roentgenologist. Fisher participated in the NMA
and in 1929 delivered an address on X-ray tech-
nology, techniques, and interpretation at the 1929
NMA annual convention.
Like other race-based organizations, such as the
NATIONALURBANLEAGUEand the NATIONALAS-
SOCIATION FOR THEADVANCEMENT OFCOLORED
PEOPLE, the NMA published its own journal. The
Journal of the National Medical Associationappeared
first in 1909. Its editor was Dr. Charles V. Roman.
Nurses of color founded the National Associa-
tion of Colored Graduate Nurses in 1908, in re-
sponse to similar racist exclusionary practices of
southern affiliates of the American Nurses Associ-
ation. Novelist, librarian, and nurse NELLA
LARSENand her professional peers benefited im-
mensely from the impressive examples of profes-
sionalism and scholarship of leaders such as Adah
Thoms, Maria Clendenin, and Lula Warlick, who
represented the excellence of nurses and health
care professionals of color.
The NMA is still in existence. Its history of
professional success, political activism, and dedica-
tion to social justice makes it one of the most im-
portant professional organizations in the country.
National Negro Bar Association
The professional association that was organized first
in 1909 when lawyers who were members of the
National Negro Business League established an
African-American lawyers’ auxiliary within the
league. The group became an autonomous entity in
- The National Negro Bar Association
(NNBA) was committed to establishing national
links among attorneys of color, to supporting
African-American business, and to protecting
African-American civil rights.
In 1933 RAYMONDPACEALEXANDER, an ac-
complished lawyer, judge, and politician and Ivy
League graduate of the UNIVERSITY OFPENNSYL-
VANIAand HARVARDLaw School, began a two-
year term as president of the NNBA. Alexander,
who published frequently about legal matters dur-
ing the Harlem Renaissance, wrote persuasively
about the role and responsibilities of African-
American lawyers. In an address delivered before
the NNBA and published later in the September
1931 issue of OPPORTUNITY,Alexander proposed
that “Negro members of the Bar of America face
the unusual opportunity of making a lasting contri-
bution to American Jurisprudence not yet attained
by our white brothers.” He went on to note that
such groundbreaking accomplishments were di-
rectly related to the ways in which attorneys of
color worked to “cultivat[e]... respect for the
written law and by our actions, forcing our white
contemporaries into a more tolerant and indulgent
attitude with respect to the laws designed for the
protection of our rights which are now ignored but
which we can in this manner make them respect.”
The NNBA, like the NATIONALCOUNCIL OF
NEGROWOMENand the NATIONALMEDICALAS-
SOCIATION, was one of several professional organiza-
tions that contributed much to African-American
advancement during and beyond the Harlem Re-
naissance period. The leaders and members of these
groups published regularly in leading journals such
as Opportunity, THEMESSENGER,and THECRISIS
and gained national recognition for their campaigns
and outreach.Bibliography
Alexander, Raymond Pace. “The Negro Lawyer.” Oppor-
tunity(September 1931).
Boston, Thomas, ed. A Different Vision: African American
Economic Thought.New York: Routledge, 1997.
Burrows, John H. The Necessity of Myth: A History of the
National Negro Business League, 1900–1945.Auburn,
Ala.: Hickory Hill Press, 1988.
Marable, Manning. Black Leadership. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1998.National Urban League
One of the most prominent American organiza-
tions and a group that greatly influenced and en-
riched the literary and political dimensions of the
Harlem Renaissance. Founded in NEWYORKCITY
in 1910, the group was known first as the National
League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes. It
became the National Urban League in 1920.
The organization was developed in response to
massive migrations of African Americans from the
South to the North. It was founded at a time when
nearly 100,000 African Americans had relocated
from southern states to New York City alone.
Often referred to as the Urban League, the organi-366 National Negro Bar Association