In 1942, the Southern Conference on Race Relations (SCRR) assembled in Durham, North Carolina, to discuss solutions to racial inequality and segregation against the backdrop of World War II. The 50 Black American leaders who had gathered to discuss these issues produced the “Durham Manifesto,” which voiced their fervent opposition to Jim Crow laws and called for the right of Black Americans to political participation, economic justice, freedom from terror, and the end of segregation. The document they produced was a powerful statement highlighting the hypocrisy of Black American soldiers forced to fight for freedom abroad but unable to experience that same freedom at home. The manifesto was a pivotal document preceding the start of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.