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Moorfield Storey
Storey served as the founding president of the NAACP for twenty years. He was a prominent constitutional lawyer and past president of the American Bar Association. A steadfast champion of the oppressed, he also served as secretary to abolitionist Senator Charles Summer who ran the Anti-Imperialist-League. Storey prosecuted the early NAACP victories. -
Niagara Movement
The Niagara Movement was a predecessor to the NAACP, led by W.E.B Du Bois, William Monroe, and other prominent civil rights activists. The movement was named after the location of its first meeting near Niagara Falls, Canada. The goal of the movement was to fight against racial discrimination, segregation, and inequality in the U.S. Members advocated for equal access to education, voting rights, and economic opportunities for African Americans. -
Mary White Ovington
Ovington was a social worker, freelance writer, and principal NAACP founder and officer for over 40 years. Born in Brooklyn, to a wealthy white abolitionist family, she became a socialist while at Radcliffe College. Ovington befriended W.E.B. Du Bois in 1904. She played an exigent role in the NAACP's evolution and stability. -
Founding of the NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded on February 12, 1909, by Moorfield Storey, Mary White Ovington, and a larger group of African Americans including W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimke, and Mary Church Terrell. -
W.E.B. Du Bois
Du Bois was a prominent African American sociologist, historian, author, and civil rights activist. Some of his notable achievements include co-founding the NAACP and serving as director of its magazine. He also published several influential works, such as "The Souls of the Black Folk" and "Black Reconstruction in America." Throughout his life, he was successful in fighting for racial equality and justice. -
Platform of the Negro Committee
The National Negro Conference was an interracial assembly of 300 men and women designed to scientifically refute the popular belief of black inferiority. The speakers included W.E.B. Du Bois, Livingston Farrand, Edwin Seligman, and Burt G. Wilder. A year later the committee met again and adopted the name "NAACP" to include all dark-skinned people. The goals of the NAACP were the abolition of segregation, discrimination, disenfranchisement, and racial violence. -
Franklin v. South Carolina
The NAACP took its first major legal case defending Pink Franklin, a black southern farmer accused of murder. Franklin left his employer after receiving an advance on wages, a warrant was sworn out for his arrest under an invalid state law. The next morning policemen arrived at his cabin to arrest him without stating the reason for his arrest and a gunfight ensued, killing an officer. Franklin was convicted and sentenced to death. The NAACP appealed the case and Franklin was freed in 1909. -
Racial Segregation in the Federal Government
The NAACP organized opposition to President Woodrow Wilson's introduction of racial segregation into federal government policy, workplaces, and hiring. African-American women's clubs were among the organizations to protest Wilson's changes, but the administration did alter its assignment of Southern cabinet members and the Southern bloc in Congress. -
NAACP Victory in Guinn v. United States
Many southern and border states devised barriers to circumvent the 15th Amendment and prohibit black voting. In 1910, Oklahoma passed a constitutional amendment, which held that only residents whose grandfathers had voted in 1865 vote, thus disqualifying descendants of slaves. Moorfield Storey was granted permission on behalf of the NAACP to argue the case. In June 1915, the Supreme Court ruled the case was in violation of the 15th Amendment. -
James Weldon Johnson
Johnson was a former U.S. consul to Venezuela and African-American columnist. He was invited to become vice secretary by chairman Joel Springarn. In four years, Johnson was instrumental in growing the NAACP membership from 9,000 to 90,000 -
Moore v. Dempsey
Twelve black men were arrested for the death of a white man during the Elaine Race Riot in Phillips County, Arkansas. Governor Charles Hillman Brough led a deployment of federal troops into the rural county, arresting hundreds of blacks. The NAACP organized appeals for the men which resulted in the groundbreaking case. It significantly expanded the Federal Courts' oversight of the state's criminal justice systems. -
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who became the first African American justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to his judicial service, he was an attorney for the NAACP. He was prominent in the movement to end racial segregation. He won 29 of the 32 civil rights cases he argued including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education, which ended racial segregation in public schools. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The NAACP played a significant role in the Brown v. Board of Education case that led to the desegregation of public schools in the U.S. The case started in 1951 when the NAACP filed a lawsuit on behalf of several African American families in Topeka, Kansas, who argued segregation of schools was unconstitutional. NAACP lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, helped prepare and present the legal arguments for the case. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
The NAACP lobbied to pressure Congress to pass the act, which established the Civil Rights Commission with the purpose of investigating alleged rights violations by private individuals and organizations against minority groups. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The NAACP played a pivotal role in the passage of this Act, which prohibited discrimination in employment, voting rights, public accommodations, and educational institutions. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The NAACP worked for years to push Congress to pass this Act, which aimed to eliminate discriminatory voting practices in the Southern states and protect the voting rights of African Americans.