Rev. Eugene Carson Blake, who had been President Dwight Eisenhower's minister, represented the National Council of Churches at the 1963 March on Washington. He was the only white speaker; however, the NCC, the National Conference of Catholics for Interracial Justice, and the American Jewish Congress all supported the organization of the march.

Later, the NCC was instrumental in the lobbying effort that led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The NCC also recruited about 300 ministers from all over the United States that summer as informal advisers to SNCC.