Council of Federated Organizations

The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) was a coalition of the major Civil Rights Movement organizations operating in Mississippi. COFO was formed in 1961 to coordinate and unite voter registration and other civil rights activities in the state and oversee the distribution of funds from the Voter Education Project. It was instrumental in forming the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. COFO member organizations included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

The prelude to the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi began after World War II when veterans such as Medgar Evers, his brother Charles Evers, Aaron Henry, and Amzie Moore returned home from fighting the atrocities of Nazi Germany. These veterans would lead and revitalize defunct chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) throughout the state.

After the war, Evers took a job as an insurance salesman. His travels took him to the poorest areas of rural Mississippi. His guilt over attempting to sell insurance policies to families who could barely afford food would lead to his joining the NAACP in the early 1950s. He would soon become the organization’s first field secretary in 1954. Friend, fellow veteran, and pharmacist, Aaron Henry would also take up the reigns of activism by founding and becoming the first president of the Clarksdale, Mississippi branch of the NAACP. Henry organized the local group in an attempt to have two white men indicted for the kidnapping and rape of two young black girls. The men were acquitted, but getting an indictment at all was a major victory for the young organization. Evers also found organizing work frustrating throughout the 1950s. This work mainly included traveling throughout the state giving "pep talks" to local chapters and investigating racially motivated murders. Despite limited success, the theme of rivalry would reappear in these early stages. Evers, Henry, and fellow NAACP leader Amzie Moore would join the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) in 1951 despite objections from the national NAACP office. In addition to joining what Henry called the "home grown" NAACP, Evers and Henry traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana for the organizational meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Roy Wilkins, national director of the NAACP, felt threatened by the charismatic leadership of the new organization’s leader, Martin Luther King Jr. Evers objected to the national office’s concerns on the basis that both organizations’ goals were "identical," but respected the national leadership and opposed the SCLC’s talk of an office in Jackson, Mississippi. Henry, however remained on the SCLC board and would soon be elected state president in 1960. Ironically, this early rivalry would lead to the NAACP investing more time and attention to its Mississippi chapters.

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