The Council of Federated Organization was founded in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, COFO included the statewide organizations of three national civil rights groups, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led by Bob Moses, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) under Tom Gaither, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The organization was an umbrella organization that united several groups involved in the civil rights campaign in Mississippi between 1963 and 1965. Serving as the organization behind the civil rights movement, COFO was involved in voter registration and public accommodations desegregation campaigns throughout the state. Founded in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, COFO included the statewide organizations of three national civil rights groups, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led by Bob Moses, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) under Tom Gaither, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) headed by Aaron Henry, as well as smaller local and regional groups.

Under COFO, the activities of these groups were coordinated in order to provide effective leadership and establish uniformly recognized objectives including improved education and health care as well as voting rights.

COFO launched the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to help black voters who were barred from both major parties in the state to establish a third-party political party that would include all voters regardless of race. The MFDP gained national attention when at the 1964 National Democratic Party Convention in Atlantic City it unsuccessfully attempted to replace the Mississippi Democratic Party’s all-white delegation. MFDP leader Fannie Lou Hamer used her opportunity before the nationally televised DNC Rules Committee Hearing to vividly describe how she and other activists were assaulted for trying to register to vote. The Council of Federated Organizations did not last beyond the end of 1965.

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Council of Federated Organizations (1962-1965)