Civil Rights Congress

The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a civil rights organization formed in 1946 by a merger of the International Labor Defense and the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties. It became known for involvement in civil rights cases such as the Trenton Six and justice for Isaiah Nixon. The CRC also held multiple high profile protests in Washington DC and at the UN. Due to its Communist Party affiliations, the CRC was cited as subversive and communist by U.S. President Harry S. Truman's Attorney General Thomas Clark

Leadership under William Patterson

International Labor Defense (ILD) national secretary William Patterson led the group throughout its existence.Gerald Horne, (Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1987); Horne, Civil Rights Congress, in Mary Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle, and Dan Georgakas, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Left (New York: Garland Publishing, 1990), 134-135, BlackPast.org Frank Marshall Davis served on the organizations National Executive Board. Patterson also headed, the Abraham Lincoln School in Chicago, with Davis also on the faculty and Board of Directors.Chicago Defender, October 20, 1945, cited in FBI file Frank Marshall Davis pdf.

In December 1947, the National Negro Congress was merged with the CRC. In 1951, the Civil Rights Congress issued its a petition to the United Nations entitled, " The Crime of Government Against the Negro...
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