list of naacp presidents list of naacp presidents

The NAACP began to lead lawsuits targeting disfranchisement and racial segregation early in its history. The NAACP Youth & College Division is a branch of the NAACP in which youth are actively involved. Roy Wilkins, NAACP's executive director, clashed repeatedly with Martin Luther KingJr. and other civil rights leaders over questions of strategy and leadership within the movement. Winners of the local competitions are eligible to proceed to the national event at a convention held each summer at locations around the United States. Assisting the NAACP throughout the years were many celebrities and leaders, including Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, Jackie Robinson, Harry Belafonte, Ella Baker, an NAACP director of branches who stressed the importance of young people and women in the organization by recruiting members, raising money, and organizing local campaigns; Daisy Bates, Lorraine C. Miller served as interim president after Benjamin Jealous stepped down. Local, youth, and college chapters organize activities for individual members. Chair, Labor & Industry . A series of early court battles, including a victory against a discriminatory Oklahoma law that regulated voting by means of a grandfather clause (Guinn v. States, 1910), helped establish the NAACP's importance as a legal advocate. A group of African American and White men and women establish the NAACP. Starting on December 5, 1955, NAACP activists, including Edgar Nixon, its local president, and Rosa Parks, who had served as the chapter's Secretary, helped organize a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. 1945", "The NAACP Was Established February 12, 1909", "The Crisis | Definition, History, & Facts", "Black News & Politics | The Crisis Magazine | United States", "Working to Extend America's Freedoms: Jewish Involvement in the Civil Rights Movement", "A century ago, James Weldon Johnson became the first Black person to head the NAACP", "Black Civil Rights and Liberal Anticommunism: The NAACP in the Early Cold War", "Federal Surveillance of African Americans", "The NAACP's 93rd Convention: An Assessment (archived copy)", "Bush campaign denounces Dallas NAACP comments on Lieberman", "Black leader suspended for anti-semitic Lieberman slur", AJCongress on Statement by NAACP Chapter Director on Lieberman, "Editorial: No mutual respect: Mr. Bush unwisely forgoes NAACP meeting", "President Bush addresses the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) national convention", Bush invokes civil rights in NAACP speech, "Citing July Speech, I.R.S. It organized the first of the two 1935 New York anti-lynching exhibitions in support of the Costigan-Wagner Bill, having previously widely published an account of the Lynching of Henry Lowry, as An American Lynching, in support of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. Founded in 1909, the organization claimed 3 branches in 1912 then surged to nearly 400 chapters with about 90,000 dues paying members in 1919-1920. In 1996, the National Board of Directors selected Kweisi Mfume, a former congressman and head of the Congressional Black Caucus, to serve as president and CEO. The Race Riot of 1908 in Springfield, Illinois, the state capital and Abraham Lincoln's hometown, was a catalyst showing the urgent need for an effective civil rights organization in the U.S. Throughout the 1940s, the NAACP saw enormous growth in membership, recording roughly 600,000 members by 1946. He used his fortune to promote liberal causes, including women's suffrage, anti-imperialism, and Negro uplift. [Missouri Senate Bill] SB 43 legalizes individual discrimination and harassment in Missouri and would prevent individuals from protecting themselves from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in Missouri. HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) - The Connecticut State Conference of NAACP Branches President Scot X. Esdaile has been selected to receive the 2022 NAACP Activist of the Year Award. iii. As a Black woman and a lesbian, Ernestine Eckstein was a leading supporter of both civil and LGBTQ rights in the 1960s and 70s. Listed below are a few of the recognitions: Kelly M. Alexander Sr. State Conference President's Award. They were particularly concerned by the Southern states' disenfranchisement of blacks starting with Mississippi's passage of a new constitution in 1890. Led by Roy Wilkins, who succeeded NAACP collaborated with A. Philip Randolph, organizations to plan the historic 1963 March on Washington. Throughout its 30-year campaign, the NAACP waged legislative battles, gathered and published crucial statistics, organized mass protests, and produced artistic material all in the name of bringing an end to the violence. Storey was a long-time classical liberal and Grover Cleveland Democrat who advocated laissez-faire free markets, the gold standard, and anti-imperialism. The NAACP is headquartered in Baltimore, with additional regional offices in New York, Michigan, Georgia, Maryland, Texas, Colorado and California. As a result, the group came to be known as the Niagara Movement. 