The Civil Rights Lobby (Hardcover)

Hardcover. As the lobbying arm of the civil rights movement, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR)-which has operated since the early 1950s-was instrumental in the historic legislative breakthroughs of the Second Reconstruction. The Civil Rights Lobby skillfully recounts the LCCRs professional and grassroots lobbying that contributed to these signature civil rights policy achievements in the 1950s and 60s.Shamira Gelbman explains how the diversity of this interest group coalition both hindered and enabled lobbyists to generate broad-based support for reforms that often seemed risky to legislators. They coordinated their efforts by identifying common ground among member organizations, developing coalitional positions on substantive and strategic questions, and exhorting organizations to mobilize professional and grassroots lobbying resources accordingly. The result was to speak with one booming voice to ultimately help secure the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Lobby concludes by reprising key lessons from the LCCRs organizational development and participation in civil rights policymaking. Gelbman suggests new directions for research on interest group coalitions and explores how the Leadership Conferences experience sheds light on the politics of the Second Reconstruction. "Explores the early years of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the interest group coalition that has coordinated the efforts of more than fifty organizations to secure civil rights legislation since the 1950s. Explains the LCCR's organizational dynamics and the role its lobbyists played in the Second Reconstruction"-- Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…