National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People (NAACP)
On February 12, 1909, men and women of various
religions and races met in New York for a confer-
ence on the 100th birthday of Abraham Lincoln.
They organized the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People in response to the
lynching and intimidation accompanying “sepa-
rate-but-equal” Jim Crow practices. They sought
to achieve equal rights and to remove racial dis-
crimination in housing, employment, the courts,
education, transportation, recreation, prisons, vot-
ing, and business. They would approach the issues
through education, legislation, and litigation. They
pledged to agitate and take legal action against ra-
cial discrimination. The phrase “colored people”
was used intentionally in the title to indicate the
broad concerns of the group.
W. E. B. DUBOIS and William M. Trotter, along
with several other black intellectuals who came
together to express their opposition to BOOKER T.
WASHINGTON’s accommodation strategy, played
leading roles in the formation of this new civil
rights organization. Joining them were William
Walling, Mary Ovington, Henry Moskowitz, and
other whites who wanted to assist blacks in the
fight for equal rights and racial justice. The orga-
nization conducted press campaigns, published
pamphlets, conducted in-depth studies, and edu-
cated the community. DuBois became the early
director of research and publications. In 1910, the
magazine The CRISIS became the principal philo-
sophical organ.
With the help of JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, the
NAACP spread slowly, branch by branch, across
the country into places like Boston, Tacoma, Kan-
sas City, Topeka, Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and
Salt Lake City, resulting in 310 branches by the end
of 1919. The independence of the local branches
made it possible for a wide range of actions to be
implemented. Furthermore, as early as 1912, the
NAACP inspired the formation of South Africa’s
African National Congress. After challenging D.
W. Griffith’s film The Birth of a Nation for assas-
sinating the character of black America, creating
damaging stereotypes of blacks as illiterate and
immoral, and of the 1916 death of Washington,
events around World War I set the NAACP on its
two-pronged legal and political course.
During the 1920s, critics such as A. Philip Ran-
dolph emerged and complained about the exces-
sive legalism of the group. MARCUS GARVEY added
his objections to the interracial notions about in-
tegration and the predominantly light-skinned,
middle-class leadership of the organization. How-
ever, both WALTER WHITE and Roy Wilkins led
the organization in forming effective coalitions,
carrying out mass demonstrations, and lobbying
legislators.
When the American economy collapsed in
1929, initiating the Great Depression, the NAACP
was urged to pay more attention to the needs of
and disproportionate hardship on the masses of
black America. Some of the younger members
pushed for more focus on racial pride and solidar-
ity of the working class. The membership grew,
and the communities were mobilized to eliminate
all legally imposed discrimination.
The most significant achievement of the or-
ganization started with the legal work of Charles
Hamilton Houston. Houston, along with his law
students, including Thurgood Marshall, brought
precedent cases on equal pay and public access
that led to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education
Supreme Court decision. That ruling settled sev-
eral cases concluding that “separate but equal” was
inherently unequal, and it eliminated legal segre-
gation in public education. Having challenged the
acts of violence toward blacks, the NAACP killed
and laid to rest legalized Jim Crow.
In addition to its vanguard role in champion-
ing the social, educational and civil rights of Af-
rican-Americans, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People played a major
role in promoting, celebrating and validating the
African-American literary tradition. Its journal,
The Crisis, and its founding editor, W. E. B. Du-
Bois, the author of SOULS OF BLACK FOLK, were not
only instrumental in introducing and promoting
the idea of a Harlem Renaissance but also its major
writers, including LANGSTON HUGHES, ZORA NEALE
HURSTON, and JESSIE REDMON FAUSET, its literaryNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People 383