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127-436: The President's statement that accompanied the order cited the war effort, saying that "the democratic way of life within the nation can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all groups," and cited reports of discrimination: There is evidence available that needed workers have been barred from industries engaged in defense production solely because of considerations of race, creed, color or national origin, to

254-531: A bit less than 16 percent African ancestry and being able to pass as white). George and Madeline White took a kind but firm approach in rearing their children, encouraging hard work and regular schedules. In his autobiography, White relates that his parents ran a strict schedule on Sundays; they locked him in his room for silent prayer, a time so boring that he almost begged to do homework. His father forbade Walter from reading any books less than 25 years old so he chose to read Dickens , Thackeray , and Trollope by

381-560: A case involving accusations by Mexican Americans was on the docket, fearing public knowledge of mass discrimination would compromise the Good Neighbor Policy. Moreover, though workplace discrimination took place in the Bracero Program as well, concerns were ignored for similar reasons. Second generation Mexican Americans had a reputation for being more vocal in addressing workplace grievances and were more receptive to unionization as

508-719: 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, 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

635-780: A decreasing number of southern lynchings but postwar violence in Northern and Midwestern cities increased under the competition for work and housing by returning veterans, immigrants and black migrants. In the Great Migration , hundreds of thousands of black people were leaving the South for jobs in the North. The Pennsylvania Railroad recruited tens of thousands of workers from Florida alone. Rural violence also continued. White investigated violence in 1918 in Lowndes and Brooks counties, Georgia. The worst case

762-414: A divorced white South African woman, who was a magazine editor with connections in the emerging television industry. Many of his black colleagues and acquaintances were offended. Some claimed the leader had always wanted to be white; others said he had always been white. Gladys and their children broke off with White and his second wife. White's sister said that he had wanted all along simply to pass as

889-654: 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

1016-451: 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

1143-558: A leaflet against Robeson, which was written under a pseudonym. Through his cultural interests and his close friendships with white literary power brokers Carl Van Vechten and Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. , White was one of the founders of the "New Negro" cultural flowering. Popularly known as the Harlem Renaissance , the period was one of intense literary and artistic production. Harlem became the center of black American intellectual and artistic life. It attracted creative people from across

1270-509: A letter stating that the planned march was a “grave mistake”, but to no reply from Randolph. Other members of the Roosevelt administration urged defense industry factories to stop discrimination against Black workers, but Randolph stated that he would only call off the march if an executive order was issued. Anxious to stop the march, Roosevelt enlisted the help of New Dealer Aubrey Williams and labor expert Anna M. Rosenberg . They helped organize

1397-458: 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

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1524-541: A meeting of the leaders of the MOWM with Roosevelt at the White House. The meeting held on June 18 (just two weeks prior to the planned march) quickly came to an impasse. In response to Randolph's demand for an executive order, Roosevelt replied: “Well Phil, you know I can’t do that. If I issue an executive order for you, then there'll be no end to other groups coming in here and asking me to issue executive orders for them too.” On

1651-477: 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

1778-402: A popular leader, White had to compete with the appeal of Marcus Garvey ; he learned to display a skillful verbal dexterity. Roy Wilkins , his successor at the NAACP, said: "White was one of the best talkers I've ever heard." Throughout his career, Walter White spoke out against segregation and discrimination but also black nationalism . Most notably, White and Du Bois's 1934 conflict was over

1905-526: A postal worker, an admired position in the federal government. His mother had graduated from the same institution and became a teacher. (She had been briefly married in 1879 to Marshall King, who died the same year. ) He attended the Atlanta public schools, finished the Atlanta University high school in 1912, and the college there in the class of 1916. This period of study enabled White to spend eight years in

2032-444: 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

2159-526: A solution for widespread discrimination. Walter Francis White Walter Francis White (July 1, 1893 – March 21, 1955) was an American civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for a quarter of a century, from 1929 until 1955. He directed a broad program of legal challenges to racial segregation and disfranchisement . He

2286-467: A survey carried out by the US employment service (USES) stated that they would not want to hire Black workers. Employment disparities could not be fully explained by differences in job competencies between Black and White individuals. The president of North American Aviation stated that “it is against company policy to employ them as aircraft workers or mechanics... regardless of their training.” Lester Granger of

