Title Page | Collection Summary | Biographical/Organizational Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
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 |
| 1910-1934 | Crisis edited by W. E. B. Du Bois |
| 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 |
| 1935-1948 | Crisisedited by Roy Wilkins |
| 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. Ricedecision 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 |
| 1949-1966 | Crisis edited by James W. Ivy |
| 1950 | Organized the National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization, Washington, D.C. Sweatt v. Painter decision |
| 1950-1977 | Appointed Clarence Mitchell (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. |
| 1960 | Youth members participated in sit-in demonstrations and defended participants from other organizations |
| 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 Broadcast “Freedom Television Spectacular,” a fund-raising telethon |
| 1966-1974 | Crisis edited by Henry Lee Moon |
| 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 |
| 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 as an experiment |
| 1971 | Established the NAACP National Housing Corp. through which local branches sponsored nonprofit housing programs |
| 1975 | Crisis edited by Warren Marr |
| 1976 | Claiborne Hardware Co v. NAACP decision, the Port Gibson, Miss., case that threatened to bankrupt the association |
| 1977 | Organized NAACP National Energy Conference, 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 Technical Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) Established Economic Policy Advisory Council |
| 1979 | Appointed Leroy Mobley director of prison programs 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 the chairman of the board, 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. |
| 1993 | Benjamin L. Hooks resigned as executive director |
List of Officers
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 |