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101-499: CFFN member Stanley Branche NAACP member George Raymond Mayor of Chester James Gorbey Governor of Pennsylvania William Scranton State of New York State of Pennsylvania The Chester school protests were a series of demonstrations that occurred from November 1963 through April 1964 in Chester, Pennsylvania . The demonstrations aimed to end the de facto segregation of Chester public schools that persisted after

202-484: A heart attack . Citations Sources NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois , Mary White Ovington , Moorfield Storey , Ida B. Wells , Lillian Wald , and Henry Moskowitz . Over

303-837: A paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division and the 127th Regimental Combat Team in the Korean War . He was decorated three times. After the war, he attended the Combs College of Music and the Pennsylvania Institute of Criminology with the intent to be a policeman. Branche participated in the Cambridge Movement in Dorchester County, Maryland , as the field secretary for the NAACP. He returned to Chester in 1962 and his wife Anna introduced him to George Raymond , president of

404-755: A competing organization named the Committee on Economic Opportunity (CEO) however it was incorporated into the GCM with Branche serving on the steering committee. In 1968, Branche formed the Black Coalition Movement, a multiracial group formed in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He worked with Cecil B. Moore to desegregate Girard College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . Branche and seven others were arrested when they tried to trespass in

505-401: A drug kingpin, Major Coxson , and was known to travel throughout Philadelphia with Muhammad Ali . Branche ran for U.S. Representative of Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District in 1978 but lost to Tom Foglietta . He had another unsuccessful run for Congress in 1986 In 1979, Branche was recruited by W.M. Anderson Co., a mechanical contractor, to become the sole stockholder and chairman of

606-606: A forerunner to the NAACP. On May 30, 1909, the Niagara Movement conference took place at New York City's Henry Street Settlement House; they created an organization of more than 40, identifying as the National Negro Committee . Among other founding members were Lillian Wald , a nurse who had founded the Henry Street Settlement where the conference took place. Du Bois played a key role in organizing

707-451: A lawyer and clergyman, was elected his successor. In the 1990s, the NAACP ran into debt. The dismissal of two leading officials further added to the picture of an organization in deep crisis. After such, Rupert Richardson began her term as president of the NAACP in 1992. In 1993, the NAACP's Board of Directors narrowly selected Reverend Benjamin Chavis over Reverend Jesse Jackson to fill

808-458: A major get-out-the-vote offensive in the 2000 U.S. presidential elections . 10.5 million African Americans cast their ballots in the election; this was one million more than four years before. The NAACP's effort was credited by observers as playing a significant role in Democrat Al Gore 's winning several states where the election was close, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. During

909-477: A new constitution in 1890. Through 1908, Southern legislatures, dominated by white Southern Democrats , ratified new constitutions and laws creating barriers to voter registration and more complex election rules. In practice, this and the Lily-white movement caused the exclusion of most blacks and many poor whites from the political system in southern states. Black voter registration and turnout dropped markedly in

1010-697: A picket line outside Franklin Elementary; 130 more joined them within two days. The day after a mass meeting of community members on November 11, 400 people blocked the doors to Franklin Elementary School, which forced the cancellation of school for the day by early morning. After closing the school, protesters marched to the Mayor's chambers and the Board of Education. Protests outside of Franklin Elementary continued on November 13 and 14. Some participants lay down in front of

1111-444: A result, several cities refused to allow the film to open. The NAACP began to lead lawsuits targeting disfranchisement and racial segregation early in its history. It played a significant part in the challenge of Guinn v. United States (1915) to Oklahoma 's discriminatory grandfather clause , which effectively disenfranchised most black citizens while exempting many whites from certain voter registration requirements. It persuaded

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1212-417: A time with limited resources and internal conflict and disbanded in 1910. Seven of the members of the Niagara Movement joined the Board of Directors of the NAACP, founded in 1909. Although both organizations shared membership and overlapped for a time, the Niagara Movement was a separate organization. Historically, it is considered to have had a more radical platform than the NAACP. The Niagara Movement