2413-465: 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

2540-518: A week playing a maid than seven dollars being one"; she further questioned White's qualification to speak on behalf of blacks, since he was light-skinned and only one-eighth black. White was the author of critically acclaimed novels: Fire in the Flint (1924) and Flight (1926). His non-fiction book Rope and Faggot: A Biography of Judge Lynch (1929) was a study of lynching. Additional books were A Rising Wind (1945, which inspired Nevil Shute to write

2667-624: A white person. His son changed his name to Carl Darrow, signifying his disgust and desire to separate himself from his father. Marie Harrison was White's grandmother. Harrison was born into slavery to a mother named Dilsia . Harrison was fathered by future President William Henry Harrison . According to White's oral history, when Harrison decided to run for president, he concluded that it would not be politically advantageous for him to have "bastard slave children" in his home. So, he gave four of Dilsia's children (including Marie Harrison) to his brother. His brother sold them to Joseph Poythress, one of

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2794-470: 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

2921-500: 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 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

3048-415: 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 the years, leaders of the organization have included Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins . Its mission in the 21st century

3175-504: 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 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

3302-540: Is the duty of employers and of labor organizations, in furtherance of said policy and of this Order, to provide for the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries, without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin; At the time that the order was issued, the US had yet to officially enter World War II , and it would not until after the Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. However,

3429-679: Is the policy of the United States to encourage full participation in the national defense program by all citizens of the United States, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, in the firm belief that the democratic way of life within the Nation can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all groups within its borders; and Whereas there is evidence that available and needed workers have been barred from employment in industries engaged in defense production solely because of consideration of race, creed, color, or national origin, to

3556-467: 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

3683-699: The Civil War by freedmen and the American Missionary Association , based in the North. Of all the black denominations in Georgia, the Congregationalists were among the most socially, politically and financially powerful. Membership in First Congregational was the ultimate status symbol in Atlanta. Of mixed race with African and European ancestry on both sides, White had features showing

3810-561: The Double V campaign – Randolph demanded the right for Black Americans “to work and fight for [their] country”. In January 1941, Randolph formed the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) . The first objective of the movement was to bring 10,000 Black Americans to gather at the Lincoln Memorial to protest racial discrimination in the military and defense industries. Later, the target size of the march

3937-737: 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

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4064-462: The National Urban League described how Black electricians, carpenters, and cement workers were prohibited from filling vacant positions. A. Philip Randolph , leader of a large Black railroad worker union, was concerned by the discrimination against Black workers in defense industry hiring. In a 1940 issue of The Pittsburgh Courier – a newspaper that would later be intimately involved in

4191-588: 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

4318-730: 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 ,

4445-418: 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

4572-554: 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

4699-537: 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

4826-456: 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

4953-626: 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

5080-825: 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

5207-645: The Communists' philosophy of branding anyone opposed to their platform was their failure. He believed the NAACP had the best defense counsel in the country, but the Scottsboro boys' families chose to go with the ILD partly because they were first on the scene. White believed in capitalist America and used communist propaganda as leverage to promote his own cause in securing civil liberties. He advised white America to reconsider its position of unfair treatment because they might find

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5334-497: The Dyer bill, "One Negro has ordered this bill to pass. If Walter White should consent to have this bill laid aside its advocates would desert it as quickly as football players unscramble when the whistle of the referee is heard." White's word was the only thing that kept the bill before Congress. Although the bill did not pass the Senate, White and the NAACP secured widespread public support for

5461-577: The Elaine convictions and established important precedent about the conduct of trials. The Supreme Court found that the original trial was held under conditions that adversely affected the defendants' rights. Some of the courtroom audience were armed, as was a mob outside, so there was intimidation of the court and jury. The 79 black defendants had been quickly tried and convicted by an all-white jury: 12 were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death; 67 were condemned to sentences from 20 years to life. No white man

5588-463: The FBI had been trying to classify civil rights activists as communists. White feared a backlash that might cost the NAACP its tax-exempt status and end up with people equating civil rights with communism. White criticized singer/activist Paul Robeson , who admitted to pro-Soviet leanings. Together with Roy Wilkins , the editor of The Crisis , he arranged for distribution of "Paul Robeson: Lost Shepherd",

5715-595: The Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC). While it ensured African Americans could receive fair employment, it often failed to provide the same protections to Mexican Americans because of America's foreign policy in regard to Latin American nations. For example, the FEPC was supposed to hold public hearings to discuss accusations of discrimination, however it often canceled the hearings at the last minute when

