National Association for the Advancement of Colored People records, 1842-2019

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Organizational History and List of Officers

Organizational History

Date	Event
1909	Issued the “Call,” a statement calling for a conference to protest discrimination and violence against African Americans Convened the National Negro Conference on May 31 and June 1, New York, N.Y. Established the Committee on the Negro, also known as the Committee of Forty on Permanent Organization and as the National Negro Committee
1910	Adopted the name National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Undertook first major legal case in defending Pink Franklin against a murder charge in South Carolina Published first issue of the magazine Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races
1911	Incorporated the NAACP
1911-1914	Organized fifty branches throughout the United States
1914	Published an open letter to Woodrow Wilson protesting segregation in federal agencies
1915	Awarded the first Spingarn Medal to Ernest E. Just for research in biology and physiology Protested the film Birth of a Nation
1916	Established an antilynching committee
1916-1923	Published the Branch Bulletin
1917	Organized the Silent Protest Parade, New York, N.Y.
1919	Published Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918. New York: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
1930	Opposed the nomination of John J. Parker to the Supreme Court Retained full-time legal services of Charles Hamilton Houston
1934	Resignation of W. E. B. Du Bois
1939	Awarded the Spingarn Medal to Marian Anderson
1941	Supported proposed March on Washington
1942	Opened the Washington Bureau, Washington, D.C.
1943	Walter Francis White and Thurgood Marshall submitted reports on riots in Detroit, Mich.
1944	Recorded 430,000 memberships, largest in the association's history W. E. B. Du Bois returned to the NAACP Smith v. Allwright voting rights decision
1944-1945	Walter Francis White toured European and Pacific theaters of operation during World War II
1945	Established position of public relations director Walter Francis White published A Rising Wind. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran and Co. Moved national office from Fifth Avenue to West Fortieth Street, New York, N.Y.
1946	Established Labor Department
1947	Established Church Department Elmore v. Rice decision relating to the Democratic Party primary in South Carolina Harry S. Truman addressed the NAACP's thirty-eighth annual conference, Washington, D.C.
1948	W. E. B. Du Bois resigned from the association Closed Veterans Affairs office, Washington, D.C. Sipuel v. Board of Regents decision
1950	Organized the National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization, Washington, D.C. Sweatt v. Painter decision
1950-1977	Appointed Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. (1911-1984) head of the Washington Bureau, Washington, D.C.
1953	Established Fighting Fund for Freedom
1954	Brown v. Board of Education decision
1956	Legal Defense Fund reorganized as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., an independent entity Held meeting in Atlanta, Ga., to plan strategy for future desegregation campaigns
1957	Central High School, Little Rock, Ark., integrated NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund allowed to retain NAACP as part of its name Awarded the Spingarn Medal to Martin Luther King Jr.
1963	Joined other organizations in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Medgar Wiley Evers, NAACP field secretary, murdered in Jackson, Miss. Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) created as a united front by civil rights organizations to register voters in Mississippi
1963-1964	Association lawyers participated in the defense of Freedom Riders
1964	Established NAACP Special Contribution Fund as a tax-exempt fund Broadcasted “Freedom Television Spectacular,” a fundraising telethon
1965-1995	Gilbert Jonas Company served as fundraising consultant for NAACP
1967	Roy Wilkins appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders Established the Mississippi Emergency Relief program to alleviate hunger in the state Hosted first NAACP Image Awards, Los Angeles, Calif.
1968	Resignation of the legal staff after the dismissal of Lewis M. Steel by the Board of Directors for publication of his article “Nine Men in Black Who Think White” in the New York Times Magazine Reactivated the Housing Department
1969	Established the Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Department Created the National Afro-American Builders Corp. Reorganized branches in various large cities into multiple branches
1971	Established the NAACP National Housing Corp. through which local branches sponsored nonprofit housing programs
1976	Claiborne Hardware Co. v. NAACP decision, the Port Gibson, Miss., case that threatened to bankrupt the association
1977	Organized NAACP National Conference on Energy, Washington, D.C.
1978	Awarded the first Walter Francis White Award to Hubert H. Humphrey Received a five-year, $500,000 educational grant from the Rockefeller Foundation Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision Organized NAACP Leadership Summit Conference, Chicago, Ill. Created Afro-Academic Cultural Technological Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) Established Economic Policy Advisory Council
1979	Appointed Leroy Mobley director of Prison Program Organized Black Leadership Meeting, New York, N.Y.
1981	Eight persons arrested in alleged conspiracy to bomb the Baltimore, Md., NAACP branch headquarters
1982	Moved national headquarters to 186 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, from 1790 Broadway, New York, N.Y. Established Operation Fair Share program
1983	Executive director Benjamin L. Hooks suspended by board chair Margaret Bush Wilson and later reinstated Board of Directors transferred chairman powers to Kelly M. Alexander Sr.
1985	Board of Directors authorized move of national headquarters to Baltimore, Md. Suspicious fire destroyed NAACP branch headquarters in Dover, Del. Created Back-to-School/Stay-in-School program
1986	Moved national headquarters to Baltimore, Md., and retained a small office in New York, N.Y. Association sued some of its former salaried lawyers over legal fees
1987	Completed “Long-Range Plan: The Year 2000 and Beyond” report
1989	Awarded Spingarn Medal to Jesse Jackson
1990	Organized the NAACP Conference on the Present Crisis, Washington, D.C.
1992	Hosted first national health summit
1994	Hosted the National African American Leadership Summit, Baltimore, Md. Board of Directors voted to remove Ben Chavis as executive director following allegations of financial mismanagement within the association
1996	Published “Beyond the Rodney King Story: An Investigation of Misconduct in Minority Communities”
1995	Board of Directors established the title president/chief executive officer to replace the title executive director/chief executive officer Office of president eliminated
2000	Established Voter Empowerment Initiative Joined with other organizations for “Count Every Vote: Make Every Vote Count” rally in Florida to protest voter irregularities
2009	Published NAACP: Celebrating a Century, 100 Years in Pictures
2017	NAACP Special Contribution Fund transitioned to NAACP Foundation
2020	Suspended physical publication of Crisis

