<P> The leadership role of black churches in the movement was a natural extension of their structure and function . They offered members an opportunity to exercise roles denied them in society . Throughout history, the black church served as a place of worship and also as a base for powerful ministers, such as Congressman Adam Clayton Powell in New York City . The most prominent clergyman in the Civil Rights Movement was Martin Luther King, Jr . Time magazine's 1963 "Man of the Year" showed tireless personal commitment to black freedom and his strong leadership won him worldwide acclaim and the Nobel Peace Prize . </P> <P> Students and seminarians in both the South and the North played key roles in every phase of the movement . Church and student - led movements, such as the Nashville Student Movement, developed their own organizational and sustaining structures . The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), founded in 1957, coordinated and raised funds, mostly from northern sources, for local protests and for the training of black leaders . The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, founded in 1957, developed the "jail - no - bail" strategy . SNCC's role was to develop and link sit - in campaigns and to help organize freedom rides, voter registration drives, and other protest activities . These three new groups often joined forces with existing organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), founded in 1942, and the National Urban League . The NAACP and its Director, Roy Wilkins, provided legal counsel for jailed demonstrators, helped raise bail, and continued to test segregation and discrimination in the courts as it had been doing for half a century . CORE initiated the 1961 Freedom Rides which involved many SNCC members, and CORE's leader James Farmer later became executive secretary of SNCC . The administration of President John F. Kennedy supported enforcement of desegregation in schools and public facilities . Attorney General Robert Kennedy brought more than 50 lawsuits in four states to secure black Americans' right to vote . However, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, concerned about possible communist influence in the civil rights movement and personally antagonistic to King, used the FBI to discredit King and other civil rights leaders . </P> <P> Truman, a self - educated farm boy from Missouri, stood in sharp contrast to the urbane and imperious Roosevelt who kept personal control of all major decisions . Truman was a folksy, unassuming president who relied on his cabinet, remarking "The buck stops here" and "If you can't stand the heat, you better get out of the kitchen ." Truman faced many challenges in domestic affairs . His poll ratings were sky high when he took office in April 1945 after Roosevelt's sudden death, then plunged to low levels for most of his eight years in office . The disorderly postwar reconversion of the economy of the United States was marked by severe shortages of housing, meat, appliance, automobiles and other rationed goods . The country was hit by long strikes in major industries in 1946, and Truman's unpopularity was such that the GOP regained Congress in a landslide during the midterms that year, and proceeded to pass the Taft--Hartley Act over his veto . He used executive orders to end racial discrimination in the armed forces and created loyalty checks that dismissed thousands of communist fellow travelers from office . Truman's presidency was also eventful in foreign affairs, with the defeat of Nazi Germany and his decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan, the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan of 1948 to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine of 1947 to contain communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the Berlin Airlift of 1948, and in 1949 the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance . </P> <P> Truman confounded all predictions to win election in 1948, helped by his famous Whistle Stop Tour which reinvigorated the New Deal Coalition . In addition, the short - lived GOP dominance of Congress was ended as the Democrat Party regained a comfortable majority in both houses, something they would surrender only once in the next 32 years . His victory validated his domestic liberalism, his foreign policy of containment, and the new federal commitment to civil rights . </P>

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