5842-563: The House of Representatives since Reconstruction that specifically protected blacks from lynchings." Congress never passed the Dyer bill, as the Senate was controlled by Southerners who opposed it. Black people were then largely disfranchised in southern states, which were politically controlled by white Democrats. At the turn of the 20th century, the state legislatures had passed discriminatory laws and constitutions that effectively created barriers to voter registration and closed black people out of

5969-555: The KKK, Clark tried to interest White in joining. Invited to Atlanta to meet with other Klan leaders, White declined, fearing that he would be at risk of his life if his true identity were discovered. White used the access to Klan leaders to further his investigation into the "sinister and illegal conspiracy against human and civil rights which the Klan was concocting." After deeper inquiries into White's life, Clark stopped sending signed letters. White

6096-628: 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

6223-554: 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,

6350-452: The NAACP both hoped to prove themselves as the party to represent the black community. Scottsboro was an important battle ground for the two groups. The Communists had to destroy black citizens' faith in the NAACP in order to take control of leadership, and they believed that a Scottsboro victory was a way to solidify this superior role over the NAACP. Their case against the NAACP was easier, as White and other leaders were second in approaching

6477-526: 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

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6604-574: The NAACP had to keep distance and independence from the Communist Party for this reason. Ultimately, the Communist leaders failed to consolidate their position with black people. White said: "The shortsightedness of the Communist leaders in the United States (led to their eventual failure); Had they been more intelligent, honest, and truthful there is no way of estimating how deeply they might have penetrated into Negro life and consciousness." White meant

6731-523: 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

6858-500: The NAACP representative. Brough gave White a letter of recommendation to help him meet people and his autographed photograph. Learning that his identity was discovered, White was in Phillips County briefly before taking the first train back to Little Rock . The conductor told him that he was leaving "just when the fun is going to start" because they had found out that there was a "damned yellow nigger down here passing for white and

6985-412: 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

7112-612: The NAACP's own magazine, The Crisis . Governor Brough asked the United States Postal Service to prohibit mailings of the Chicago Defender and The Crisis to Arkansas, and others tried to get an injunction against distribution of the Defender at the local level. The NAACP provided legal defense of the black men convicted by the state for the riot and carried the case to the U.S. Supreme Court . Its ruling overturned

7239-449: The NAACP, nine black teenagers looking for work were arrested after a fight with a group of white teens as the train both groups were riding on passed through Scottsboro, Alabama . Two white girls accused the nine black teenagers of rape. Locked in a cell awaiting trial, the "Scottsboro boys looked to be prime lynching material: dirt poor, illiterate, and of highly questionable moral character even for teenagers." The Communist Party and

7366-600: The NAACP. White began as secretary assistant of the NAACP; Du Bois and other leaders got over their concerns about his youth. White became an undercover agent in investigating lynchings in the South, which were at a peak. With his keen investigative skills and light complexion, White proved to be the NAACP's secret weapon against white mob violence. White passed as white as an NAACP investigator, finding both more safety in hostile environments and gaining free communication with white people in cases of violations of civil and human rights. He sometimes became involved in Klan groups in

7493-501: The North before White enrolled, but Du Bois knew White's parents well. Du Bois had taught two of White's older siblings at Atlanta University. Du Bois and Walter White later disagreed about how best to gain civil rights for black people, but they shared a vision for the country. (See Atlanta Conference of Negro Problems .) After graduating in 1916, White took a position with the Standard Life Insurance Company, one of

7620-489: The Roosevelt administration feared could impede the war effort by lowering morale. Indeed, some government officials considered this ethnic discrimination as more pressing than that against Black Americans. Mexican Americans faced discrimination in the workplace and public transportation, often being seen as no better than dogs. Executive Order 8802 outlawed discrimination in the defense industry based on “race, creed, color, or national origin”. Executive Order 8802, established

7747-665: 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,

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7874-473: The South to expose those involved in lynchings and other murders. In the Little Rock, Arkansas , area he escaped on a train, having been harbored by several prominent black families because of threats that a black man "passing for white" was being hunted down to be lynched. The NAACP publicized information about these crimes, but virtually none was ever prosecuted by local or state southern governments. To become

8001-627: 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

8128-464: 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

8255-476: 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

8382-429: 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

8509-420: The US had already involved itself in the war effort through other means, such as by supplying the Allied Powers through the Lend-Lease Act. The US's role as a supplier, as well as the US's mounting preparations to officially enter the War, helped drive the US's economy out of the Great Depression . The economic benefits of the war, however, were disproportionately experienced by White Americans. Indeed, while

