February 12 - NAACP Is Formed

This Day in History: 12 February 2020

 

12 February 1909

 

111 years ago, today, a group that included African American leaders, such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, announced the formation of a new organisation, called the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, the NAACP. This would have a great effect on the struggle for civil rights, and its journey throughout the 20^th century in America. The conference that led to the formation of the NAACP had been called in response to a race riot in Illinois, and here, the founders noted the disturbing trends of lynching, which had reached their peak in the 1890s and early 1900s, slightly after the Civil War. This was a time where segregation laws were starting to take effect across the South, and white supremacists were gaining control of state governments. Many of the NAACP's early members came from the Niagara Movement, a group created by black activists who were opposed to conciliation and assimilation.

 

At the beginning of the NAACP's life, they spread awareness of the lynching problem, and held a silent march in New York City, which consisted of 100,000 people. They also won a large legal victory in 1915, when the bypass of voting restrictions by whites was labelled unconstitutional. However, their most famous legal victory came in 1954, when the NAACP won the Brown v. Board of Education decision. As well as this, the NAACP also helped organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech. Because of its prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement, the NAACP have set an example for subsequent groups to follow and remains the largest and oldest active civil rights group in the United States.

 

Want to find out more about the history of the NAACP, and all they have done for African Americans? Click here for more information.