1313-470: A woman president, except on a temporary basis, and there have been calls to name one. Lorraine C. Miller served as interim president after Benjamin Jealous stepped down. Maya Wiley was rumored to be in line for the position in 2013, but Cornell William Brooks was selected. Departments within the NAACP govern areas of action. Local chapters are supported by the "Branch and Field Services" department and

1414-467: Is to advance health care for minorities through public policy initiatives and education. As of 2007 , the NAACP had approximately 425,000 paying and non-paying members. The NAACP's non-current records are housed at the Library of Congress , which has served as the organization's official repository since 1964. The records held there comprise approximately five million items spanning the NAACP's history from

1515-737: The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill . 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. It organized legal support for the Scottsboro Boys . The NAACP lost most of the internecine battles with the Communist Party and International Labor Defense over

1616-622: The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act " and requiring the city to develop a desegregation plan for six predominantly African-American schools by January 31, 1965. The city appealed the ruling, delaying its implementation. In June 1964, Chester city leaders formed the Greater Chester Movement (GCM), an umbrella organization intended to coordinate activities of groups working toward the improvement of Chester. When President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated his War on Poverty ,

1717-644: The Supreme Court of the United States to rule in Buchanan v. Warley in 1917 that state and local governments cannot officially segregate African Americans into separate residential districts. 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 . It also played a role in desegregating recreational activities via

1818-559: The Swarthmore College chapter of Students for a Democratic Society and disgruntled parents. Branche became frustrated with the gradualist approach taken by Raymond and the NAACP and proposed more militant protest techniques. Substantial activism concerning school conditions took about a year to incubate in Chester after the establishment of the CFFN. On November 4, 1963, 20 protesters formed

1919-730: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 , which provided for protection of the franchise, with a role for federal oversight and administrators in places where voter turnout was historically low. Under its anti-desegregation director J. Edgar Hoover , the FBI 's COINTELPRO program targeted civil rights groups, including the NAACP, for infiltration, disruption and discreditation. Kivie Kaplan became NAACP President in 1966. After his death in 1975, scientist W. Montague Cobb took over until 1982. Roy Wilkins retired as executive director in 1977, and Benjamin Hooks ,

2020-685: The Wilson Goode administration's controversial bombing of the MOVE headquarters in West Philadelphia . Branche was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to five years in federal prison for extortion. A key piece of evidence was an FBI recording of Branche and George Botsaris, a leader of the Philadelphia Greek Mob . Reverend Jesse Jackson was among those that wrote to the parole board in support of Branche's parole. He died on December 22, 1992, of

2121-418: The gold standard , and anti-imperialism . Storey consistently and aggressively championed civil rights , not only for blacks but also for Native Americans and immigrants (he opposed immigration restrictions). Du Bois continued to play a pivotal leadership role in the organization, serving as editor of the association's magazine, The Crisis , which had a circulation of more than 30,000. The Crisis

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2222-609: The " Birmingham of the North". The protests came to an end on April 26, when Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton convinced protestors to obey a court-ordered moratorium on demonstrations by forming the Pennsylvania Human Relations Committee to hold hearings on school desegregation. In November 1964, the committee concluded that the Chester School Board had violated the law. The Chester School District

2323-554: The " separate but equal " doctrine announced by the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson . The NAACP's Baltimore chapter, under president Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson , challenged segregation in Maryland state professional schools by supporting the 1935 Murray v. Pearson case argued by Marshall. Houston's victory in Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938) led to the formation of

2424-623: The "Freedom Now Conference" and other national civil rights leaders such as Gloria Richardson came to Chester in support of the demonstrations. In the spring of 1964, huge protests over multiple days ensued which resulted in mass arrests of protesters. The mayor of Chester, James Gorbey , issued "The Police Position to Preserve the Public Peace", a ten-point statement promising an immediate return to law and order. The city deputized firemen and trash collectors to help handle demonstrators. The State of Pennsylvania deployed 50 state troopers to assist

2525-537: The "Youth and College" department. The "Legal" department focuses on court cases of broad application to minorities, such as systematic discrimination in employment, government, or education. The Washington, D.C. , bureau is responsible for lobbying the U.S. government, and the Education Department works to improve public education at the local, state, and federal levels. The goal of the Health Division