8636-439: 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

8763-430: The backwaters of Florida, the piney woods of Georgia, and in the cotton fields of Arkansas." In his autobiography, A Man Called White, he dedicates an entire chapter to a time when he almost joined the Ku Klux Klan undercover. White became a master of incognito investigating. He started with a letter from a friend who recruited new members of the KKK. After correspondence between him and Edward Young Clark , leader of

8890-483: The bitterly cruel injustice which it works upon its immediate victims, but also, and perhaps even more, in the cynical use of human misery by Communists in propagandizing Communism, and in the complacency with which a democratic government views the basic evils from which such a case arises. A majority of Americans still ignore, the plain implications in similar tragedies. White was a strong proponent and supporter of federal anti-lynching bills, which were unable to surmount

9017-410: The black population choosing radical alternative methods of protest. Ultimately, White and other NAACP leaders decided to continue involvement with the Scottsboro boys since it was only one of many efforts they had. In his autobiography, White gave a critical summary of the injustice in Scottsboro: In the intervening years it had become increasingly clear that the tragedy of a Scottsboro lies, not in

9144-513: The boys are going to get him." Asked what they would do to him, the conductor told White, "When they get through with him he won't pass for white no more!" " High yellow " is a term used to refer to black people of mixed-racial descent and visible European features. White published his findings about the riot and trial in the Daily News , the Chicago Defender , and The Nation , as well as

9271-515: The case after the International Labor Defense . Ultimately, the differing approaches to the case demonstrated the conflicting ideals between the two organizations. To White, "Communism meant that blacks have two strikes against them: blacks were aliens in white society where skin color was more important than initiative or intelligence, and blacks would also be Reds which meant a double dose of hatred from white Americans." White believed

9398-490: The cause. By 1938, a Gallup poll found that 72% of Americans and 57% of Southerners favored an anti-lynching bill. White also contributed to creating alliances among civil rights activists, many of whom went on to lead in the movement from the 1950s. During the McCarthy era , White did not openly criticize McCarthy's campaign in Congress against communists, which was wide-ranging. American fears of communism were heightened, and

9525-746: 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,

9652-534: 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 ,

9779-399: The detriment of workers' morale and of national unity. The order was issued in response to pressure from civil rights activists A. Philip Randolph , Walter White and others involved in the March on Washington Movement , who had planned a march on Washington, D.C. , on July 1, 1941, to protest racial discrimination in industry and the military. The preamble to the order read: Whereas it

9906-537: The detriment of workers' morale and of national unity: Now, Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes, and as a prerequisite to the successful conduct of our national defense production effort, I do hereby reaffirm the policy of the United States that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and I do hereby declare that it

10033-541: The earliest white settlers of LaGrange, Georgia . White used his appearance to increase his effectiveness in conducting investigations of lynchings and race riots in the American South . He could "pass" and talk to white people as one of them, but he could talk to black people as one of them and identified with them. Such work was dangerous: "Through 1927 White would investigate 41 lynchings, 8 race riots, and two cases of widespread peonage, risking his life repeatedly in

10160-465: 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

10287-597: 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

10414-606: The head of the NAACP in an acting capacity in 1929, taking over officially in 1931, and led the organization until his death in 1955. He joined the Advisory Council for the Government of the Virgin Islands in 1934, but he resigned in 1935 to protest President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's silence at Southern Democrats ' blocking of anti-lynching legislation to avoid retaliatory obstruction of his New Deal policies. White oversaw

10541-408: 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

10668-565: The latter's endorsement of black people's voluntary separation within US society. White married Gladys Powell in 1922. They had two children, Jane White , who became an actress on Broadway and television; and Walter Carl White, who lived in Germany for much of his adult life. The Whites' 27-year marriage ended in divorce in 1949. Because White was a public figure of a noted African-American rights organization, he generated great public controversy shortly after his divorce by marrying Poppy Cannon ,

10795-630: The latter. He emphasized in his autobiography, A Man Called White (p. 3): "I am a Negro. My skin is white, my eyes are blue, my hair is blond. The traits of my race are nowhere visible upon me." Of his 32 great-great-great-grandparents, only five were black, and the other 27 were white. All members of his immediate family had fair skin, and his mother, Madeline, was also blue-eyed and blonde. The oral history of his mother's family asserts that her maternal grandparents were Dilsia, an enslaved woman concubine , and her owner, William Henry Harrison . Harrison had six children with Dilsia and, much later,