List of Officers

Date	Officer
1910-1911	Frances Blascoer, secretary
1910-1929	Moorfield Storey, president
1911-1912	Mary White Ovington, secretary
1912-1916	May Childs Nerney, secretary
1916	Mary White Ovington, acting secretary
1916-1917	Royal Freeman Nash, secretary
1917-1918	James Weldon Johnson, acting secretary
1918-1920	James R. Shillady, secretary
1920-1931	James Weldon Johnson, secretary
1930-1939	Joel Elias Spingarn, president
1931-1955	Walter Francis White, secretary and executive secretary
1940-1965	Arthur B. Spingarn, president
1949-1950	Roy Wilkins, acting secretary
1955-1964	Roy Wilkins, executive secretary
1965-1977	Roy Wilkins, executive director
1966-1974	Kivie Kaplan, president
1975-1983	Margaret Bush Wilson, chair, Board of Directors
1976-1982	W. Montague Cobb, president
1977-1993	Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director/chief executive officer
1983	James Kemp, president
1983-1984	Kelly Alexander Sr., chair, Board of Directors
1984-1989	Enolia P. McMillan, president
1985-1995	William F. Gibson, chair, Board of Directors
1990-1992	Hazel N. Dukes, president
1992-1996	Rupert Richardson, president
1993-1994	Ben Chavis, executive director/chief executive officer
1994-1996	Earl T. Shinhoster, acting executive director/chief executive officer
1996-2004	Kweisi Mfume, president/chief executive officer
1995-1998	Myrlie Evers-Williams, chair, Board of Directors
1998-2010	Julian Bond, chair, Board of Directors
2005	Dennis Hayes, acting president/chief executive officer
2005-2007	Bruce Gordon, president/chief executive officer
2007-2008	Dennis Hayes, acting president/chief executive officer
2008-2013	Ben Jealous, president/chief executive officer
2010-2017	Roslyn M. Brock, chair, Board of Directors
2013-2014	Lorraine Miller, acting president/chief executive officer
2014-2017	Cornell William Brooks, president/chief executive officer
2017	Derrick Johnson, president/chief executive officer
2017	Leon W. Russell, chair, Board of Directors

List of Crisis Editors

Date	Editor
1910-1934	W. E. B. Du Bois
1934-1949	Roy Wilkins
1949-1966	James W. Ivy
1966-1974	Henry Lee Moon
1974-1980	Warren Marr II
1981-1983	Chester A. Higgins Sr.
1984-1985	Maybelle Ward
1985-1992	Fred Beauford
1992-1994	Garland Thomas
1994-1995	Denise Crittendon
1995-1996	Gentry W. Trotter
1997-1998	Paul Ruffins
1998-2000	Ida E. Lewis
2001-2007	Victoria Valentine
2007-2017	Jabari Asim
2017-2020	Lottie L. Joyner