The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) – the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States – works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. Through its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations (CBOs), NCLR reaches millions of Hispanics each year in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. To achieve its mission, NCLR conducts applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy, providing a Latino perspective in five key areas – assets/investments, civil rights/immigration, education, employment and economic status, and health. In addition, it provides capacity-building assistance to its Affiliates who work at the state and local level to advance opportunities for individuals and families.
Founded in 1968, NCLR is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization headquartered in Washington, DC. NCLR serves all Hispanic subgroups in all regions of the country and has operations in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
For more information, please visit, www.nclr.org.

NCLR operates programs in housing, community development, education, health, workforce development, and voter registration.

 
For more information, visit www.nclr.org

 
Líderes Initiative
The NCLR Líderes Initiative is an effort to identify, support and develop new leadership in the Latino community through a national network of high school and college students.
To learn more about Líderes, visit http://lideres.nclr.org/.

NCLR traces its origins to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, as well as to previous efforts that preceded World War II, such as those related to early school and housing desegregation. Although Hispanics, especially Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans, participated in both movements, they did not gain widespread media coverage or national visibility for their efforts. Without such recognition, legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, while creating enormous change in other areas of the country, had relatively little impact on the Hispanic community.  

In large part, the invisibility that plagued the Mexican American civil rights movement was a result of the movement’s geographic isolation, which caused it to be overshadowed by the more highly visible national movements. Additionally, Mexican Americans lacked the kinds of institutions that were critical to the success of the Black civil rights movement, and around which they could rally, unify, and organize.  

Recognizing that these hurdles imposed a critical barrier to the mobilization of an effective civil rights movement, a group of young Mexican Americans in Washington, DC decided to form a coordinating body that could provide technical assistance to existing Hispanic groups and bring them together into a single united front. In the early 1960s, this organization, called NOMAS (National Organization for Mexican American Services), met with the Ford Foundation to present a funding proposal.  

The Ford Foundation hired three highly-respected Mexican Americans, Herman Gallegos, Dr. Julian Samora, and Dr. Ernesto Galarza, to travel throughout the Southwest and consult with other activists and leaders about what else might be done to help the Mexican American community. Their research led to a series of organizational meetings among Chicano leaders and, as a result, Herman Gallegos, Dr. Julian Samora, and Dr. Ernesto Galarza founded the Southwest Council of La Raza (SWCLR), NCLR’s predecessor in Arizona in February 1968.  Initial financial support came from the Council of Churches, the United Auto Workers, and a Ford Foundation planning grant, and by April of that year SWCLR had received its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.  

In the summer of 1968, SWCLR began to help establish and support barrio (community) organizations, with the goals of developing and strengthening other local organizations, and promoting empowerment, voter registration, leadership development, and other forms of advocacy.  

At the end of 1972, SWCLR became a national organization, and the Board changed its name to the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) to reflect its commitment to represent and serve all Mexican Americans in all parts of the country. In 1973, the Washington office became NCLR’s headquarters and its Phoenix location became a field office. 

Throughout the latter half of the 1970s, Yzaguirre worked with the Board and staff to review, reorganize, and develop NCLR’s mission, programs, and priorities. Under his leadership, NCLR secured a continuation of core funding from the Ford Foundation. Additionally, NCLR obtained federal funding for a number of projects and began to make increased private-sector resource development a priority. 

Under Yzaguirre’s leadership, NCLR clarified its mission, identifying four major functions that still provide essential focus to the organization’s work: 1) capacity-building assistance to support and strengthen Hispanic community-based organizations, and to help them meet the needs of their communities; 2) applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy on behalf of Hispanic Americans; 3) public information efforts, which provide accurate information and positive images in the Hispanic and mainstream media; and 4) special and international projects which use the NCLR structure and credibility to create other entities. 

The Reagan-era budget cuts severely constrained NCLR’s ability to provide support to its Affiliate constituency in the form of funds or training. As a result, the organization began to concentrate more intensely on forging a national policy agenda in Washington, DC.  

Until relatively recently, almost all of NCLR’s advocacy efforts were focused on federal policy, with little of the organization’s time or resources concentrated on state or local legislation. In the 1980s, this was an acceptable situation, given that at that time all of NCLR’s field activities were struggling for survival. This approach to policy changed with the enactment of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). Commonly known as welfare reform, this law gave states the primary responsibility for determining who could receive a wide range of public services, including cash assistance, child care, and health insurance. Such broad devolution of power and responsibility to the states meant that, if NCLR wanted to influence policies that mattered to the Latino community, it would have to incorporate a new interest and commitment to state-level advocacy into its legislative agenda.  

NCLR continues to refine the process of coordinating field advocacy into the fabric of its national legislative agenda. This process, spurred by the enactment of welfare reform, illustrates the ways in which NCLR’s policy priorities and strategies are largely shaped in response to an ever-changing political climate. Today, NCLR continues its evolution by strengthening its relationship with its community-based Affiliates, seeking to maximize the Latino community’s advocacy clout not only in Washington, DC, but at the state and local level as well. 

For a complete version of NCLR’s History, please visit www.nclr.org/history.

NCLR works on a variety of state and federal policies affecting the Latino community in the United States, including criminal and juvenile justice, education, employment, health, immigration, voting, and wealth-building.
For more information, visit www.nclr.org