Civil Rights

Since our founding in 1944, JCPA has prioritized the advancement of civil rights for all Americans, working extensively on desegregation, voting rights, and ending discrimination in housing, education, and employment. JCPA’s antidiscrimination work evolved over the decades, expanding to encompass not just racial and religious discrimination, but also that based on gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

With the conviction that the struggle for civil rights could be won only through coalition, JCPA and the NAACP joined together in 1950 to cofound the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights as a clearinghouse and coordinating body for all civil rights lobbying—modeled after JCPA. Through extensive educational, legal, and legislative campaigns with partners in the Black community, JCPA helped achieve many of the landmark victories of the Civil Rights Movement.

JCPA remains as steadfast in our commitment to fighting the discrimination and systemic racism that persist across all facets of our society today. We seek to protect and expand the civil rights of all, for a nation free from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.