States, 1910), helped establish the NAACP's importance as a legal advocate.
#Grandfather clause history series#
Wright, a surgeon, was named 1934.Ī series of early court battles, including a victory against a discriminatory Oklahoma law that regulated voting by means of a grandfather clause ( Guinn v. Writer and diplomat James Weldon Johnson became the Association's first black executive secretary in 1920, and Louis T. He was elected board chairman of the NAACP in 1915 and served as president from 1929-1939. Joel Spingarn, a professor of literature and one of the NAACP founders formulated much of the strategy that fostered the organization's growth. NAACP membership grew rapidly, from around 9,000 in 1917 to around 90,000 in 1919, with more than 300 local branches. Louis, MO, Washington, D.C., and Detroit, MI. Fighting civil injusticesīy 1913, with a strong emphasis on local organizing, NAACP had established branch offices in such cities as Boston, MA, Baltimore, MD, Kansas City, MO, St. He was made director of publications and research and in 1910 established The Crisis, the acclaimed publication of the NAACP. Despite a foundational commitment to multiracial membership, Du Bois was the only African American among the organization's original executives. Other early members included Joel and Arthur Spingarn, Josephine Ruffin, Mary Talbert, Inez Milholland, Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Sophonisba Breckinridge, John Haynes Holmes, Mary McLeod Bethune, George Henry White, Charles Edward Russell, John Dewey, William Dean Howells, Lillian Wald, Charles Darrow, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Fanny Garrison Villard, and Walter Sachs. The national office was established in New York City in 1910 as well as a board of directors and president, Moorfield Storey, a white constitutional lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association. The NAACP works to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes. Accordingly, the NAACP's mission is to ensure the political, educational, equality of minority group citizens of States and eliminate race prejudice. On February 12, 1909, the nation's largest and most widely recognized civil rights organization was born.Įchoing the focus of Du Bois' Niagara Movement for civil rights, which began in 1905, NAACP aimed to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which promised an end to slavery, provide equal protection of the law, and the right for all men to vote, respectively. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln's birth. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Appalled at this rampant violence, a group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard (both the descendants of famous abolitionists), William English Walling and Dr. In 1908, a deadly race riot rocked the city of Springfield, eruptions of anti-black violence – particularly lynching – were horrifically commonplace, but the Springfield riot was the final tipping point that led to the creation of the NAACP. Since our founding in 1909, we have been, and continue to be, on the front lines of the fight for civil rights and social justice. Our work and our activists carrying the civil rights torch forward are our legacy.