What is the NAACP?

September 19th RJSG meeting

Topic: Discussing the NAACP

• • How do you define the NAACP?
  • Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation.We have over 2,200 units and branches across the nation, along with well over 2M activists
  • Objectives include:
    • To ensure the political, 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 enactment and enforcement 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 furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP’s Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution
  • In 1908, a deadly race riot rocked the city of Springfield, the capital of Illinois and resting place of President Abraham Lincoln. Such eruptions of anti-black violence – particularly lynching – were horrifically commonplace, but the Springfield riot was the final tipping point that led to the creation of the NAACP. 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. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln’s birth.

• Knoxville NAACP

• • James Beck invited W. E. Dubois to Knoxville. Out of that meeting, the Knoxville NAACP was organized. On August 6, 1919, the Knoxville NAACP Chapter was chartered. The Knoxville Race Riot occurred August, 1919.
• National History: What was happening at that time:
  • 1900 – Race riots in New Orleans & New York City
  • Lynchings: 1901 (105) 1902 (85) 1903 (84) 1905 (57) 1906 (62) 1908 (89) 1910 (67)
  • 1915 – Movie Birth of a Nation released.
  • East St. Louis Massacre 1917 – more than 250 dead
  • 1918 -1922 NAACP helped with National Anti-Lynching Bill. Where 3 or more people are gathered to kill a person without authority of law. You could be charged with felony not exceeding 5 yrs or fined not exceeding 5k.
    • https://www.naacp.org/naacp-history-dyer-anti-lynching-bill/
  • The Arkansas Massacre 1919 – more than 200 dead
  • The Tulsa Massacre 1921 – “Black Wall Street” more than 300 killed
• 1948 NAACP helped with Integration in the Armed Forces
• 1954 Brown vs Board of Education (Thurgood Marshall)
  • Integrating schools
  • The Clinton 9. 
• NAACP helped with passage of the Civil Rights acts of 1957, 1964, 1968
• 1960’s NAACP posted bail for 100’s of freedom riders in the 1960’s who had travelled to Mississippi to register black voters and challenge Jim Crow policies.
• 1963 NAACP Helped organize the March on Washington where MLK gave the I have a dream speech.
• 1965 NAACP helped with voting rights act

“NAACP is a group of people trying to make change from within the system”

Knoxville NAACP

http://knoxvillenaacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/KNAACP-History.pdf

• Martin vs Malcolm 
  • Malcolm – By any means necessary
  • Martin – how MLK’s ideas changed over time.
    • 1955 –  “We want to love our enemies – be good to them. This is what we must live by, we must meet hate with love. We must love our white brothers no matter what they do to us.” – MLK
    • 1967 – “Urban riots are a special form of violence. They are not insurrections. The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or attain control of institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the white community… But most of all, alienated from society and knowing society cherishes property above people, [they are] shocking it by abusing property rights. – MLK
    • Discuss ways for us to make change today.
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund
  • The Legal Defense Fund – also referred to as the NAACP-LDF was founded in 1940 as a part of the NAACP, but separated in 1957 to become a completely separate entity. It is recognized as the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization, and shares our commitment to equal rights.
  • Discuss some of the accomplishments
  • Currently fighting for Police Union contract changes. 

• Scripture
  • Luke 6:31
    • Do to others as you would have them do to you.
• Prayer
  • Lord Break hearts to see the humanity in others.