The NAACP
Depiction of W.E.B. DuBois
Important Founder of the NAACP
| In the early 1900s one of the most powerful black men in America was Booker T. Washington. Often called the "Great Accomodater," Washington's ideas of black empowerment lay not in a pursuit for social equality but rather by economic means. Washington told blacks to accept their lot in America, work hard and then reap the benefits. It was Washington's hope that perhaps such a less threatening stance by blacks would ease the tide of violence directed towards his race. Unfortunately this was not to be the case. The violence and inequality of black America seemed in fact to grow. It is not surprising then that in the early 1900s Washington's black critics crew louder and more defiant not only to him but to America itself. In the early summer of 1905 Washington went to Boston to address a rally. While speaking he was heckled and verbally assaulted by a William Monroe Trotter. The subsequent jailing of Trotter on trumped-up charges, apparently by followers of Washington, angered one of Trotter's life long friends: a harsh critic of Washington, a young educator by the name of W.E.B. DuBois. |
|
Follwing the Trotter incident DuBois to issued a call for Black individuals who could perhaps counter the Tuskeegee Machine, as Washington's collegiate powerbae was called, and create what he saw as real "Negro Freedom and growth." This culminated in July of 1905 in the famed "Niagara Movement." The group of Black activists and intellectuals were forced to meet on the Canadian side of Niagra after they were barred from meeting on the American side. The movement's objectives were to advocate civil justice and abolish caste discrimination. In 1906 the group was more bold, meeting at Harper's Ferry, the site of John Brown's famous raid. Considered militants of their time, they called for such things as enforcement of the Constituional amendments designed to protect freedmen; full voting rights; the eradication of Jim Crow; equal educational facilities and more. DuBois called it, "one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes have ever held..." |
| The Niagra Movement may have died if not for two events which not only laid the seeds of the foundation of the NAACP, but the spelled the end of the age of Washington. In September of 1906 Atlanta erupted into anti-black violence carried out by white citizens. It turned even more ugly after the police entered the riot on the side of the white mobs. Known as the Atlanta Massacre,it resulted in the destruction of an unknown amount of black property and lives. In the North a similar atrocity took in 1908 after whites attacked blacks killing scores and driving hundreds from the city. Blacks were flogged and lynched with whites chanting such slogans as, "Lincoln freed you, we'll show you your place." In answer to this rising tide of violence on February 12, 1909 members of the Niagara Movement met with several white liberals to discuss the "race problem" of the United States. |
| On May 30, 1909 three hundred individuals assembled in New York City to address this issue in stronger fashion. Some former white abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison, refused to attend because of what they perceived as the "radical nature" of the conference. The white liberals not only wanted to avoid an open break with Booker T. Washington, but were especially concerned with individuals such as Trotter and Ida B. Wells-Barnett who were considered more militant than the rest. The meetings were not all peaceful, with heated and bitter discussions behind closed doors. At one point a woman, thought to be Ida B. Wells, jumped up and yelled, "'They are betraying us again, these white fiends of ours!'" After a great deal of debate the committe came together, all except Trotter who distrusted whites and their objectives, to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
|
|
At a second conference in May, 1910, a permanent organization was created and Moorfield Storey, a white Boston lawyer, was elected. The only black officer was W.E.B. DuBois. Like Trotter, DuBois was not altogether pleased with the new group. He believed strongly that any fight for freedom for blacks must be controlled and organized by blacks. But believing the organization to have great potential, he agreed to stay on as Director of Publications and Research. These odd dynamics, a black freedom struggle led by white liberals, would come under attack by many blacks for decades to come. The first black president of the NAACP did not emerge until after more than half a century of its founding. |
|
The NAACP worked for the next fifty years tirelessly to hammer away at the forces of segregation and social inequality. They led anti-lynching crusades flying banners such as "A Black Man was Lynched Today" and "Mommy Do Lynchers Go to Heaven." But this new tide of black protests manifested itself best in the newspaper of the NAACP, the Crisis. Founded and edited by W.E.B. DuBois the Crisis was black protest journalism at its finest. DuBois operated the Crisis as his own personal journal, often writing what he felt was necessary despite NAACP protest. Many an outbreak of infighting occurred with the organization's ranks over DuBois' articles. But nevertheless his writings became a source of resistance and black identity for blacks throughout the United States and made the NAACP a household name. So popular did DuBois become that the Crisis magazine subscription rate grew from 1000 in 1909 to over 10,000 in May of 1919. Such writings played a great part many believe in the beginnings of the Harlem Renaissance. The fragile relationship between DuBois and the NAACP would come to a head however in later years. Disillusioned with its domination by liberal whites and thinking its tactics outdated, its most famous member and founder left its ranks finally in 1933. |
| In truth the NAACP's greatest victories would come later. In 1954 the NAACP won a major victory when the Supreme Court of the United States declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Aided by organized labor and various organizations, the NAACP went on to lead the efforts that resulted in the enactment of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. The NAACP remains one of the few organizations which have remained continous and on a massive scale in modern times. (Information courtesy of Before the Mayflower by Lerone Bennett,Up From Slaveryby John Hope Franklin, The W.E.B. DuBois Institute , and The Encarta Online Encyclopedia/I>) |