58th Annual Bridge Crossing Gala . Wells. Robert L. Bradby, Sr., Benjamin Willoughby Lambert and William Osby. He made a bid for increasing support by African Americans for Republicans, in the midst of a midterm election. Houston's victory in Missouri ex rel. When the NAACP opened its national office in New. The NAACP's Legal department, headed by Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall, undertook a campaign spanning several decades to bring about the reversal of the "separate but equal" doctrine announced by the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Gaines v. Canada (1938) led to the formation of the Legal Defense Fund in 1939. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, which was disproportionately disastrous for African Americans, NAACP began to focus on economic justice. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan African Culture, The Suppression of the African Slave-trade to the United States of America, W.E.B. . [20][21], The Pan-American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York, featured many American innovations and achievements, but also included a disparaging caricature of slave life in the South as well as a depiction of life in Africa, called "Old Plantation" and "Darkest Africa", respectively. : 4 Raptor; Idaho has designated a state raptor. Fighting racial injustice by building Black political, social, and economic power, An environmental, social, and economic revolution, An inclusive culture of health and equitable social health systems, Support for young leaders and change agents, Fair and just representation for all by standing up for our rights in the courts and in Congress. Mary White Ovington, journalist William English Walling and Henry Moskowitz met in New York City in January 1909 to work on organizing for black civil rights. Johnson was a former U.S. consul to Venezuela and a noted African-American scholar and columnist. The NAACP feared members could be fired or face violent retaliation for their activities. "[54], Alcorn's remarks were also condemned by Jesse Jackson, Jewish groups and George W. Bush's rival Republican presidential campaign. [8] On June29, 2020 Washington, D.C., radio station WTOP reported that the NAACP intends to relocate its national headquarters from its longtime home in Baltimore, Maryland, to the Franklin D. Reeves Center of Municipal Affairs, a building owned by the District of Columbia[9] located on U and 14th Streets in Northwest Washington, D.C.[10] Derrick Johnson, the NAACP's president and CEO, emphasized that the organization will be better able to engage in and influence change in D.C. than in Baltimore.[11]. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln's birth. In doing so, the board changed the name of the leadership position once more. [34], The larger conference resulted in a more diverse organization, where the leadership was predominantly white. In April 2019, the NAACP published a report outlining the tactics used by the fossil fuel industry. at Embassy Suites by Hilton . by Bobby Harrison April 23, 2023. He was 40 years old. NAACP membership grew rapidly, from around 9,000 in 1917 to around 90,000 in 1919, with more than 300 local branches. The table provides a list of presidents of the United States. Other early members included Joel and Arthur Spingarn, Josephine Ruffin, Mary Talbert, Inez Milholland, Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Sophonisba Breckinridge, John Haynes Holmes, Mary McLeod Bethune, George Henry White, Charles Edward Russell, John Dewey, William Dean Howells, Lillian Wald, Charles Darrow, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Fanny Garrison Villard, and Walter Sachs. Although outgoing Providence NAACP President Jim Vincent says neither email is inappropriate, he and other members wondered if Catala had obtained a list of the group's members, which Vincent. [25] Although both organizations shared membership and overlapped for a time, the Niagara Movement was a separate organization. Youth sections of the NAACP were established in 1936; there are now more than 600 groups with a total of more than 30,000 individuals in this category. White presided over the NAACP's most productive period of legal advocacy. [40] The NAACP organized the appeals for twelve black men sentenced to death a month later based on the fact that testimony used in their convictions was obtained by beatings and electric shocks. Michael Teasley, a white student who became the first white president of an NAACP student chapter at a historically black college, was found dead in his apartment on Monday. In addition to being the 97th recipient of the NAACP Spingarn Award, Mr. Belafonte served, supported, and was recognized by the NAACP in numerous capacities. DuBois of the situation, and a coalition began to form. - Photo by Grace Brown of the Sentinel-Record. The goal of the Health Division is to advance health care for minorities through public policy initiatives and education. By the 1950s the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, headed by Marshall, secured