Citizens' Councils

The White Citizens' Council was an American group of people who believed that white people were better than black people (white supremacy). It began on July 11, 1954. After 1956, it was called the Citizens' Councils of America. With about 60,000 members, mostly in the South, many people knew the group because it opposed racial integration during the 1950s and 1960s. It responded to integration efforts with economic boycotts and other intimidation against black activists, including depriving them of jobs. The WCC was a part of the "massive resistance" in the South against court decisions that required racial integration.
Federal civil rights legislation passed in the mid-1960s over the opposition of the WCC. By the 1970s, the federal government was working hard to enforce those laws. So, the influence of the WCC dropped very much. People in the WCC went on to found the Council of Conservative Citizens in the 1985.