History of the NAACP and Civil Rights
Springfield Race Riots
In 1908, a violent two-day race riot in Springfield, Illinois drove thousands of African Americans from the city and resulted in the destruction of many minority-owned businesses. This incident proved more poignant as Springfield was the birthplace of civil rights leader Abraham Lincoln.
The National Negro Committee
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In response, a group of white New York City liberals gathered a collection of prominent Americans with the goal of forming a civil rights organization. In fact, many of the group’s leading members were empathetic white or Jewish personalities, and the only black executive at this point was W. E. B. Du Bois. With the group formed, on February 12th, 1909, the National Negro Committee was founded to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. A year later, they became the NAACP.
Civil Rights Equality
The association’s main goal was to ensure the rights and equality of all United States citizens, as promised by the 13th, 14th and 15th Constitutional amendments. These ideals were publicized in the magazine The Crisis, which was founded by Du Bois in 1910.
Jim Crow Laws
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The NAACP became famous for working within the court system to battle existing “separate but equal” Jim Crow laws, which legally allowed racially-based segregation. This was epitomized in 1913 when the group took on President Woodrow Wilson for his introduction of such laws.
Ku Klux Klan
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Another of the group’s triumphs saw African Americans commissioned into the army. In 1915, they famously protested the popular silent film, “Birth of a Nation,” due to its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan, and succeeded in limiting its release.
Expansion
The invaluable publicity the group earned from that success helped the NAACP expand membership significantly: between 1917 and 1919, the group went from nine thousand to 90 thousand members.
Lynching
The NAACP spent the next years fighting against lynching. While anti-lynching legislation failed to pass through the Senate due to Southern white Democrats, the NAACP did manage to reduce the number of lynchings that occurred.
Economic Equality
The NAACP was inspired by the ongoing Great Depression to battle for economic equality between the races.
Brown v. the Board of Education
However, desegregation remained the group’s primary goal. During the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s, important progress was made: for example, the 1954 Brown v. the Board of Education Supreme Court case ended segregation in schools. The NAACP used the momentum from this win to push for desegregation in the South.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
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However, the group’s progress was soon halted. After they helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott in support of Rosa Parks, it became illegal for the NAACP to operate in Alabama. Many feared local members would lose their jobs, or worse.
NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr.
While the NAACP was crippled, groups like Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference picked up the mantle. But, despite common goals, Dr. King and the NAACP did not see eye-to-eye on how to achieve them: the association worked primarily within the system, while Dr. King advocated action. This led to criticism against the NAACP.
March on Washington
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Even so, the organizations came together in 1963 for the March on Washington, and helped lead to important legislation. Civil Rights Acts passed in 1957, 1964 and 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 officially banned prejudiced voting systems.
Into the 21st Century
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With this central mission accomplished, the NAACP expanded its efforts and continued fighting lingering signs of discrimination. Though they struggled in the 1990s through financial problems and sagging membership, they proved their value again during the 2000 election by empowering African Americans to vote in record numbers.
Legacy
The impact of this grassroots organization has reverberated through decades and today, the NAACP is recognized as vital in the fight for equality and civil rights.