the last of these goals through Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which outlawed segregation in public schools. Civil Rights Award, Florida Conference on Civil Rights. [47] NAACP activists were excited about the judicial strategy. In 1962, their home was firebombed and later Medgar was assassinated by a sniper in front of their residence. Roving white vigilantes killed more than 200 black tenant farmers and federal troops after a deputy sheriff's attack on a union meeting of sharecroppers left one white man dead. Click here to see video of our 2020 virtual state convention. In 1916, chairman Joel Spingarn invited James Weldon Johnson to serve as field secretary. We are proud of our long-standing relationship with the Jewish community and I personally will not tolerate statements that run counter to the history and beliefs of the NAACP in that regard. 1954 The NAACP's most famous case was Brown v. After such, Rupert Richardson began her term as president of the NAACP in 1992. [14], The organization has never had a woman president, except on a temporary basis, and there have been calls to name one. Their dismissal led to Bryan v. Austin in 1957, which became an important civil rights case. The Niagara Movement was formed exclusively by African Americans. The first local branch in Arkansas was established in Little Rock (Pulaski County) on July 4, 1918. With the rise of private corporate litigators such as the NAACP to bear the expense, civil suits became the pattern in modern civil rights litigation,[46] and the public face of the Civil Rights Movement. NAACP's Washington, D.C., bureau, led by lobbyist Clarence M. Mitchell Jr., helped advance not only integration of the armed forces in 1948 Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1964, and 1968 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was elected board chairman of the NAACP in 1915 and served as president from 1929-1939. During the Second Red Scare the NAACP was often linked to Communism by right-wing politicians. Massive immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe was ongoing. The president was John Hamilton McConico, and the fifty founding members included many of the city's leading African-American figures of . The California NAACP is a branch of the national organization NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). The NAACP's national convention has been held annually in the following cities: Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Since our founding in 1909, we have been, and continue to be, on the front lines of the fight for civil rights and social justice. DuBois, Ida B. The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the country's first and foremost civil and human rights law firm. A. C. P., ca. James T. Patterson and William W. Freehling, Randall Kennedy, "Martin Luther King's constitution: a legal history of the Montgomery bus boycott.". 3 of 5 4 of 5 On November 12, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Benjamin Jealous, the national president and CEO of the NAACP, is working with his organization to encourage African Americans to . She also won the award in 2004. [57] Bush's spokesperson said that Bush had declined the invitation to speak to the NAACP because of harsh statements about him by its leaders. Women's leadership was instrumental to the growth of the NAACP, and the election of Mary McLeod Bethune as vice-president of the organization in 1940 continued the example set by Ovington, Angelina Grimk, and others. Chair, Religious Affairs . The Youth Council is composed of hundreds of state, county, high school and college operations where youth (and college students) volunteer to share their opinions with their peers and address local and national issues. [41], The NAACP also worked for more than a decade seeking federal anti-lynching legislation, but the Solid South of white Democrats voted as a bloc against it or used the filibuster in the Senate to block passage. Intimidated by the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service, the Legal and Educational Defense Fund, Inc., became a separate legal entity in 1957, although it was clear that it was to operate in accordance with NAACP policy. [31] Among other founding members were Lillian Wald, a nurse who had founded the Henry Street Settlement where the conference took place. On October 17-19, 1941, the loose confederation met at Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church of St. Petersburg and forms the first NAACP State Conference in the nation. Although the Supreme Court eventually overturned the state's action in NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449 (1958), the NAACP lost its leadership role in the Civil Rights Movement while it was barred from Alabama. As de facto racial segregation remained and job discrimination lingered and urban poverty and crime increased, NAACP advocacy and action remained critical for the Black community. As an NAACP director of branches, Ella Baker stressed the importance of young people and women in the organization by recruiting members, raising