10922-466: 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,

11049-512: 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 ,

11176-510: 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

11303-636: The nation, as did New York City in general. Writer Zora Neale Hurston accused Walter White of stealing her designed costumes from her play The Great Day . White never returned the costumes to Hurston, who repeatedly asked for them by mail. After Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American to win an Oscar, the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Gone with the Wind and beating Olivia de Havilland, White accused her of being an Uncle Tom . McDaniel responded that she would "rather make seven hundred dollars

11430-489: The new and most successful businesses started by black people in Atlanta. He also worked to organize a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which had been founded in 1909. He and other leaders were successful in getting the Atlanta School Board to support improving education for black children, who were taught in segregated schools, which were traditionally underfunded by

11557-416: The old Atlanta's unusual atmosphere at its zenith. There he was exposed to instruction which had been enriched by a decade of W. E. B. Du Bois ' research. Undoubtedly White's life work reflected on the "Old Atlanta University's pioneer and still unequaled contributions in Southern colored institutions of higher learning." The White family belonged to the influential First Congregational Church , founded after

11684-413: 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 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

11811-520: The opposition by the Southern Democrats in the Senate. One of White's many surveys showed that 46 of 50 lynchings during the first six months of 1919 were black victims, 10 of whom were burned at the stake. After the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 , White, like Ida Wells-Barnett , concluded the causes of such violence were not rape of a white woman by a black man, as was often rumored, but rather

11938-574: 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

12065-419: The other hand, the MOWM leaders refused to settle for any action short of an executive order. Eventually, the Roosevelt administration acquiesced. A series of meetings in both New York and Washington resulted in the draft order. These meetings involved Randolph and White discussing with Williams, Rosenberg , and New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia . The order was drafted by Joseph Rauh . The March on Washington

12192-495: The plans and organizational structure of the fight against public segregation . He worked with President Harry S. Truman on desegregating the armed forces after World War II and gave him a draft for the Executive Order to implement this . Under White's leadership, the NAACP set up its Legal Defense Fund , which conducted numerous legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement, and achieved many successes. Among these

12319-693: The political process. White sponsored other civil rights legislation, which was also defeated by the Southern bloc: the Castigan-Wagner bill of 1935, the Gavagan bill of 1937, and the VanNuys bill of 1940. Southerners had to mount a major political and financial effort to take the Castigan-Wagner bill out of consideration and to defeat the Gavagan bill. White had become a powerful figure: segregationist senator James F. Byrnes of South Carolina said in session about

12446-547: The popular novel The Chequer Board two years later), his autobiography A Man Called White (1948), and How Far the Promised Land (1955). Unfinished at his death was Blackjack, a novel on Harlem life and the career of an African-American boxer. At the age of 61, White died of a heart attack in New York City on March 21, 1955. NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP )

12573-417: 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

12700-435: 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),

12827-488: The result of "prejudice and economic competition." That was also the conclusion of a Chicago city commission, which investigated the 1919 rioting; it noted specifically that ethnic Irish in South Chicago had led the anti-black attacks. The Irish were considered highly political and strongly territorial against other groups, including more recent white immigrants from eastern Europe. In the late 1910s, newspapers reported

12954-593: 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

13081-445: 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

13208-626: The threat, and a white man was killed. The white militias had come to the town and hunted down black people in retaliation for that death and to suppress the labor movement. During the Tulsa race massacre , White was inadvertently deputized. One of his fellow deputies told him he could shoot any black person and the law would be behind him. Granted press credentials from the Chicago Daily News , White gained an interview with Arkansas Governor Charles Hillman Brough , who would not have met with him as

13335-459: The time he was 12. When he was 8, he threw a rock at a white child who called him a derogatory name for drinking from the fountain reserved for black people . Events such as this shaped White's self-identity. He began to develop skills to pass for white, which he used later to preserve his safety as a civil rights activist in the South. White was educated at Atlanta University, a historically black college . W. E. B. Du Bois had already moved to

13462-463: 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

13589-492: The unemployment rate among White Americans plummeted from 18% to 13% in between April and October 1940, the unemployment rate for Black Americans remained stagnant at 22%. In an era where segregation was still legal (the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education deeming segregation unconstitutional would not be issued until 1954), Black workers were prohibited from working despite acute labor shortages. Indeed, less than half of defense industry companies included in

