The National Action Council (NAC) is the major policy-making group within the organizational structure of the Congress of Racial Equality. It determines the philosophy of the national organization and formulates CORE policies. The Council is composed of national officers and staff, including the director, and of designated representatives from regions and chapters.

Within the NAC are a number of committees, the most important of which is the Steering Committee. These committees are made up of department chairmen, and various representatives from the regions and chapters. Their primary concern is to deal with issues before the national organization, and to present ideas and points of view to the NAC. For the most part, the NAC meetings, which are held only a few times each year, are concerned with decisions resulting from frequent committee meetings.

The NAC Records contain correspondence, minutes of the council and its committees, memoranda, and agenda. There are also national convention papers, and reports from the various departments of CORE to the NAC. Correspondence of the National Advisory Committee, composed of interested national leaders outside the CORE organization, is also contained in this series. In general, the files of the NAC cover the period from 1958 to 1965, although there is some material from the earlier period of CORE, in the 1940's.

This series of files, like the others in the CORE collection, has undergone many changes of name, and as a result a variety of titles for the National Action Council appears in the records.