Founded in Richmond, Virginia (1937), SNYC coalesced young black activists from the National Negro Congress, labor, and student movements. In 1939 it moved its headquarters to Birmingham, Alabama. Until the Red Scare, state prosecution, and white terror impeded SNYC's organizing, it advanced and bridged the civil rights and industrial union struggles. Women were critical among SNYC leaders and community organizers. Organizers reached out to many local partners: black churches, schools and colleges, NAACP chapters, civic associations, women's clubs, and fraternal orders. Youth legislatures, which met in various cities, engaged communities in equal education, anti-poll tax, and voter registration campaigns. W. E. B. Du Bois did the keynote address at the Columbia, South Carolina youth legislature (1946).