2626-414: The 1954 Brown decision, the school board created "neighborhood schools" that purported to eschew racial discrimination, but which reflected the surrounding residentially segregated neighborhoods. Just one of Chester's 16 public schools was substantially racially integrated. When local church and civil rights leaders confronted the school board about the de facto segregation, the school board acknowledged

2727-686: The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka . The racial unrest and civil rights protests were led by Stanley Branche of the Committee for Freedom Now (CFFN) and George Raymond of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP). The protests intensified from February to April 1964, featuring civil rights rallies, marches, pickets, boycotts, and sit-ins. More than 600 people were arrested. National civil rights leaders such as Dick Gregory , Gloria Richardson , and Malcolm X came to Chester to support

2828-456: The 2000 presidential election, Lee Alcorn , president of the Dallas NAACP branch, criticized Al Gore's selection of Senator Joe Lieberman for his vice-presidential candidate because Lieberman was Jewish. On a gospel talk radio show on station KHVN , Alcorn stated, "If we get a Jew person, then what I'm wondering is, I mean, what is this movement for, you know? Does it have anything to do with

2929-480: The 77-member Chester police force. On April 20, The CFFN, the NAACP , and the Chester School Board met to discuss the legal charges brought against protesters who were arrested. Raymond presented the school board with a list of 10 demands including teacher transfers, transportation of students to schools in other neighborhoods, hiring blacks for supervisory positions and hiring more black secretaries. The next day, April 21,

3030-446: The 77-member Chester police force. The demonstrations were marked by violence and charges of police brutality. Over six hundred people were arrested over a two-month period of civil rights rallies, marches, pickets, boycotts and sit-ins. Branche acted as press spokesman, community liaison, recruiter and chief negotiator. Governor William Scranton convinced Branche to obey a court-ordered moratorium on demonstrations. Scranton created

3131-479: The Chester branch of the NAACP. Branche was initially assigned to the campaign to desegregate the Great Leopard Skating Rink. Branche and Raymond partnered to successfully challenge the minority hiring practices of large department stores, clothing shops, shoe stores and other specialty shops in downtown Chester. By the fall of 1963, Branche became frustrated with the gradualist approach of Raymond and

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3232-626: The Civil Rights Movement by pressing for civil rights legislation. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on August 28, 1963. That fall, President John F. Kennedy sent a civil rights bill to Congress before he was assassinated. President Lyndon B. Johnson worked hard to persuade Congress to pass a civil rights bill aimed at ending racial discrimination in employment, education and public accommodations, and succeeded in gaining passage in July 1964. He followed that with passage of

3333-825: The Civil Rights Movement while it was barred from Alabama. New organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC, in 1957) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, in 1960) rose up with different approaches to activism. Rather than relying on litigation and legislation, these newer groups employed direct action and mass mobilization to advance the rights of African Americans. Roy Wilkins , NAACP's executive director, clashed repeatedly with Martin Luther King ;Jr. and other civil rights leaders over questions of strategy and leadership within

3434-494: The Franklin Elementary school demonstrations, the CFFN recruited new members, sponsored voter registration drives and planned a citywide boycott of Chester schools. Branche built close ties with students at Swarthmore College , Pennsylvania Military College and Cheyney State College in order to ensure large turnouts at demonstrations and protests. Branche invited Dick Gregory and Malcolm X to Chester to participate in

3535-607: The GCM became a conduit through which federal dollars were distributed in Chester with Branche serving on the steering committee. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled on February 15, 1966 that the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission did not have the authority to force Chester schools to integrate. In response, the CFFN, NAACP , and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) announced new demonstrations. Branche attempted to reinstate another school boycott beginning on April 1, 1966, but most students ignored

3636-590: The Greater Chester Movement and the Black Coalition in Philadelphia. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Chester in 1967 and twice for U.S. Congress in 1978 and 1986. He left the civil rights movement and ran multiple businesses including co-ownership of a nightclub in Philadelphia with drug kingpin , Major Coxson . In 1989, he was convicted and sentenced to 5 years in federal prison for his participation in an organized crime collection scheme. Branche served as

3737-676: The Legal Defense Fund in 1939. The campaign for desegregation culminated in a unanimous 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that held state-sponsored segregation of public elementary schools was unconstitutional . Bolstered by that victory, the NAACP pushed for full desegregation throughout the South. NAACP activists were excited about the judicial strategy. Starting on December 5, 1955, NAACP activists, including Edgar Nixon , its local president, and Rosa Parks , who had served as

3838-554: The NAACP and recruited for its board such Jewish leaders as Jacob Schiff , Jacob Billikopf , and Rabbi Stephen Wise ." In its early years, the NAACP was based in New York City . It concentrated on litigation in efforts to overturn disenfranchisement of blacks, which had been established in every southern state by 1908, excluding most from the political system, and the Jim Crow statutes that legalized racial segregation . In 1913,

3939-526: The NAACP had been infiltrated by Communists. To distance themselves from these accusations, the NAACP purged suspected Communists from its membership, according to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 's website. The board of directors of the NAACP created the Legal Defense Fund in 1939 specifically for tax purposes. It functioned as the NAACP legal department. Intimidated by the Department of

4040-523: 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 that protested Wilson's changes, but the administration did not alter its assuagement of Southern cabinet members and the Southern bloc in Congress. By 1914, the group had 6,000 members and 50 branches. It

4141-412: The NAACP's membership from 9,000 to almost 90,000. In 1920, Johnson was elected head of the organization. Over the next ten years, the NAACP escalated its lobbying and litigation efforts, becoming internationally known for its advocacy of equal rights and equal protection for the "American Negro". The NAACP devoted much of its energy during the interwar years to fight the lynching of blacks throughout

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4242-463: The NAACP. He resigned and created a new activist organization named the Committee for Freedom Now (CFFN) along with the Swarthmore College chapter of Students for a Democratic Society and Chester parents to end de facto segregation of public schools and improve conditions at predominantly black schools in Chester. In 1962, Branche and the CFFN focused on improving conditions at the predominantly black Franklin Elementary school in Chester. Although

4343-459: The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission admitted that it failed to bring the civil rights groups and the school board to a compromise. The school board closed all Chester public schools indefinitely on April 22, claiming the purpose of the closures was to prevent violence. That night, 300 protesters rallied at the police station; after they refused to disperse, some were violently beaten by 40 Chester police officers. On April 23, another protest at

4444-574: The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission began hearings to determine the state of de facto segregation in Chester. The hearings included testimonies from multiple civil rights leaders in the area, including a testimony from Branche, a testimony from the school board president, Frances Donahoo, and reports from Commission investigators. The Commission finally released its verdict in November 1964, saying Chester public schools "had committed and continues to commit unlawful discrimination practices in violation of

4545-453: The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission to conduct hearings on the de facto segregation of public schools. All protests were discontinued while the commission held hearings during the summer of 1964. In November 1964, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission concluded that the Chester School Board had violated the law and ordered Chester School District to desegregate the city's six predominantly African-American schools. The city appealed

4646-710: The South as a result of such legislation. Men who had been voting for thirty years in the South were told they did not "qualify" to register. White-dominated legislatures also passed segregation and Jim Crow laws. Because hotels in the US were segregated, the men convened in Canada at the Erie Beach Hotel on the Canadian side of the Niagara River in Fort Erie, Ontario . As a result,

4747-627: The South were unable to elect representatives of their choice to office. The NAACP regularly displayed a black flag stating "A Man Was Lynched Yesterday" from the window of its offices in New York to mark each lynching. 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

4848-597: The Supreme Court ruled against the white primary. Although states had to retract legislation related to the white primaries, the legislatures soon came up with new methods to severely limit the franchise for blacks. During the Second Red Scare the NAACP was often linked to Communism by right-wing politicians. The House Un-American Activities Committee , the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security , and security agencies sought to prove to

4949-642: 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. After 1961 serious disputes emerged between the two organizations, creating considerable confusion in the eyes and minds of the public. By the 1940s, the federal courts were amenable to lawsuits regarding constitutional rights, against which Congressional action

5050-479: The U.S. In the decades around the turn of the century, the rate of lynchings of blacks, particularly men, was at an all-time high. 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. They sent out solicitations for support to more than 60 prominent Americans, and set a meeting date for February 12, 1909. This

