Southern Conference Educational Fund

{{Use American English|date=November 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox organization | name = Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) | pronunciation = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | named_after = | image = Map_of_USA_South.svg | image_size = | image_alt = | caption = Map of the U.S. South (2011), region supported by the SCEF | logo = | logo_size = | logo_alt = | logo_caption = | map = | map_size = | map_alt = | map_caption = | map2 = | map2_size = | map2_alt = | map2_caption = | abbreviation = | predecessor = Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW) | merged_into = | successor = | formation = {{start date and age|1942|11|20}} | founder = | founding_location = | dissolved = {{end date and age|1981}} | merger = | type = | tax_id =  | registration_id =  | status = | purpose = Promote social justice, civil rights, electoral reform | headquarters = New Orleans; Louisville; Atlanta | location = | coordinates =  | region_served = American South | services = | methods = | fields = | num_members = | num_members_year = | language = | secretary_general = | leader_title = | leader_name = | leader_title2 = | leader_name2 = | leader_title3 = | leader_name3 = | leader_title4 = | leader_name4 = | board_of_directors = | key_people = Anne Braden, Carl Braden | main_organ = | parent_organization = | subsidiaries = | secessions = | affiliations = | num_staff = Carol Hanisch, Bob Zellner, Dorothy Zellner | num_staff_year = | website =  }} 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.<ref name="AlabamaEncyclopedia"> {{Cite encyclopedia |title=Southern Conference for Human Welfare |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Alabama |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/southern-conference-for-human-welfare-schw/ |access-date=2025-11-09 |last=Woodham |first=Rebecca |date=2023-07-13 |orig-date=Originally published 2008-07-07 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Krueger"> {{cite book | first1 = Thomas A. | last1 = Krueger | title = And Promises to Keep: The Southern Conference for Human Welfare, 1938-1948 | publisher = Vanderbilt University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PxYaAAAAIAAJ | pages = | date = 1967 | isbn = 9780826510938 | accessdate = 2 August 2020}}</ref><ref name="Durr"> {{cite book | first1 = Virginia Foster | last1 = Durr | authorlink1 = Virginia Durr | first2 = Hollinger F. | last2 = Barnard | title = Outside the Magic Circle : the Autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr | publisher = University of Alabama Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9yMaAAAAYAAJ | pages = 155 (red-baiting), 195, 243, 249, 257–258 | date = 1985 | isbn = 9780817302320 | accessdate = 2 August 2020}}</ref><ref name="Egerton"> {{cite book | first = John | last = Egerton | title = Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South | publisher = Knopf | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_wys3RtV9UIC | pages = 73 (Dies Committee), 138, 166, 272, 285, 289–302 | date = 1994 | isbn = 9780679408086 | accessdate = 2 August 2020}}</ref><ref name="McWhorter"> {{cite book | first = Diane | last = McWhorter | title = Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution | publisher = Simon and Schuster | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7jnr8GdvSZcC | pages = 47–55, 57, 59, 65, 69, 75n, 76–77, 77n, 83, 89–92, 210, 122, 158, 189, 223, 248, 300, 317, 470, 555 | date = 29 June 2001 | isbn = 9780743226486 | accessdate = 2 August 2020}}</ref><ref name="Lay"> {{citation | first = Graham | last = Lay | title = An honorable defeat: The Southern Conference for Human Welfare and the radical prehistory of the Civil Rights movement | publisher = Medium | url = https://medium.com/@grahamlay/an-honorable-defeat-the-southern-conference-for-human-welfare-and-the-prehistory-of-the-civil-7004b41716be | pages = | date = 17 September 2018 | accessdate = 2 August 2020}}</ref>

==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.<ref name=AlabamaEncyclopedia/> 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.<ref name=Lay/>

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.<ref name=Hanisch2006>{{Cite web | last = Hanisch | first = Carol | title = The Personal Is Political: The Women's Liberation Movement classic with a new explanatory introduction | accessdate = 2020-08-02 | date = January 2006| url=http://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PIP.html }}</ref>

Due to financial problems, the organization disbanded in 1981.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://exploreuk.uky.edu/fa/findingaid/?id=xt7r4x54j865 |title=Southern Conference Educational Fund records |publisher=University of Kentucky |accessdate=2020-08-03}}</ref>

==Works== * ''Southern Patriot'' (SCEF newspaper)

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:1942 establishments in the United States Category:1948 establishments in the United States Category:1981 disestablishments in the United States Category:African Americans' rights organizations Category:Civil rights organizations in the United States Category:Left-wing politics in the United States Category:Liberalism in the United States Category:Organizations based in Atlanta Category:Organizations based in Louisville, Kentucky Category:Organizations based in New Orleans Category:Organizations established in 1942 Category:Progressive organizations in the United States Category:Southern Conference Educational Fund Category:Suffrage organisations in the United States