History Of The Naacp example essay topic

NAACP The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. It has been made up of many movements, though it is often used to refer to the struggles between 1945 and 1970 to end discrimination against African-Americans and to end racial segregation, especially in the U.S. South. It focuses on that particular struggle, rather than the comparable movements to end discrimination against other ethnic groups within the United States or those struggles, such as the women's liberation, gay liberation, and disabled rights movements, that have used similar tactics in pursuit of similar goals. The civil rights movement has had a lasting impact on United States society, both in its tactics and in increased social and legal acceptance of civil rights.

One of the most important organizations of this era was the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). NAACP is an organization composed mainly of American blacks, but with many white members, whose goal is the end of racial discrimination and segregation. The association was formed as the direct result of the lynching (1908) of two blacks in Springfield, Ill. The incident produced a wide response by white Northerners to a call by Mary W. Ov ington, a white woman, for a conference to discuss ways of achieving political and social equality for blacks. This conference led to the formation (1910) of the NAACP, headed by eight prominent Americans, seven white and one, William E.B. Du Bois, black (wikipedia 1). The selection of Du Bois was significant, for he was a black who had rejected the policy of gradualism advocated by Booker T. Washington and demanded immediate equality for blacks.

From 1910 to 1934 Du Bois was the editor of the association's periodical The Crisis, which reported on race relations around the world. The new organization grew so rapidly that by 1915 it was able to organize a partially successful boycott of the motion picture The Birth of a Nation, which portrayed blacks of the Reconstruction era in a distorted light (Spartacus 2). Most of the NAACP's early efforts were directed against lynching. In this area it could claim considerable success. In 1911 there were 71 lynchings in the United States, with a black person the victim 63 times; by the 1950's lynching had virtually disappeared. Since its beginning, and with increasing emphasis since World War II, the NAACP has advocated nonviolent protests against discrimination and has disapproved of extremist black groups such as SNC C and the Black Panthers in the 1960's and 70's and CORE and the Nation of Islam in the 1980's and 90's, many of which criticized the organization as passive.

While complacent in the 1980's, it became more active in legislative redistricting, voter registration, and lobbying in the 1990's (NAACP 1). The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, an independent legal aid group, argues in court on behalf of the NAACP and other civil-rights groups. Along with the NAACP, it was instrumental in helping to bring about the Supreme Court's ruling (1954) against segregated public education in the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. Case (Spartacus 1). The strategy shifted after Brown, however, to 'direct action' -- primarily bus boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides, and similar movements -- from 1955 to 1965. In part this was the unintended result of the local authorities' attempt to outlaw and harass the mainstream civil rights organizations throughout the Deep South.

The State of Alabama had effectively barred the NAACP from operating in Alabama by requiring it to give the state a list of its members. In the South of the 1950's, that would have exposed every member of the NAACP to retaliation, from being fired to being firebombed. While the United States Supreme Court ultimately reversed the order, for a few years in the mid 1950's the NAACP was unable to operate above-ground in Alabama (wikipedia 2). A debate in civil rights history appeared in the decades following the well-publicized struggles of the early 1960's and continues today. This debate is of whether the movement was finished with its goals when it attained equal treatment under the law, or whether it had changed to a new goal of fighting all forms of discrimination, not just the formal version found in Jim Crow. Those who argue for the continuation of the movement point to events of the later 1960's that continue to have an impact today: Race riots in every major city in the country, on an almost yearly basis; the formation of more militant groups such as the Black Panthers; and evidence that implies continued and consistent discrimination in the housing and job markets.

Those who argue against it note that other discriminated groups in the past have managed to overcome their problems with time and community help, and for that reason the movement for civil rights (if not civil equality) ended with the legal struggle. Since its inception NAACP was poised for a long, tumultuous and rewarding history. Although it may be possible to chronicle the challenging and harrowing legacy of the NAACP, the real story of the nation's most significant civil rights organization lies in the hearts and minds of the people who would not stand still while the rights of some of America's darker citizens were denied. From the ballot box to the classroom, the dedicated workers, organizers, and leaders who forged this great organization and maintain its status as a champion of social justice, fought long and hard to ensure that the voices of African Americans would be heard. The legacy of those pioneers such as W.E. B DuBois, Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkens and the hundreds of thousands of nameless faces who worked tirelessly cannot and must not be forgotten (NAACP 1). The history of the NAACP is one of blood sweat and tears.

From bold investigations of mob brutality, protests of mass murders, segregation and discrimination, to testimony before congressional committees on the vicious tactics used to bar African Americans from the ballot box, it was the talent and tenacity of NAACP members that saved lives and changed many negative aspects of American society. While much of its history is chronicled in books, articles, pamphlets and magazines, the true movement lies in the faces -- -black, white, yellow, red, and brown -- -united to awaken the conscientiousness of people, and a nation. Work Cited web.