money, and organizing local campaigns. Ian Urbina, "Health Executive Named Chairwoman of N.A.A.C.P.,", Laguardia, Cheryl; Swoger, Bonnie J. M. (June 5, 2014). "[80], Since 1978, the NAACP has sponsored the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) program for high school youth around the United States. An African-American becomes President in 2008 as the stock market crashes and we enter The Great Recession . The organization also brought litigation to challenge the "white primary" system in the South. State NAACP leaders such as William J. BarberII of North Carolina participated actively against North Carolina Amendment1 in 2012, but conservative voters passed it. Records indicate that William Osby became the first President of the Detroit Branch NAACP and general membership meeting were held at St. Matthews Episcopal Church, which is still located on St. Antoine at Elizabeth. History. It gained a groundbreaking Supreme Court decision in Moore v. Dempsey 261 U.S. 86 (1923) that significantly expanded the Federal courts' oversight of the states' criminal justice systems in the years to come. Mfume stated, I strongly condemn those remarks. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC), Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), Black players in professional American football, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NAACP&oldid=1149817177, Civil liberties advocacy groups in the United States, Nonpartisan organizations in the United States, Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from June 2022, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2007, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2021, Articles needing additional references from July 2020, All articles needing additional references, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, "To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. The NAACP works to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes. James Weldon Johnson and Walter F. White, who served in that role successively from 1920 to 1958, were much more widely known as NAACP leaders than were presidents during those years. In alliance with the American Federation of Labor, the NAACP led the successful fight to prevent the nomination of John Johnston Parker to the Supreme Court, based on his support for denying the vote to blacks and his anti-labor rulings. Acadia Allen Ascension Assumption Avoyelles Beauregard Bienville Bossier Caddo Calcasieu Caldwell Cameron Catahoula Claiborne Concordia De Soto East Baton Rouge East Carroll East Feliciana Evangeline Franklin Grant Iberia Iberville Jackson Jefferson Jefferson Davis Lafayette Lafourche La Salle Lincoln Livingston . Sometimes volunteer work expands to a more international scale. Dr.William Gibson, a Greenville dentist, provided the South Carolina NAACP with long term leadership, serving as president from 1977 until he chose not to run for re-election in 1997. The program is designed to recognize and award African-American youth who demonstrate accomplishment in academics, technology, and the arts. It is our honor to list Awardees for this year's . ", Dalfiume, Richard. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)[a] is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W.E.B. The Honorable Sarah Anthony, Michigan State Senator. [22], In 1905, a group of thirty-two prominent African-American leaders met to discuss the challenges facing African Americans and possible strategies and solutions. [59][60], In October 2004, the Internal Revenue Service informed the NAACP that it was investigating its tax-exempt status based on chairman Julian Bond's speech at its 2004 Convention, in which he criticized President George W. Bush as well as other political figures. Local chapters sponsor competitions in various categories for young people in grades 912. The NAACP has "more than 2,200 affiliates covering all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Japan and Germany," with membership exceeding 500,000 people. Its headquarters is in Baltimore, Maryland. 1911 W.E.B. The boycott lasted 381 days. Julian Bond, civil rights movement activist and former Georgia State Senator, was chairman until replaced in February 2010 by healthcare administrator Roslyn Brock. [5][76][77][78][79], Those victories were mostly achieved in Northern and Western states before World WarII. Within four years, Johnson was instrumental in increasing the NAACP's membership from 9,000 to almost 90,000. Roosevelt ultimately agreed to open thousands of jobs to black workers when labor leader A. Philip Randolph, in collaboration with the NAACP, threatened a national March on Washington movement in 1941. [66] In a 2005 speech in Richmond, Virginia, Bond said: In a 2007 speech on the Martin Luther King Day Celebration at Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, Bond said, "If you don't like gay marriage, don't get gay married." ", "NAACP Proudly Announces 30th Anniversary ACT-SO Medalists", "N.A.A.C.P. [6] Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term colored people, referring to those with some African ancestry. NAACP