By: Amani Jordan
Photo Credit: https://africanamericansinthe1920s.weebly.com/naacp.html
During a time where racial violence was rampant and voices were often silenced, a shared belief that people should no longer accept this injustice created one of the biggest civil rights organizations. The NAACP, or National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is a civil rights organization founded on February 12th, 1909. Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, William English Walling, and Dr.Henry Moscowitz, a group of white liberals, called for a discussion about racial justice. 7 out of 60 of the meeting members were African American and included, W.E.B Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrel, who signed the call. NAACP’s mission is to eliminate racial discrimination and ensure political, educational, social, and economic equality of all people, particularly African Americans. The NAACP has played a crucial role in significant civil rights advancements in the United States, including efforts to end segregation, promote voting rights, and combat racial violence. They continue to advocate for justice and equality through democratic processes, various grassroots, legal challenges, and community initiatives.
At their emergence, the NAACP sought for all people to have the rights given in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which promises an end to slavery, provides equal protection under the law, and the right for all men to vote. In New York City, in 1910, The national office was established with the addition of a board of directors and president, Moorfield Storey, a white constitutional lawyer. Despite a devotion to creating a multiracial membership, Du Bois was the only African American among the organization's original executives, who was made director of publications and research and in 1910 established The Crisis, the now acclaimed publication of the NAACP. By 1913, NAACP had established branch offices in Boston, MA, Baltimore, MD (current headquarter location), Kansas City, MO, St. Louis, MO, Washington, D.C., and Detroit, MI. The NAACP membership increased, from around 9,000 in 1917 to around 90,000 in 1919, with more than 300 local branches. A run of court battles, in which included the Guinn v. States' 1910 victory against a discriminatory Oklahoma law that regulated voting, helped establish the NAACP's reputation as a legal advocate. The following priorities and events that the NAACP was a part of included eradicating lynching, seperate-but-equal reversal, economic justice during the great depression, desegregation in public schools and facilities, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. To read more about these events, please visit Our History | NAACP. Through these events The NAACP faced many and mostly violent hardships such as the unsolved murder of Harry T. Moore, NAACP’s former Florida field secretary, the murder of Mississippi field secretary Medgar Evers, and violence against black children when entering previously segregated schools in Little Rock. Through this the NAACP has shown great resilience which has made the organization into what it is known as today.
Today, the NAACP remains a vital force in the ongoing struggle for racial equity and social justice in America. Though making lots of progress in earlier issues, the NAACP is still handling and acting as a voice towards similar issues being faced today. They are currently involved in various issues faced by the black community. Topics currently being acted on and talked about include protecting the right to vote, reproductive justice and health, implementing a federal minimum wage, forming a diverse and fair judiciary, addressing the structural inequities that allow people with lower incomes to be penalized in ways that wealthy people aren’t which systematically affect black communities, the end of mass incarceration, and much more. The NAACP offers resources for you to become educated and involved with these current movements and issues, encouraging anyone, no matter the age or race, to become involved. Visit NAACP for more information.
Sources: NAACP
Comments