5151-547: The United States by working for legislation, lobbying, and educating the public. The organization sent its field secretary Walter F. White to Phillips County , Arkansas, in October 1919, to investigate the Elaine Race Riot . 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. White published his report on

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5252-412: The arrest of 240 protesters. Following public attention to the protests stoked by media coverage of the mass arrests, the mayor and school board negotiated with the CFFN and NAACP. The Chester Board of Education agreed to reduce class sizes at Franklin school, remove unsanitary toilet facilities, relocate classes held in the boiler room and coal bin and repair school grounds. Emboldened by the success of

5353-517: The arts and media, Theatre Awards are for achievements in theatre and stage, and Spingarn Medals are for outstanding achievements of any kind. Its headquarters are in Baltimore , Maryland . The NAACP is headquartered in Baltimore , with additional regional offices in New York , Michigan , Georgia , Maryland, Texas , Colorado , and California . Each regional office is responsible for coordinating

5454-440: The board. That same year, Branche and an associate Gus Lacy were charged with bribery involving a medical student's attempt to get into Hahnemann Medical College . The charges were dropped in 1980 when a key witness died. In 1985, Branche partnered with the activist lawyer William Kunstler to file a lawsuit on behalf of MOVE member Louise James in an attempt to force Philadelphia District Attorney Ed Rendell to investigate

5555-410: The boiler room and coal bin, and repair school grounds. On the evening of November 14, the school board agreed to repair schools and reduce overcrowding by transferring 173 students from Franklin Elementary School. Still, the following day, hundreds of demonstrators crowded the doors of the school. Protests relented for a couple of months while the CFFN established a better structure and added goals to

5656-565: The boycott. Over a year later, on September 26, 1967, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled to reinstate the authority of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Following this decision, the Chester School Board voted to "eliminate or substantially reduce" the de facto segregation at six schools on October 2, 1967. Charges against protesters who were arrested in the boycotts and demonstrations were not thrown out until 1971. Citations Sources Stanley Branche In

5757-746: The chapter's Secretary, helped organize a bus boycott in Montgomery , Alabama. This was designed to protest segregation on the city's buses, two-thirds of whose riders were black. The boycott lasted 381 days. In 1956 the South Carolina legislature created an anti-NAACP oath, and teachers who refused to take the oath lost their positions. After twenty-one Black teachers at the Elloree Training School refused to comply, White school officials dismissed them. Their dismissal led to Bryan v. Austin in 1957, which became an important civil rights case. In Alabama,

5858-436: The control of those cases and the legal strategy to be pursued in that case. The organization also brought litigation to challenge the " white primary " system in the South. Southern state Democratic parties had created white-only primaries as another way of barring blacks from the political process. Since the Democrats dominated southern states, the primaries were the only competitive contests. In 1944 in Smith v. Allwright ,

5959-499: The de facto segregation of public schools. All protests were discontinued while the commission held hearings during the summer of 1964. Judge John V. Diggins granted the requests of the Chester School Board on April 28 to place an injunction that would prohibit demonstrators from protesting on or near public school property, allowing the schools to reopen. Over 600 people were arrested over a two-month period of civil rights rallies, marches, pickets, boycotts and sit-ins. On May 4, 1964,

6060-402: The demonstrations. Things came to a head in April 1964, when almost nightly protests brought chaos to Chester. The city deputized firemen and trash collectors to help handle demonstrators and the State of Pennsylvania deployed 50 state troopers to assist the 77-member Chester police force. The demonstrations were marked by violence and police brutality ; activist James Farmer dubbed Chester

6161-427: The doors. On the morning of November 14, 83 protesters were arrested. Later that day, 50 state troopers arrived to assist the 77-member Chester police force. After media coverage of the mass arrests drew public attention, the mayor and school board negotiated with the CFFN and NAACP . The Chester Board of Education agreed to reduce class sizes at Franklin school, remove unsanitary toilet facilities, move classes held in

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6262-457: The early 1960s, he and George Raymond partnered to challenge minority hiring practices of businesses and initiated the Chester school protests against de facto segregation of schools which made Chester one of the key battlegrounds of the civil rights movement . He protested with the Cambridge Movement in Dorchester County, Maryland , and worked with Cecil B. Moore to desegregate Girard College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . He worked with

