this is the oldest and most famous
grassroots based civil rights group in
the United States welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
learning more about the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People or NAACP 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 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 emphatic white or
Jewish personalities and the only black
executive at this point was W EB Dubois
with the group formed on February 12
1909 the National Negro Committee was
founded to commemorate the hundredth
anniversary of Lincoln’s birth a year
later they became the n-double-a-cp 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
Dubois in 1910 the n-double-a-cp 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
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 the invaluable publicity the
group earned from that success helped
the n-double-a-cp
expand membership significantly between
1917 and 1919 the group went from 9,000
to 90,000 members the n-double-a-cp
spent the next years fighting against
lynching while anti lynching legislation
failed to
passed through the Senate due to
southern white Democrats the
n-double-a-cp did manage to reduce the
number of lynchings that occurred
the n-double-a-cp was inspired by the
ongoing Great Depression to battle for
economic equality between the races
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 versus the Board of Education
Supreme Court case ended segregation in
schools
the n-double-a-cp used the momentum from
this win to push for desegregation in
the south 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 n-double-a-cp to operate in
Alabama many feared local members would
lose their jobs or worse while the
n-double-a-cp was crippled groups like
Martin Luther King Jr’s Southern
Christian Leadership Conference picked
up the mantle but despite common goals
dr. King in the n-double-a-cp 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
n-double-a-cp even so the organization’s
came together in 1963 for the march on
Washington and helped lead to important
legislation civil rights acts passed in
1957 64 and 68 and the Voting Rights Act
of 1965 officially banned prejudice
voting systems with this central mission
accomplished the n-double-a-cp
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 the impact of this
grassroots organization has reverberated
through decades and today the
n-double-a-cp is recognized as vital in
the fight for equality and civil rights
grassroots based civil rights group in
the United States welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
learning more about the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People or NAACP 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 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 emphatic white or
Jewish personalities and the only black
executive at this point was W EB Dubois
with the group formed on February 12
1909 the National Negro Committee was
founded to commemorate the hundredth
anniversary of Lincoln’s birth a year
later they became the n-double-a-cp 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
Dubois in 1910 the n-double-a-cp 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
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 the invaluable publicity the
group earned from that success helped
the n-double-a-cp
expand membership significantly between
1917 and 1919 the group went from 9,000
to 90,000 members the n-double-a-cp
spent the next years fighting against
lynching while anti lynching legislation
failed to
passed through the Senate due to
southern white Democrats the
n-double-a-cp did manage to reduce the
number of lynchings that occurred
the n-double-a-cp was inspired by the
ongoing Great Depression to battle for
economic equality between the races
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 versus the Board of Education
Supreme Court case ended segregation in
schools
the n-double-a-cp used the momentum from
this win to push for desegregation in
the south 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 n-double-a-cp to operate in
Alabama many feared local members would
lose their jobs or worse while the
n-double-a-cp was crippled groups like
Martin Luther King Jr’s Southern
Christian Leadership Conference picked
up the mantle but despite common goals
dr. King in the n-double-a-cp 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
n-double-a-cp even so the organization’s
came together in 1963 for the march on
Washington and helped lead to important
legislation civil rights acts passed in
1957 64 and 68 and the Voting Rights Act
of 1965 officially banned prejudice
voting systems with this central mission
accomplished the n-double-a-cp
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 the impact of this
grassroots organization has reverberated
through decades and today the
n-double-a-cp is recognized as vital in
the fight for equality and civil rights
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