stalwart Kivie Kaplan, a from Boston, served as president of the NAACP from 1966 until 1975, personally led nationwide NAACP Life Membership efforts, and fought to keep African Americans away from illegal drugs. Appalled at this rampant violence, a group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard (both the descendants of famous abolitionists), William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Possibly significant in the NAACP's vote was its concern with the HIV/AIDS crisis in the black community; while AIDS support organizations recommend that people live a monogamous lifestyle, the government did not recognize same-sex relationships as part of this. After early worries about its constitutionality, the NAACP strongly supported the federal Dyer Bill, which would have punished those who participated in or failed to prosecute lynch mobs. The Court's opinion reflected the jurisprudence of property rights and freedom of contract as embodied in the earlier precedent it established in Lochner v. New York. Du Bois played a key role in organizing the event and presided over the proceedings. By 1913, with a strong emphasis on local organizing, NAACP had established branch offices in such cities as Boston, MA, Baltimore, MD, Kansas City, MO, St. Louis, MO, Washington, D.C., and Detroit, MI. 2nd Vice President. The NAACP continued to use the Supreme Court's decision in Brown to press for desegregation of schools and public facilities throughout the country. Free COVID test kits are available through a new government website. NAACP Washington Branch and Unit Presidents. Buffalo #2136. Assist the secretary with various matters such as historical information The president was shot 12 times . We are over 111-years old and our better days . From this drop-down menu, move the cursor down and left-click on one of the following options: "Take Action," "Become a Member," or "Petitions.". Spokane. [3][4] Leaders of the organization included Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins. Los Angeles Lakers forward . The organization sent its field secretary Walter F. White to Phillips County, Arkansas, in October 1919, to investigate the Elaine Race Riot. Esdaile will be . The group elected Harry Tyson Moore as the first President of the Florida State Conference. Judith Bloom Fradin, and Dennis B. Fradin, Slavery in the colonial history of the United States, Historically black colleges and universities, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, a black flag stating "A Man Was Lynched Yesterday", United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, introducing citations to additional sources, Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, "Charity Navigator - Rating for NAACP Empowerment Programs, Inc", "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People | History", District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue property information for the Franklin D. Reeves Center of Municipal Affairs, NAACP intends to move national headquarters from Baltimore to DC's U Street corridor, "NAACP Plans To Move Its Headquarters From Baltimore To Washington, D.C.", "Who's going to be the next president of the NAACP? [17], As of 2007[update], the NAACP had approximately 425,000 paying and non-paying members. Men who had been voting for thirty years in the South were told they did not "qualify" to register. The "Legal" department focuses on court cases of broad application to minorities, such as systematic discrimination in employment, government, or education. On March 29, 1964, San Diego NAACP president Hartwell W. Ragsdale ordered a limousine to do an airport pick-up of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because, he said: "Having Dr. King here had meaning to me. . The Birth of the NAACP, Mob Violence, and the Challenge of Public Opinion. Gov. The following year, the Association accomplished what seemed an insurmountable task: the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1920, Johnson was elected head of the organization. Moorfield Storey, a white attorney from a Boston abolitionist family, served as the president of the NAACP from its founding to 1915. Together, we will remain vigilant in our mission until the promise of America is made real for all. Storey consistently and aggressively championed civil rights, not only for blacks but also for Native Americans and immigrants (he opposed immigration restrictions). Rutledge H. Pearson Leadership Award, Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches. Mr. Alcorn does not speak for the NAACP, its board, its staff or its membership. Houston was the Howard University law school dean whose strategy on school-segregation cases paved the way for his protg Thurgood Marshall to prevail in 1954's Brown v. Board of Education, the decision that overturned Plessy. Mouse over it with your cursor and a drop-down menu appears. "[82] The NAACP has been concerned about the influence of utilities which have contributed massive amounts of money to NAACP chapters in return for chapter support of non-environmentally friendly goals of utilities.