The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) was formed in Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 in 1962.

A coalition of the major Civil Rights Movement

African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)

The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...

 organizations operating in Mississippi, COFO was formed 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

Voter Education Project

From 1962 to 1968, the Voter Education Project raised and distributed foundation funds to civil rights organizations for voter education and registration work in the American South...

. It was instrumental in forming the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was an American political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the civil rights movement...

. COFO member organizations included the NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...

, CORE

Congress of Racial Equality

The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...

, SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...

 and the SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...

.

COFO was formalized in August 1962, at a meeting held in Clarksdale MS. Attending were Bob Moses

Robert Parris Moses

Robert Parris Moses is an American, Harvard-trained educator who was a leader in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and later founded the nationwide U.S. Algebra project.-Biography:...

, James Forman

James Forman

James Forman was an American Civil Rights leader active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Black Panther Party, and the International Black Workers Congress...

 and a dozen other SNCC workers, Dave Dennis of CORE, James Bevel

James Bevel

James L. Bevel was an American minister and leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement who, as the Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference initiated, strategized, directed, and developed SCLC's three major successes of the era:...

 representing SCLC, and others. NAACP leader Aaron Henry

Aaron Henry

Aaron Henry was an American civil rights leader, politician, and head of the Mississippi branch of the NAACP. He was one of the founders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party which tried to seat their delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.-Early life:Henry was born in Dublin,...

 was elected President, Rev. R.L.T. Smith was named Treasurer, attorney Carsie Hall was chosen as Secretary, and Bob Moses was appointed the COFO state-wide Project Director.

An agreement was reached that CORE would focus its voter registration efforts in the congressional district centered around Meridian

Meridian, Mississippi

Meridian is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Mississippi. It is the sixth largest city in the state and the principal city of the Meridian, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area...

 and SNCC would work the other four districts including the Delta region around Greenwood

Greenwood, Mississippi

Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta approximately 96 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi, and 130 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. The population was 15,205 at the 2010 census. It is the...

 and the Pearl River area around McComb

McComb, Mississippi

McComb is a city in Pike County, Mississippi, United States, about south of Jackson. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 13,644. It is the principal city of the McComb, Mississippi, Micropolitan Statistical Area...

. SCLC's role was to focus on its Citizenship School program throughout the state, and the NAACP would handle the judicial aspects of the struggle.

In the years that followed, COFO operated as the umbrella organization coordinating voter registration and education campaigns, Freedom Summer

Freedom Summer

Freedom Summer was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi which had historically excluded most blacks from voting...

, building the MFDP

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was an American political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the civil rights movement...

, the delegate challenge at the Democratic Party convention in Atlantic City in 1964, and the subsequent Congressional challenge.

External links

• Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans