National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

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A brief overview of your interest group (be sure to put its name in bold in the first sentence) and the scope of the article goes here.

The following list of sections should serve as a loose guideline for developing the body of your article. The works cited in references 2-5 are all fake; their purpose is to serve as a formatting model for your own citations.

History

1909 -- A group that originally deemed themselves the National Negro Committee, gathered to answer "The Call" in New York City on February 12, 1909. This group was composed of blacks and whites and eventually settled on the name The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

1910 -- The NAACP starts taking on courtroom battles fighting social injustice beginning with Pink Franklin. This case had as a defendant a black farm worker who had killed an officer of the law by mistake while defending himself and his home. The policeman had broken into his home in the middle of the night to arrest him for a civil crime. Mr. Franklin lost and the next year the NAACP decided to make these types of cases a high priority.

1913 -- The NAACP protests President Woodrow Wilson's decision to segregate the government at the federal level.

1915 -- Birth of a Nation is released and the NAACP protests it as being infflammatory and bigoted.

1917 -- The NAACP wins the fight to commision African Americans as officers during World War One.

1917 -- Buchanan V. Warley -- this case is decided by the Supreme court and determined that states are not allowed to separate blacks into separate neighborhoods.

1918 -- The NAACP convinces Woodrow Wilson to come out publicly against lynching.

1920 -- The NAACP holds its conference in Atlanta as a statement of confidence to the Klan who was very active in Georgia.

1922 -- The NAACP is one of the first interest groups to buy major advertising on behalf of a cause. It runs several newspaper ads against lynching.

1930 -- The NAACP protests nominee to the Supreme Court John Parker for his discriminatory views.

1935 -- The University of Maryland is forced to allow black students to attend. The attorneys charged with representing the black student were also African American.

1939 -- African American soprano, Marian Anderson, was not allowed to play at the Constitution Hall of the Daughters of the Revolution. The NAACP held her concert an the Lincoln Memorial instead and in attendance were over 75,000 individuals.

1941 -- The NAACP fights to ensure equality for African Americans during World War II. This leads President Franklin Roosevelt to declare a non-discrimination policy in both the federal government and industries related to the war.

1945 -- Congress refuses to support the Federal Fair Rooselvelt Employment Practices Commission which causes the NAACP to lead a protest.

1945 -- Kerr v. Enoch Pratt Free Library -- created the Kerr Principle which ensured that the state is held accountable for allowing exclusive treatment. The library had denied entrance to Louise Kerr because the patrons did not like that she was black. The courts determined that they could not violate her equal protection of the law.

1946 -- Morgan v. Virginia -- ends segration in interstate travel by bus or train.

1948 -- President Truman is pressured by the NAACP into signing an Executive Order to ban any discrimination within the Federal government.

1951 -- Civil rights worker Harry T. Moore is killed in a bombing along with his wife.

1954 -- Brown v. the Board of Education -- segregatio in public schools is ended.

1955 -- Rosa Parks, a member of the NAACP, famously refuses to give up her seat on the bus for a white person. This sparks a bus boycott and one of the biggest grass roots civil rights movements in history. The NAACP joins with other black organizations to head the movement.

1960 -- The Youth Council of the NAACP lead non violent protests in North Carolina eventually forcing the desegretaion of many of the businesses in the area.

1963 -- The NAACP starts pressuring for the passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.

1963 -- Medgar Evers, civil rights leader and NAACP's first field director is killed in front of his house. The assisination of John F. Kennedy occured just 5 months later.

1964 -- The Civil Rights Act is passed.

1965 -- The Voting Rights Act is passed. The NAACP works to register and faciliate voting for thousands.

1979 -- NAACP leads legislation to allow voter registration to take place in public schools.

1981 -- The Voting Rights Act is again championed by the NAACP who fights to have it extended for 25 years.

1981 -- The Fair Share Program is established to partner with NAACP and businesses nationwide enabling opportunity for people of color.

1985 -- New York is the home of an enormous rally agains apartheid put on by the NAACP.

1987 -- Judge Robert Bork is a nominee for the Supreme Court and the NAACP begins to protest him on the basis that he had often been an obstacle to the goals of black Americans in their quest to utilize the rights established in the constitution.

1989 -- The NAACP works to assist with a silent March including over 100,000 individuals protest the decisions made by the Supreme Court that had taken away rights previously won to end discrimination.

1991 -- David Duke, former Ku Klux Klan leader, runs for Louisiana US Senate seat and the NAACP rails against him. They are able to register 76% of black voters and get them to turn out against Duke who is defeated.

1995 -- The Economic Reciprocity Program is launched by the NAACP as well as the "Stop the Violence, Start the Love Campaign" to work first against inequalities in the work place and second to end violence among youths in their communities.

2000 -- In response to protests against the lack of black actors in leading roles, the NAACP leads the TV Diversity Agreements. The nation sees the largest black voter participation since the 80s.

2000 -- The biggest demonstration for civil rights in the South is held in South Carolina. The Great March is held to protest the Confederate Flag being flown.

2005 -- NAACP honors Barack Obama with a NAACP Image Award -- Chairman's Award.

Founding

In 1905, W.E.B. Du Bois founded a protest group filled with scholars and professionals tht he named the Niagra Movement. Usint his idea as a template, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded February 12, 1909 on the heels of the Springfield Race Riot of 1908. The riot was predicated on an incident that took place in August of that year. Two black men had been arrested as they had been accused of commiting violent crimes against whites in Springfield, Illinois. Because of media coverage detailing their location, a mob gathered demanding they be allowed to punish the men. A local business man named Harry Loper secretly drove the criminals to Bloomington's prison to protect them. When the mob found out, they started a riot and destroyed property of many local African Americans in Springfield killing at least six people. While there were 107 indictments, only one man was convicted of any crime -- stealing a sword from a member of the military. The murderers of the local blacks were not prosecuted.

Shortly after this event, a group formed that included liberal whites that had been descended from abolitionists. They sent out a call to action and gathered approximately 60 people (7 African Americans) to discuss the racial issues of the time and the inequality in the justice system.

Early members of the NAACP included: Mary White Ovington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Charles Edward Russell, George Henry White, Jane Addams, Oswald Garrison Villard, George Henry White, Josephine Ruffin, Fanny Garrison Villard, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Joel and Arthur Spingarn, John Haynes Holmes, Lillian Weld, Mary Church Terrell, Mary Mcleod Bethune, Mary Talbert, Lincoln Steffens, Inez Milholland, Ray Stannard Baker, Florence Kelley, Charles Darrow, Sophonisba Breckinridge, William Dean Howells, and John Dewey. There are now over 500,000 members in the world. It is America's oldest and most well known civil rights group.

Events

One of the earliest battles of the NAACP went on for 30 years and was a top priority - lynching. They took the position that the Dryer Bill, which was federal, should be signed into law as it would finally provide justice and punish those that didn't prosecute the lynch mobs or were a part of one. Although the bill was never passed, the dialogue spurred on by the report created by the NAACP (Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1919) was credited with greatly lowering lynching. In 2005 the government finally apologized for the lynching tragedy noting that there had been 4,700 victims since 1882. On three different occasions, the Senate failed to pass anti lynching bills even with the persistence of the NAACP. While the apology was offered, it was not unaminous proving that even though time had passed the goals of the NAACP were still in need of attainment.

There have been many casualties in the battle for civil rights and NAACP member Harry T. Moore was a significant loss to the cause. Mr. Moore started a chapter of the NAACP in Florida's Brevard County. He fought hard for equal rights and entered the public discourse on police brutality and lynchings. As he became more well known by registering record numbers of black voters, he and his wife Harriet were both fired from their teaching jobs and became blacklisted from teaching. Because of this, he took a paid position with the NAACP.

In an instance similar to the Springfield riot, a rape case in Groveland caused a riot. Four adolescent African American men were accused of raping a white woman. While being detained, they were severely beaten. They were initially convicted, but the Supreme Court overturned the case. Prior to their new trial, the sheriff was transporting them to a pre trial hearing and shot both men claiming that they tried to escape and attacked them. One of the men survived and stated that the sheriff had just pulled them out of the car and began shooting. Harry T. Moore protested and asked that Sheriff McCall be indicted for murder and taken off the job. Six weeks later Harry T. Moore and his wife Harriet were killed by a bomb in their home while sleeping. The NAACP supported many rallies and memorials nationwide protesting the murders of the Moores. The Ku Klux Klan was implicated in the bombing.

Medgar Evers was another significant figure in the NAACP who met a tragic end. Even though he had fought as a soldier in the Battle of Normandy, he faced discrimination at every turn as a black man in the United States. Evers started as a member of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and learned activism and community organizing here. He applied to law school at the University of Mississippi Law School and was rejected as it was a segregated school. The NAACP campaigned to desegregate and then the Supreme Court found segregation unconstitiutional in the momentous Brown v. the Board of Education ruling. Evers then became Mississippi's first NAACP field organizer.

When a young, black boy from Chicago named Emmet Till was murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman and local officials tried to cover up the crime, Evers involved himself. He and others from the NAACP dressed as cotton pickers to work undercover and find details of the crime. Their work led to the discovery of the mutilated body of the boy. Shortly after this work, people began making attempts on his life. First someone threw a flaming molotov cocktail at his garage. Then someone tried to run him over with a vehicle in front of the NAACP office. Finally, as Evers was arriving from an NAACP meeting carrying shirts with logos "Jim Crow Must Go", someone shot him in the back. This murder took place very shortly after JFK's speech supporting civil rights that had aired nationally. Again, a Klu Klux Klan member was charged with his murder, but was not convicted originally. In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the crime.

Current objectives and activities

According to its own website,http://www.naacp.org/about/mission/index.htm, "the vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to promote an end to racial hatred and discrimination in our society where all citizens are to be treated equally under the law. The objectives listed by the organization are:

To ensure the politcal, educational, social and economic equality of all citizens.

To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States

To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes

To seek enactiment and enforcment of federal, state and local laws securing civil rights

To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination

To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in the furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP's Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution"

One of the objectives of the NAACP is to ensure positive portrayals of African Americans in the media. In the late 1800s, stereo types of black people were prevalent in films. Blackface was one of many offensive examples that were all the rage when the NAACP was created in 1909. The movie Birth of a Nation caused a great controversy as it was extremely racist and portrayed the fleeing of the slaves as the cause for the destruction of the way of life in the South. The repercussions of this film were that blacks were mistreated in towns where the movie played. The positive ramification was that the NAACP received recognition for speaking out as the issue was so widely known.

In the 1940s, the NAACP's Executive Secretary Walter White pressed hard on Hollywood to stop creating and encouraging these stereotypical roles for African Americans. He made headway and was deemed controversial because black actors of the day were vocally opposed to his strategy. Hattie McDaniel, who was an Oscar winner, was attributed with stating that she would prefer to portray a maid in a film, than to actually be one.

The 1950s saw the advent of television and with this came more of the same stereotypes as had been seen on film and heard on the radio. While the NAACP was unsuccessful in attempts to stop offensive shows like Amos N' Andy, it pressed on toward equality in the media.

The statistics they have from as recently as 2007 show that there are still major hurdles in equality in the images in the media. While things have improved since 1999 where the NAACP called out the fact that there were no people of color in a leading role for the entire season, in fact, since 2002 the number of African Americans and other minorities on primetime shows has been dropping. In order to combat this, the organization will continue monitoring the situation and bringing this type of information to the country's attention. While they have threatened a boycott, the NAACP prefers to negotiate and educate without denying the possibility of impending marches.

Organizational structure

OFFICERS OF THE NAACP

CHAIRMEN – NAACP BOARD

1909 William English Walling Chairman NAACP Executive Committee

1910 – 1911 William English Walling Chairman NAACP Executive Committee

1911 – 6/1912 Oswald Garrison Villard Chairman, NAACP Executive Committee

1912 – 1/1914 Oswald Garrison Villard Chairman NAACP Board

1914 – 1919 Joel E. Spingarn Chairman NAACP Board

1919 – 1934 Mary White Ovington Chairman NAACP Board

1934 – 1953 Dr. Louis T. Wright Chairman NAACP Board

1953 – 1960 Dr. Channing H. Tobias Chairman NAACP Board

1960 – 1961 Dr. Robert C. Weaver Chairman NAACP Board

1961 – 1975 Bishop Stephen Gill Spottswood Chairman NAACP Board

1975 – 1983 Margaret Bush Wilson Chairman NAACP Board

1983 – 1985 Kelly M. Alexander Sr. Chairman NAACP Board

1985 – 1995 Dr. William F. Gibson Chairman NAACP Board

1995 – 1998 Mrs. Myrlie Evers Williams Chairman NAACP Board

1998 – Present Julian Bond Chairman NAACP Board

NAACP NATIONAL PRESIDENTS

In 1996, the NAACP Board of Directors established the title President/CEO to replace the existing staff title Executive Director / CEO. At the same time, the elected office of President was eliminated.

The elected National Presidents are as follows: 1910 – 1929 Moorfield Storey 1930 – 1939 Joel E. Spingarn 1939 – 1966 Arthur B. Spingarn 1966 – 1975 Kivie Kaplan 1976 -1983 Dr. W. Montague Cobb 1983 – 1984 James Kemp 1984 – 1989 Enolia McMillian 1990 – 1992 Hazel N. Dukes 1992 – 1996 Mrs. Rupert Richardson*

• The last elected President

EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES

February, 1910 - March, 1911 Francis Blascoer April, 1911 - June, 1912 Mary White Ovington June, 1912 - January, 1916 Mary Childs Nerney January, 1916 - February, 1916 Mary White Ovington(Acting) February, 1916 - September, 1917 Royall Freeman Nash May, 1917 - January, 1918 James Weldon Johnson(Acting) January, 1918 - May 1920 John R. Shillady September, 1920 - January, 1931 James Weldon Johnson January, 1931 - April, 1955 Walter White April, 1955 – August, 1977 Roy Wilkins*

• Title changed from Executive Secretary to Executive Director

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/CEO August, 1977 - May, 1993 Benjamin L. Hooks May, 1993 - August,1994 Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. September, 1994 - January, 1996 Earl Shinhoster (Acting)

PRESIDENT/CEO February, 1996 – December 31, 2004 Kweisi Mfume January, 2005 – August 1, 2005 Dennis Hayes* August 1, 2005 – February, 2007 Bruce Gordon February, 2007 – September 14, 2008 Dennis Hayes* September 15, 2008 – Present Benjamin T. Jealous

Achievements

Right after the group was formed in 1909 they won a series of cases regarding discriminary voting practices in the state of Oklahoma and the organization became known as a legal advocate.

One of the major achievements of the NAACP is the creation of The Crisis which is a magazine for civil rights. It is one of the oldest journals in the United States. It's goal is to be a respected periodical filled with opinion, high level thinking and analysis. This is a bi monthly publication focused on discussing matters of interest for the country, the world, people of cullor and all types of cultural achievements.

References

NAACP | National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 2009. 9 September 2009 <http://www.naacp.org/about/missionindex.html

"George W. Bush, the NAACP, and the Persistent Damage to Black Higher Education." Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no.52 (2006): 78-80.

"Black America: After 9/11." Black Scholar 32.2 (2002): 2-25.

"Remarks at a Dinner Celebrating the 90th Anniversary of the NAACP, February 19, 1999." Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents 35.8 (1999): 262-6.

Dates, Jannette L. "Black Women in Charge in Prime Time: Since the NAACP's Bad Report Card about Blacks and Television there has been some Improvement but Not nearly enough." Television Quarterly 34.3/4 (2004): 28-33.

Dreyfuss, Robert. "Rousing the Democratic Base." American Prospect 11.23 (2000): 20-3.

Grossman, Andrew D. "Segregationist Liberalism: The NAACP and Resistance to Civil-Defense Planning in the Early Cold War, 1951-1953." International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 13.3 (2000): 477-97.

Mellow, Craig. "Taking Stock at the NAACP." New Leader 65 (1982): 6-7.

Perkins, Stephynie Chapman. "Un-Presidented: A Qualitative Framing Analysis of the NAACP's Public Relations Response to the 2000 Presidential Election." Public Relations Review 31.1 (2005): 63-71.

Pinderhughes, Dianne M. "The NAACP on the Eve of the 21st Century: Rocked by Scandal and a Leadership Crisis, America's most Visible Civil Rights Organization Prepares for New Challenges in its Second Century." Focus 23 (1995): 5-6.

Price-Spratlen, Townsand. "The Urban Context of Historical Activism: NAACP Depression Era Insurgency and Organization-Building Activity." Sociological Quarterly 44.3 (2003): 303-28.

Tauber, Steven C. "On Behalf of the Condemned? the Impact of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on Capital Punishment Decisions Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals." Political Research Quarterly 51.1 (1998): 191-219.