The Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW) (1938–1948) was an organization that sought to promote

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

-type reforms to the South in terms of

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

, and

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. It folded due to funding problems and allegations of

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

sympathies; its successor was the former sub-group the Education Fund.

History

Background

During latter years of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, US President

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

(FDR) recognized that many New Deal programs were failing in the US South. In 1938, he convened a group of southern, liberal scholars and writers to investigate conditions. Their investigation resulted in ''A Report on the Economic Conditions of the South'', calling the South "the nation's number one economic problem" based on low wages (and resulting low incomes) as well as public services. Two members of the group were Joseph Gelders, an organizer for the CPUSA's

International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active ...

, and Lucy Randolph Mason, scion of the famed

Randolph family of Virginia The Randolph family of Virginia is a prominent political family, whose members contributed to the politics of Colonial Virginia and Virginia after it established statehood in June 1788, following the American Revolutionary War. They are descended ...

, then public-relations representative for the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of Labor unions in the United States, unions that organized workers in industrial unionism, industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in ...

("CIO") in the South. They advocated for a regional conference "to address the repression of civil liberties in southern cities," which both FDR and wife

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...

embraced.

Founding

On November 20, 1938, the Southern Conference for Human Welfare convened for the first time in the Municipal Auditorium of Birmingham, Alabama. Attendees numbered 1,200, a quarter of whom were African American. They included:

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Justice

Hugo Black Hugo Lafayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, ass ...

;

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

director

Aubrey Willis Williams Aubrey Willis Williams (August 23, 1890 – March 5, 1965) was an American social and civil rights activist who headed the National Youth Administration during the New Deal. Biography Aubrey Williams was born in Springville, Alabama, on August ...

civil rights activist Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

Mary McLeod Bethune Mary McLeod Bethune (; July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator, Philanthropy, philanthropist, Humanitarianism, humanitarian, Womanism, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in ...

Highlander Folk School The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West ...

co-founder James Dombrowski, Alabama governor

Bibb Graves David Bibb Graves (April 1, 1873 – March 14, 1942) was an American United States Democratic Party, Democratic politician and the List of governors of Alabama, 38th governor of Alabama 1927–1931 and 1935–1939, the first Alabama governor to ...

, and activist Virginia Foster Durr. SCHW's "interracial nature was particularly unsettling for many white southerners" and experienced disruption by segregationists, leading to negative publicity in local newspapers.

Activities

Many politicians soon left the SCHW due to public perception as a

Communist front A communist front (or a mass organization in communist parlance) is a political organization identified as a front organization, allied with or under the effective control of a communist party, the Communist International or other communist organ ...

. In her memoir, Virginia Durr recalled that the SCHW was "red-baited constantly." Attackers included prominent New York lawyer

Morris Ernst Morris Leopold Ernst (August 23, 1888 – May 21, 1976) was an American lawyer and prominent attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In public life, he defended and asserted the rights of Americans to privacy and freedom from c ...

of both the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

(ACLU) and National Lawyers Guild (NLG)–where Ernst had also led internal anti-communist efforts. SCHW also experienced a "chronic shortage" of funding. It cancelled its 1939 convention. It had a hard time paying meager salaries to staff. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, celebrities (e.g.,

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Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

) helped raise funding, which led to creation of a subsidiary Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), an educational and non-political arm, headed by James Dombrowski of the

. As SCEF formed, membership in SCHW declined. Labor unions, e.g., the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...

(AFL) and the CIO, already facing pressure from new regulations in the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, distanced themselves from the SCHW as a Communist-tainted, radical organization. Meanwhile, the SCHW refused to take a clear anti-Communist stance, which left it exposed to investigation by the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

(HUAC) (and earlier Dies Committee). Even "stalwart supporters" like Eleanor Roosevelt distanced themselves.

Disbanding

During 1948, the SCHW split over its support for presidential candidate: some members supported Progressive Party candidate

Henry A. Wallace Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) was the 33rd vice president of the United States, serving from 1941 to 1945, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He served as the 11th U.S. secretary of agriculture and the 10th U.S ...

, others the Democratic Party's incumbent US President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...

. 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." Next day, November 21, 1948, SCHW leaders voted to disband.

Works

* ''Southern Patriot'' (SCEF newspaper)

References

External links

The Carolina Story: A Virtual Museum of University History
- Frank Porter Graham and SCHW {{Authority control Organizations established in 1938 Political advocacy groups in the United States Progressivism in the United States Liberalism in the United States 1938 establishments in the United States 1948 establishments in the United States United States political action committees Left-wing politics in the United States