NAACP: A Century of Fighting for Civil Rights

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, better known as the NAACP, has a long history, working since 1909 to advance justice and equality for African Americans. It was instrumental throughout the United States’ tumultuous 20th-century history, as the foundation for civil rights in the country was established. Although it celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2009, the organization continues to be a key player in advancing equality and social justice in the United States.

In August 1908, the city of Springfield, Illinois was rocked by riots. Reports that a Black man had assaulted a white woman spread through the streets, and an angry mob attempted to extricate the suspect and another Black prisoner from jail and lynch them. When it was revealed that the police had covertly sent the prisoners out of town, mayhem ensued. Crowds of up to 5,000 white residents were present as businesses were destroyed and lynchings carried out on innocent civilians.

When the dust had settled, six people were dead. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage was evident, and more than 40 families were displaced. While race riots were unfortunately not unheard of in the early 20th century, the display of bloodlust in Springfield was the last straw for a group of white liberals. Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, William English Walling, and Dr. Henry Moscowitz announced that they were holding a meeting to discuss the future of racial justice. A public statement, entitled “The Call,” was issued, protesting the status quo and inviting interested parties to attend the meeting. Over 60 people attended the multi-racial meeting, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells. The group initially called itself the Committee on the Negro.

The NAACP is Born

The group aimed to fight the segregation and “color-caste” system that had spread throughout the US in the decades since the conclusion of the Civil War. A national office was established in New York City, and by 1913, the NAACP had established branch offices around the country, including in Boston, Kansas City, Washington DC, and St. Louis. The group placed an emphasis on local grassroots organizing, and by 1919, over 300 local branches had also been created.

Not long after its inception, in 1910, the NAACP began issuing The Crisis, a monthly publication. The Crisis was founded and directed by W.E.B. Du Bois, who continued to edit the newspaper until 1934. According to Du Bois, the goal of the paper was to “set forth those facts and arguments which show the danger of race prejudice.” The paper is renowned as one of the first opportunities for Black writers and artists to share their work in a publication. It featured more than 100 short news reports within its pages each month.

In addition to discussing and promoting issues relevant to the Black community, the paper highlighted other race-based issues facing the country. For example, it was one of the first publications in the US to protest, in writing, the creation of Japanese internment camps during World War II. The Crisis has been printed for over a century, and its archive at the Library of Congress is the largest and most utilized collection. The Crisis continues to be published today, focusing on social justice issues, Black culture and arts, and Black history.

NAACP: Action and Activities

Up until 1950, the NAACP mainly focused on five areas: anti-lynching legislation, voter participation, employment, due process under the law, and education. Membership grew rapidly from the original meeting, rising to about 9,000 by 1917, then to 90,000 in 1919. Quickly, the organization established itself as an advocate for legal rights and went to work fighting a series of court battles in 1910. One notable early victory was achieved against a discriminatory Oklahoma law that restricted voting for people of color.

Many of the group’s legal battles focused on anti-lynching legislation. Vigilante violence was all too common, and eradicating it became one of the NAACP’s top priorities. In addition to court battles, the group staged mass protests, including a silent march of 8,000 participants in New York City in 1917, and used various publicity tactics to share horrifying statistics. One of the most impactful was a report entitled “Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1919.” The public discussion that followed this report is widely credited with helping to decrease lynching incidents in the following decades.

In the 1930s, the Great Depression struck and had a disproportionate effect on African Americans. During this period, the organization shifted focus to economic justice issues, including job discrimination and work with labor unions. Achievements included President Franklin Delano Roosevelt opening thousands of New Deal-era jobs to African Americans and the creation of a Fair Employment Practices Committee, FEPC. The NAACP saw its greatest successes in the northern and western states in the years leading up to World War II. It would become more instrumental in the South as the Civil Rights Movement gained traction in the post-war era.

In the post-war era, the NAACP experienced another surge in growth, followed by some years of struggle as the Southern political climate grew increasingly volatile. Certain governments at local, state, and federal levels proved hostile toward the organization as pressure for increased equality at all levels mounted and the Civil Rights Movement spread across the country.

Anti-discrimination laws became a focus of the organization as issues such as segregation were called to the forefront of the political discourse during this time. NAACP litigation director Charles Hamilton Houston and the organization’s legal counsel, Thurgood Marshall, presented 26 cases before the Supreme Court in 1954 alone, including the landmark Brown v Board of Education case, which ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The organization also had key roles in pushing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Racially-motivated violence was a very real element of the Civil Rights era, and those who inadvertently placed themselves in the spotlight while fighting for justice were often targeted by hate. In 1951, Harry Moore, an NAACP field secretary, was killed when his home was bombed. Another field secretary, Medgar Evers, survived an attempted bombing of his residence but was later killed by a sniper as he stood in front of his home.

The most well-known victim of such racist violence, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was perhaps most famously involved with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) but was also a member of the NAACP from a young age. He chaired the youth membership committee as a teen and recognized the importance of the NAACP’s efforts, following his own tenet of non-violence. After King’s assassination, membership rolls grew once again as people sought a way to channel their frustrations. Despite these tragedies, as the century progressed, the NAACP remained active, specifically in taking legal action to protect equal rights and voting, work it continues today.

Despite being founded over a century ago, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is very much a modern, active organization. Dedicated to fighting for the rights and equality of all people, the group has been instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement from the start. With over 100 years of effective efforts for change, the NAACP continues to fight civil injustice throughout the country.