6363-399: The efforts of state conferences in that region. Local, youth, and college chapters organize activities for individual members. In the U.S., the NAACP is administered by a 64-member board led by a chairperson. The board elects one person as the president and one as the chief executive officer for the organization. Julian Bond , civil rights movement activist and former Georgia State Senator,

6464-518: The entire Chester police force. On March 28, some 200 protestors staged midday sit-down demonstrations at key intersections to disrupt downtown traffic. The protest was met by a violent police response with officers "swinging riot sticks" and arresting all protestors. The violent response by Chester police resulted in even larger demonstrations with ordinary citizens outraged by the images of peaceful protestors being dragged and beaten by police. Branche called for massive civil disobedience in response to

6565-465: The event and presided over the proceedings. Also in attendance was Ida B. Wells-Barnett , an African-American journalist and anti- lynching crusader. Wells-Barnett addressed the conference on the history of lynching in the United States and called for action to publicize and prosecute such crimes. The members chose the new organization's name to be the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and elected its first officers: The NAACP

6666-491: The group came to be known as the Niagara Movement . A year later, three non-African-Americans joined the group: journalist William English Walling , a wealthy socialist; and social workers Mary White Ovington and Henry Moskowitz . Moskowitz, who was Jewish, was then also Associate Leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture . They met in 1906 at Storer College , Harpers Ferry, West Virginia , and in 1907 in Boston, Massachusetts . The fledgling group struggled for

6767-408: The historic Bob-Lo Excursion Co. v. Michigan after plaintiff Sarah Elizabeth Ray was wrongfully discriminated against when attempting to board a ferry. In 1916, chairman Joel Spingarn invited James Weldon Johnson to serve as field secretary. Johnson was a former U.S. consul to Venezuela and a noted African-American scholar and columnist. Within four years, Johnson was instrumental in increasing

6868-552: The impoverished population in Chester; white families, 25%. Majority-black schools suffered from low funding and overcrowding. The buildings were generally old and made of weakening wood and plaster, with inadequate heating and bathrooms. Classrooms were small and stocked with secondhand books. Franklin Elementary School was a prime example of decrepit school conditions; the facility was constructed in 1910 for 50 students, but over fifty years later in 1963 it served over 1,000 students, almost all black. The library at Franklin Elementary

6969-426: The lack of integration but blamed it on residential issues over which they had no control. Stanley Branche arrived back home in Chester in 1962 after participating in activism in the Cambridge movement in Dorchester County, Maryland . Branche recognized the dire circumstances of the Chester school system, especially Franklin Elementary School, and created the Committee for Freedom Now (CFFN) in Chester along with

7070-407: The late 20th century by considering issues such as police misconduct , the status of black foreign refugees and questions of economic development. Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term colored people , referring to those with some African ancestry. The NAACP bestows annual awards on African Americans in three categories: Image Awards are for achievements in

7171-466: The law. The larger conference resulted in a more diverse organization, where the leadership was predominantly white. Moorfield Storey , a white attorney from a Boston abolitionist family, served as the president of the NAACP from its founding to 1915. At its founding, the NAACP had one African American on its executive board, Du Bois. Storey was a long-time classical liberal and Grover Cleveland Democrat who advocated laissez-faire free markets,

7272-512: The military, the criminal justice system, employment, housing). 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. A local African-American woman, Mary Talbert of Ohio ,

7373-563: The movement. The NAACP continued to use the Supreme Court's decision in Brown to press for desegregation of schools and public facilities throughout the country. Daisy Bates , president of its Arkansas state chapter, spearheaded the campaign by the Little Rock Nine to integrate the public schools in Little Rock , Arkansas. By the mid-1960s, the NAACP had regained some of its prominence in

7474-428: The organization's agenda, including improving more Chester public schools, increasing the availability of jobs, improving housing and medical care, and generally ending discrimination. Protests resumed on February 10, 1964, after the CFFN planned a boycott of Chester's public schools to begin the next day. The boycott drove absentee rates in some majority black-attended schools up to 55%. The "Freedom Now Conference"

