The CORE Scholarship, Education, and Defense Fund developed into an autonomous organization after having been a part of national CORE, in much the same way as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund came into being. The records here date from 1960 to 1965, while SEDF was still part of national CORE under the direction of Marvin Rich, who also was in charge of the Community Relations Department of CORE. This material, while sparse, is important because it concerns the origin of what is now a separate organization concerned with raising funds for legal expenses and educational purposes in the South. In 1966, SEDF broke away from CORE and changed its name to the Scholarship, Education, and Defense Fund for Racial Equality (SEDFRE), headed by Marvin Rich. Its aims remain more similar to those of national CORE as CORE was in the early 1960's, rather than to those of the more militant route taken by the national CORE of today.

In 1967, the Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality (SEDFRE) presented its records to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. These will be organized as a collection separate from these CORE records.