13716-416: The white-dominated legislature. (Black people had been effectively disfranchised at the turn of the century by Georgia's passage of a new constitution making voter registration more difficult, as did all the other former Confederate states . ) At the invitation of activist and writer James Weldon Johnson , 25-year-old White moved to New York City. In 1918, he started working at the national headquarters of

13843-476: 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

13970-432: Was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist. White first joined the NAACP as an investigator in 1918, at the invitation of James Weldon Johnson . He acted as Johnson's assistant national secretary and traveled to the South to investigate lynchings and race riots. Being light-skinned, at times he was able to pass as white to facilitate his investigations and protect himself in tense situations. White succeeded Johnson as

14097-473: Was also supposed to make recommendations to federal agencies and to the President on how Executive Order 8802 could be made most effective. However, the FEPC was limited by its small size and limited funding, as its initial staff consisted of 11 with a budget of $ 80,000. More details on challenges faced by the FEPC are explored in its dedicated Misplaced Pages article (refer to section "See Also"). Executive Order 8802

14224-468: Was amended several times during the war years. After the US entered the war, the FEPC was placed under the War Production Board , established under Executive Order 9040. In May 1943, Executive Order 9346 was issued, expanding the coverage of the FEPC to federal agencies carrying out regular government programs and returning it to independent status. Following the end of World War II, the committee

14351-578: 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

14478-563: Was elected president of the United States in 1840 , but served for only 31 days . Madeline's mother, Marie Harrison, was one of Dilsia's daughters with Harrison. Held in enslavement in La Grange, Georgia , where she had been sold, Marie became a concubine to Augustus Ware. The wealthy white man bought her a house, had four children with her, and passed on some wealth to them. White and his family identified as Negro and lived among Atlanta's Negro community (despite White and his siblings inheriting

14605-465: 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

14732-448: 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

14859-566: Was increased ten-fold to a march of 100,000 Black Americans. Other Black leaders of the MOWM included secretary of the NAACP Walter White , leader of the National Urban League T. Arnold Hill, the leader of the National Council of Negro Women Mary McLeod Bethune , and more. With the stated date for the MOWM impending, the Roosevelt administration rushed to negotiate with the MOWM's leaders. First-lady Eleanor Roosevelt sent Randolph

14986-531: 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

15113-470: 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

15240-588: Was prosecuted for any of the many black deaths. White's first major struggle as leader of the NAACP centered on the Scottsboro Trial in 1931. It was also a case that tested the competition between the NAACP and the American Communist Party to represent the black community. The NAACP and Walter White wanted to increase their following in the black community. Weeks after White started in his new position at

15367-564: Was suspended after Executive Order 8802 was issued on June 25, 1941. The order established the President's Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) within the Office of Production Management , which was to centralize government contracting in the defense buildup before the United States entered World War II . The FEPC was to educate industry as to anti-discrimination requirements, investigate alleged violations, and "take appropriate steps to redress grievances which it finds to be valid." The committee

15494-532: Was terminated by statute on July 17, 1945. While Executive Order 8802 addressed discrimination in defense industry hiring, the government did not end segregation in the armed forces until 1948, when President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981 . Years later congressional passage of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Executive Order 11246 in 1965 prohibited discrimination in employment and public facilities. Many citizens of Italian or German ethnicity were negatively affected by World War II , which

15621-412: Was the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which determined that segregated education was inherently unequal. White also quintupled NAACP membership to nearly 500,000. Walter was the son of George and Madeline White. By the time he was born, his father had attended Atlanta University , which is still known today as one of the South's historically black colleges , and became

15748-819: Was threatened by anonymous letters that stated his life would be in danger if he ever divulged any of the confidential information he had received. By then, White had already turned the information over to the U.S. Department of Justice and New York Police Department . He believed that undermining the hold of mob violence would be crucial to his cause. White first investigated the October 1919 Elaine Race Riot , where white vigilantes and Federal troops in Phillips County, Arkansas killed between 100 and 237 black sharecroppers. The case had both labor and racial aspects. Black sharecroppers were meeting on issues related to organizing with an agrarian union, which white vigilantes were attempting to suppress. They had established guards because of

15875-566: 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

16002-463: 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

16129-408: Was when "a pregnant black woman [was] tied to a tree and burned alive after which (the mob) split her open, and her child, still alive, was thrown to the ground and stomped by some of the members." White lobbied for federal anti-lynching bills during his time as leader of the NAACP. In 1922, the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill was passed overwhelmingly by the House, the "first piece of legislation passed by

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