7575-574: The organization's funds. In 1996, Congressman Kweisi Mfume , a Democratic Congressman from Maryland and former head of the Congressional Black Caucus , was named the organization's president. Three years later strained finances forced the organization to drastically cut its staff, from 250 in 1992 to 50. In the second half of the 1990s, the organization restored its finances, permitting the NAACP National Voter Fund to launch

7676-652: The pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Chester, to adopt a gradualist approach to civil rights. In 1945, Raymond and the NAACP desegregated movie theaters, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses in Chester through non-violent protests and the threat of legal action. In 1946, a student strike organized by the NAACP and a committee of black parents led the school board to formally consent to integrating Chester's public schools. But more than two decades would pass before this seeming victory produced real change. White parents did their best to inhibit integration, and many moved their children to predominantly white schools. After

7777-475: The police station devolved into a rock-throwing melee that hospitalized six police officers and eight protestors. Demonstrators held a rally against police brutality and linked arms to block a downtown intersection on April 24, which also ended in police violence. On April 25, James Farmer dubbed Chester the "Birmingham of the North," in reference to the harsh treatment of protesters in Birmingham, Alabama around

7878-703: The police violence and the nightly standoffs between protestors and police overshadowed the original intent of the protests. The height of the Chester School Protests occurred in April 1964. On April 2, Branche led 350 protestors in front of the police headquarters. On April 3, the mayor of Chester, James Gorbey , issued "The Police Position to Preserve the Public Peace", a 10-point statement promising an immediate return to law and order. The city deputized firemen and trash collectors to help handle demonstrators. The State of Pennsylvania deployed 50 state troopers to assist

7979-417: The position of executive director. A controversial figure, Chavis was ousted eighteen months later by the same board. They accused him of using NAACP funds for an out-of-court settlement in a sexual harassment lawsuit. Following the dismissal of Chavis, Myrlie Evers-Williams narrowly defeated NAACP chairperson William Gibson for president in 1995, after Gibson was accused of overspending and mismanagement of

8080-435: The previously named whites Henry Moskowitz , Mary White Ovington , William English Walling (the wealthy Socialist son of a former slave-holding family), Florence Kelley , a social reformer and friend of Du Bois; Oswald Garrison Villard , and Charles Edward Russell , a renowned muckraker and close friend of Walling. Russell helped plan the NAACP and had served as acting chairman of the National Negro Committee (1909),

8181-593: The riot in the Chicago Daily News . 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. 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

8282-413: The ruling, which delayed implementation. In June 1964, Chester city leaders formed the Greater Chester Movement (GCM), an umbrella organization intended to coordinate activities of groups working toward the improvement of Chester. When President Lyndon Johnson initiated his War on Poverty , the GCM became a conduit through which federal dollars were distributed in Chester. Branche had originally set up

8383-497: The same time. Some of the white residents of Chester created the Chester Parents Association as a counter response that aimed to keep the neighborhood schools policy. The group held a rally of 2,000 people on April 26, 1964. On April 26, Governor William Scranton convinced Branche to obey a court-ordered moratorium on demonstrations. Scranton created the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission to conduct hearings on

8484-497: The school was built to house 500 students, it had become overcrowded with 1,200 students. The school's average class-size was 39, twice the number of nearby all-white schools. The school was built in 1910 and had never been updated. Only two bathrooms were available for the entire school. In November 1963, CFFN protesters blocked the entrance to Franklin Elementary school and the Chester Municipal Building resulting in

8585-530: The school. Branche was arrested approximately 225 times during civil rights protests. He left the civil rights movement, moved to Philadelphia and ran several businesses including nightclubs, a security firm, a taxicab company and shoe repair shops. Branche had an unsuccessful run for mayor of Chester in 1967. He co-owned a nightclub, the Rolls Royce Lounge in Center City Philadelphia with

8686-445: The state responded by effectively barring the NAACP from operating within its borders because of its refusal to divulge a list of its members. The NAACP feared members could be fired or face violent retaliation for their activities. 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

8787-463: The time of its founding until 2003. In 2011, the NAACP teamed with the digital repository ProQuest to digitize and host online the earlier portion of its archives, through 1972 – nearly two million pages of documents, from the national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country, which offer first-hand insight into the organization's work related to such crucial issues as lynching, school desegregation, and discrimination in all its aspects (in

