The Clemson Council on Human Relations was officially organized in October 1966 as a chapter of the South Carolina Council on Human Relations, a state wide organization that traced its origin back to the South Carolina Committee on Interracial Cooperation founded in 1919. The South Carolina Council was founded in 1957 and was an affiliate of the Southern Regional Council until 1963. It promoted civil rights and the improvement of educational, civic, and race relations in South Carolina. The Clemson Chapter had informally existed since 1960 with Clemson residents participating in meetings of the State Council. Beginning in the late 1960s and into the early 1970s the Clemson Council’s membership rose for several years to about 150 members representing approximately equal numbers of blacks and whites. This was the period of the struggle for civil rights throughout the South with the Clemson Council being actively involved in voter registration, neighborhood improvements, and tutoring of minority child in preparation for school integration. After the implementation of the civil rights laws during the 1970s the level of community concern lessened as the organization focused upon a project originally called the Clemson Day Care Center which in the early 1970s became the Clemson Child Development Center (CCDC). The South Carolina Council on Human Relations failed in its efforts to shift the organization’s focus from championing civil rights to one which addressed issues of discriminatory distribution of educational opportunity, wealth, income and privilege. The state organization dissolved in 1975.

The Clemson Council had by then transitioned to managing the CCDC and serving as the sponsoring agency for a variety of federal, state, foundation and private grants and donations for child development and nutrition. The Clemson Council recognized that with the implementation of integration in the public schools many African American children suffered from lack of early child development and basic educational skills. In 1968, the CCHR purchased the McGee property consisting of 2.5 acres of land near US Highway 76.

The Center was opened in 1969 and experienced early struggles related to issues such as sewer connections and the transportation of children. In 1972 the Clemson University Board of Trustees donated four used pre-fab housing units. That same year a former school house was moved from the New Hope Baptist Church to the site. In 1972 the CCDC received a five year grant from the Appalachian Regional Council provided funding that helped provide a budget base. Additional grants were received during the 1970s including funding for infants and toddlers, 3-5 year olds and health screening. CCDC also relied upon donations, membership pledges, home tours, rummage sales and profits from recycling. A great deal of renovation was accomplished using volunteer labor. The student population grew serving income eligible families as well as a variety of other Clemson area children.

During the 1980s the momentum for the CCDC and the CCHR began to diminish as issues related to voting rights and public accommodations were no longer in the spotlight. The leadership of these organizations recognized that there were fewer individuals to lead them and those most likely would have a somewhat different viewpoint. Issues related to child development continued but the local churches came to be the sustaining non-governmental institutional framework for addressing them. Late in 1987, the Clemson Council on Human Relations offered to transfer all its assets to the Clemson Congregations In Touch (CCIT) which was an organization representing a variety of local churches that provided help to people in need. In March 1988 this offer was accepted and by the end of 1989 the Clemson Child Development Center had a different organizational structure.

The following two decades found the Clemson Child Development Center on a somewhat firmer financial footing with support from local churches through what became the Clemson Area Congregations in Touch. The Center continued to have a separate board which managed its day-to-day operations.