Dr. Robert Russa Moton (1867-1940), was the principal and president (1915-1935) of Tuskegee Institute. Moton was  viewed as "the sanest force seeking social and economic progress for his race."  Moton also published Finding a Way Out: An Autobiography (1921).

George Foster Peabody (1852–1938) was a highly successful New York investment banker and devoted much of his fortune to education and social enterprise. He stood for the most sympathetic of white cooperation. Long concerned with the education of African-Americans, Peabody served as a trustee )1884-1930) of Hampton University, a historically black university. In the Hampton University Library he established the Peabody Collection of rare materials on African-American history, now one of the largest such collections in the country.

The CIC also included Harry F. Byrd (1887-1966), who was governor (1926-1930) of Virginia  He held what some referred to as "the merciful viewpoint of the dominant Southern aristocrats to whom the Negroes long were slaves and upon whom they still are, in a large degree, dependent." As Governor, he reorganized the state bureaucracy, reformed the tax structure and set the Commonwealth on a course of fiscal responsibility. After completing his term as Governor, Byrd served 32 years in the U.S. Senate.

William Louis Poteat (1856-1938), a native of Caswell County, North Carolina, was president (1905-1927) of Wake Forest College. As president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina , he defended the teaching of evolution as the "divine method of creation" and believed that this perspective was in harmony with the fundamental tenets of the Baptists.

 Progressive industrialist John J. Eagan of Georgia was named the Commission's first president. He appointed a staff of one white and one black man in each Southern state "as mediators and organizers of concerned citizens willing to work for improved race relations." Mr. Eagen represented the Christian pity of eminent Southern churchmen for the lowly man and brother, helpless in the white man's land. 

Anson Phelps Stokes of a family which for generations has sought and striven to help the Negro was also on the commission. There were many other shining names on the list; so officered and manned, the commission's intelligent and effective direction was assured from the beginning.

Six white Southern men met in Atlanta to discuss ways in which the South might try to avoid misunderstanding between the races. From this initial gathering, the CIC eventually included men and women, black and white, from throughout the South, whose early intention was to create state and local committees that would promote interracial cooperation at the local level. 

In about 1924, when the local committees were organized, the CIC shifted its emphasis to research, publicity, and education on the achievements of blacks and on the need for cooperation between the races. Programs were established to improve schools, health facilities, and general living conditions for African Americans, to provide legal aid, to eliminate lynching, and to study segregation in the South. Early Commission work includes campaign led by sociologist and CIC Education Director Robert Eleazer to reshape the coverage of African Americans in the media.

The work of the CIC was supplemented by a copious publication program that distributed pamphlets, reports, periodicals, books, and press releases. The Commission kept abreast of developments at the local level through The Southern Frontier, its longest-running regular publication. In 1944, in response to many members wanting a broader scope for the organization, the final meeting of the CIC convened and merged with the newly-formed Southern Regional Council.