8888-446: The white population decreased by 19% and the black population increased by 53%. The white exodus fortified residential segregation, until 80% of the black population lived in a cluster of census tracts in central Chester. White families that remained in Chester had a higher average income than black families: the median income for white families was $ 5,880 and the median income for black families $ 4,059. Black families constituted half of

8989-525: The years to come. White investigated eight race riots and 41 lynchings for the NAACP and directed its study Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States . 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. Because of disenfranchisement, African Americans in

9090-422: The years, leaders of the organization have included Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins . Its mission in the 21st century is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination". NAACP initiatives include political lobbying, publicity efforts, and litigation strategies developed by its legal team. The group enlarged its mission in

9191-578: Was appalled by the exhibit, as a similar one in Paris highlighted black achievements. She informed W. E. B. Du Bois of the situation, and a coalition began to form. In 1905, a group of thirty-two prominent African-American leaders met to discuss the challenges facing African Americans and possible strategies and solutions. They were particularly concerned by the Southern states ' disenfranchisement of blacks starting with Mississippi 's passage of

9292-516: Was chairman until replaced in February 2010 by healthcare administrator Roslyn Brock . For decades in the first half of the 20th century, the organization was effectively led by its executive secretary, who acted as chief operating officer. 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. The organization has never had

9393-465: Was formed exclusively by African Americans. Four European Americans were among the founders of the NAACP, they included Mary White Ovington , Henry Moskowitz , William English Walling and Oswald Garrison Villard . 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

9494-452: Was held in Chester on March 14, 1964. More than 60 delegates and visitors from eight states attended the conference, including Dick Gregory , Gloria Richardson , and Malcolm X . During the conference, some 200 protesters from the CFFN marched to present demands to the mayor. On March 27, 1964, 300 protestors marched from the West End of Chester to the downtown business district, escorted by

9595-448: Was incorporated a year later in 1911. The association's charter expressed its mission: To promote equality of rights and eradicate caste or race prejudice among citizens of the United States; to advance the interest of colored citizens; to secure for them impartial suffrage; and to increase their opportunities for securing justice in the courts, education for their children, employment according to their ability, and complete equality before

9696-531: Was influential in winning the right of African Americans to serve as military officers in World War ;I . Six hundred African-American officers were commissioned and 700,000 men registered for the draft. The following year, the NAACP organized a nationwide protest, with marches in numerous cities, against D. W. Griffith 's silent movie The Birth of a Nation , a film that glamorized the Ku Klux Klan . As

9797-470: Was intended to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln , who emancipated enslaved African Americans. While the first large meeting did not occur until three months later, the February date is often cited as the organization's founding date. The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, by a larger group including African Americans W. E. B. Du Bois , Ida B. Wells , Archibald Grimké , Mary Church Terrell , and

9898-427: Was merely a few piles of books, the gym an empty coal bin, and the playground a cement area with a dangerous 4-foot drop on one side. The school's average class size was 39, twice that of nearby all-white schools. The school had just two bathrooms. George Raymond became the leader of the Chester branch of the NAACP in 1942 and began to implement programs to end racial discrimination . He worked with J. Pius Barbour ,

9999-512: Was ordered to desegregate the city's six predominantly African-American schools. The city appealed the ruling, which delayed implementation, but eventually desegregated the schools. As manufacturing in Chester declined during the 1950s and 1960s, most of Chester's labor force worked in low-paying service positions or industrial work. White and educated residents of Chester fled to suburban Delaware County to pursue better jobs and housing as more black residents moved into Chester. From 1950 to 1960,

10100-566: Was used both for news reporting and for publishing African-American poetry and literature. During the organization's campaigns against lynching, Du Bois encouraged the writing and performance of plays and other expressive literature about this issue. The Jewish community contributed greatly to the NAACP's founding and continued financing. Jewish historian Howard Sachar 's book A History of Jews in America notes "In 1914, Professor Emeritus Joel Spingarn of Columbia University became chairman of

10201-463: Was virtually impossible. 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, and the public face of the Civil Rights Movement . 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

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