contact lists, mailings, reports and analyses, and miscellaneous background material collected from outside sources. Other Senate confirmations featured are those of Anthony M. Kennedy, Daniel Manion, Edwin Meese, William H. Rehnquist, William Bradford Reynolds, and Jefferson B. Sessions.

Among the principal government agencies whose activities the LCCR monitored were the Justice Department, Commission on Civil Rights, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The LCCR's report, "Without Justice" (1983), is located under the heading "Justice Department." Other prominent topics include affirmative action, communications, disabled persons, District of Columbia (home rule), economic equity, education, employment, Equal Rights Amendment, the federal budget, insurance, and school desegregation.

The Administrative File is composed largely of the records of the LCCR's Compliance and Enforcement Committee. Charged with reviewing the administration of civil rights law by government agencies, this committee appointed task forces to monitor education, employment, health, housing, and women's issues. William L. Taylor and Glenda Sloan of the Center for National Policy Review, who served respectively as chairperson of the committee and chairperson of the Housing Task Force, were frequent correspondents in the records of the committee. Other committee material includes memoranda, reports, analyses, and background material. Additional material in the Administrative File includes a chronological file of correspondence and memoranda, notes and memoranda concerning annual meetings, periodic legislative updates known as "Legislative Memos," minutes and notes of executive committee meetings, press releases, civil rights voting records of members of Congress, and items related to the Leadership Conference Education Fund. Sound recordings of annual meetings for 1971 and 1976-1983, including prominent speakers such as Jimmy Carter, Philip Hart, Jacob Javits, George Meany, Walter Mondale, Joseph Rauh, and Leonard Woodcock, were transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library.

The Organizations File contains correspondence and printed material pertaining to member and prospective member organizations. The primary focus is on membership status and the collection of dues.

Frequent or prominent correspondents in Part II include LCCR officials Arnold Aronson, secretary; Marvin Harold Caplan, staff director; Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., chairman; Ralph G. Neas, executive director; Natalie P. Shear, public affairs director; Glenda Sloan, Housing Task Force; and William L. Taylor of the Center for National Policy Review.

Part III

Part III of the records of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights spans the years 1957-2014, with the bulk of the material dating from 1985 to 2010. The records are organized into the following series: Administrative File, Issues File, Organizations File, and Oversize.

The Administrative File comprises mostly files pertaining to annual and Executive Committee meetings, records from the offices of individual staff members, and files of the Leadership Conference Education Fund. The files of LCCR directors Wade Henderson and Ralph G. Neas include clippings, correspondence, reports, speeches and interviews, writings, and topical files. Files listed under "unidentified staff member file" may have been part of Wade Henderson's files, but more likely belonged to LCCR's executive vice president Nancy M. Zirkin. June Zeitlin's files document her involvement with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Task Force and also contain her handwritten notebooks. CEDAW is an international treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and is sometimes referred to as the international bill of rights for women. The files of Sakira Cook cover the topics of racial profiling, fair sentencing, and captital punishment. The Leadership Conference Education Fund (LCEF) files document their campaigns and work in various areas including affirmative action, civil rights, diversity curriculum, education reform, equal opportunity, fair housing, and hate crimes. The large files of LCEF staff member Anjali Thukar-Mittal were kept together while the smaller file of Corrine M. Yu relating to CommUNITY 2000 and Partners Against Hate were arranged under the headings fair housing campaigns and hate crimes. Many topics covered in the Administrative File are also contained in the Issues File. Digital files were also processed as part of the Administrative File.

The Issues File reflects the LCCR's efforts to halt the rollback of civil rights legislation by the federal judiciary; monitor the enforcement of civil rights laws by the Department of Justice, Commission on Civil Rights, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; lobby for national civil rights legislation; and campaign for and against Senate nominations of judges and other government officials. A major push by the LCCR was for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1990. This legislation appeared in reaction to a series of decisions by the Supreme Court in 1989 that impacted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 relating to employment. Those cases included Lorance v. AT&T Technologies, Martin v. Wilks, Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, and Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio. Further information on the cases is located under the heading of employment. President George Bush vetoed the act, but it was later passed as the Civil Rights Act of 1991. In the area of communications, the LCCR addressed issues such as the internet, the coming of digital television, the digital divide among segments of society, and diversity in local radio broadcasting. Another subject of concern to the organization was housing. Here the LCCR worked for legislation to end loan, mortgage, and insurance discrimination, help the disabled, and extend vouchers. While some topical files existed in the collection, the Issues File was largely created from material that had never been organized. Digital files were also processed as part of the Issues File.

The Organizations File contains correspondence, membership forms, and printed matter pertaining to member and prospective member organizations. The primary focus is on membership status and the collection of dues.