Southern Conference Educational Fund Explained

Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF)
Predecessor:	Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW)
Vat Id:	(for European organizations) -->
Purpose:	Promote social justice, civil rights, electoral reform
Headquarters:	New Orleans; Louisville; Atlanta
Region:	American South
Key People:	Anne Braden, Carl Braden
Staff:	Carol Hanisch, Bob Zellner, Dorothy Zellner

The Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) (1942–1981) was an organization that sought to promote social justice, civil rights, and electoral reform in the American South, particularly for African Americans. The organization began as the Education Fund of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW), before becoming an independent successor organization after the SCHW was disbanded in 1948.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

History

During 1948, the SCHW split over its support for presidential candidate: some members supported Progressive Party candidate Henry A. Wallace, others the Democratic Party's incumbent US President Harry S. Truman. SCHW officers met in November 1948 and voted to end the floundering organization. On November 20, 1948, SCHW leaders met at Monticello, Virginia, and passed a resolution to reformulate the organizations's last remaining group, the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), "committed solely to the ending of segregation in the south." The next day, November 21, 1948, SCHW leaders voted to disband.

In 1969, while serving as a staff member of SCEF, the civil rights activist and feminist Dorothy Zellner wrote a memo critiquing feminist consciousness-raising groups as "therapy" and for being insufficiently "political". In response, fellow SCEF member Carol Hanisch addressed an essay to the women's caucus of the SCEF in February 1969. Originally titled "Some Thoughts in Response to Dottie's Thoughts on a Women's Liberation Movement", the article was republished in 1970 in the book Notes from the Second Year: Women's Liberation under the title "The Personal is Political". The essay has since become widely circulated in feminist circles.^[5]

Due to financial problems, the organization disbanded in 1981.^[6]

Works

• Southern Patriot (SCEF newspaper)

See also

• Anne Braden
• Carl Braden
• Carol Hanisch
• Bob Zellner
• Dorothy Zellner
• New York Radical Women
• The personal is political

Notes and References

1. Book: Thomas A.. Krueger. And Promises to Keep: The Southern Conference for Human Welfare, 1938-1948. Vanderbilt University Press. 1967. 9780826510938. 2 August 2020.
2. Book: Virginia Foster. Durr. Virginia Durr. Hollinger F. . Barnard. Outside the Magic Circle : the Autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr. University of Alabama Press. 155 (red-baiting), 195, 243, 249, 257–258. 1985. 9780817302320. 2 August 2020.
3. Book: Egerton , John . Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Knopf. 73 (Dies Committee), 138, 166, 272, 285, 289–302. 1994. 9780679408086. 2 August 2020.
4. Book: McWhorter , Diane . Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. Simon and Schuster. 47–55, 57, 59, 65, 69, 75n, 76–77, 77n, 83, 89–92, 210, 122, 158, 189, 223, 248, 300, 317, 470, 555. 29 June 2001. 9780743226486. 2 August 2020.
5. Web site: Hanisch . Carol . The Personal Is Political: The Women's Liberation Movement classic with a new explanatory introduction . 2020-08-02 . January 2006.
6. Web site: Southern Conference Educational Fund records . . 2020-08-03.