Slavery was a big issue among the African American people and led to a series of protests and creation of several civil rights movements and organizations which were geared towards eliminating the differences between the whites and the Negros. Segregation and inequality were met with a wide assortment of civil right movements. Some of these movements were successful while others failed. Some of the movements that failed in the fight joined together and formed a coalition in the fight against segregation and inequality. This paper brings out the Niagra movement started by the blacks to protest against inequality and segregation. It also focuses on the National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People (NAACP) civil right movement and its fight for equality between the whites and the blacks. Up to today NAACP is a recognized organization all over the world and advocates for civil rights and voting mandate of the people it represents.
Niagara Movement
The Niagara movement was started by a group of individuals and businessmen who met at the Niagara Falls led by the co -founder W.E.B DuBois CITATION Fre65 \l 1033 (Frederick). In total there were 29 members present that day to discuss the fate of the blacks in America. The Niagara meeting that day was the birth place of a revolutionary movement that spurred endless protests against the African American black discrimination in the American society. DuBois is one of the most respected individuals and founder of the Niagara movement. He was among the first black individuals to attain a PHD at Harvard. In 1889 after graduation, he used his knowledge on social Science to publish a case study featuring the black community, in the Philadelphia Negro in the United States CITATION Rol37 \l 1033 (Rolinson).
The Niagara movement was led by a group of intellectuals who were educated and believed in the Talented Tenth. Talented tenth was supposed to lead the other African American individuals and represent them in attaining equality through representing them both culturally and socially. The movement was, however, faced with challenges such as the African largest figure of this time Booker. T. Washington. The other influential members of the Niagara movement were; Monroe Trotter, Freeman Murray and Ida B. DuBois and his colleagues were denied access to hotels located in Buffalo, New York, which triggered the meeting commissioned at the Niagara Falls. The Niagara movement formed a great component of the National Association For the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) CITATION Rol37 \l 1033 (Rolinson).
Women contributed a great part in the success of CITATION Kyl08 \l 1033 (Kyle D)the Niagara movement. Some of the distinguished women who were involved in the Niagara revolutionary movement include, among others the well known Mary Talbert. Talbert was a graduate of Oberlin College. She held many positions in different organizations following her well known activist role. In July 1905 the first meeting of the Niagara movement took place at the house Talberts house. She was well known in Buffalo, where she held many presidential positions such as the president of the Buffalo Phyllis Wheatly Club in the year 1889. She was also the president of the National Association of Colored Women in the year 1916. She also was a leader in the National Association for the advancement of colored peoples Anti-lynching Committee. She was the first woman to be allowed to speak in the Norwegian House of Parliament in the year 1920. Her hard work and devotion to improve the lives of the African Americans made her the first woman to get the Spingarn medal, which was the highest award offered by the NAACP in 1922.
Although the Niagara movement was somehow successful at the local level in the fight towards civil rights, it faced a lot of challenges ranging from poor organizational management to lack of funds. It had established over 30 branches, but it suffered a challenge of a main headquarters or permanent staff. Black leaders such as Booker T. Washington criticized this movement on the basis that it gained no popularity among the black press and it was only known locally. Many white militant liberals joined the Niagara movement in 1908 following the Springfield Race Riot and founded the NAACP the next coming year, thus the Niagara movement was abandoned in the year 1911.
NAACP civil right movement
The NAACP was founded in the year 1909 and represents one of the largest organizations with more than half a million members in the world. These members represent civil rights of individuals and advocate their practice in various regions where they represent. The NAACP organization is worldwide famous for its capacity to advocate for equality in opportunities and carrying out voter mobilizations all over the world. One of the reasons the organization was formed, it was in response to the Springfield race Riot at Illinois which was the resting place for the US President Abraham Lincoln back then. The lynching and continued violence called for a meeting by a group of white liberals, including Oswald Garrison Villard and Mary White Ovington. Somewhere in the range of 60 individuals, seven of whom were African American (counting W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell), marked the call, which was discharged on the centennial of Lincoln's introduction to the world.
Other early individuals included Joel and Arthur Spingarn, Mary Talbert, Josephine Ruffin, Florence Kelley, Jane Addams, Sophonisba Breckinridge, Inez Milholland, John Haynes Holmes, Henry White, Charles Edward Russell, Mary McLeod Bethune, George John Dewey, William Dean Howells, Lillian Wald, Charles Darrow, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, Fanny Garrison Villard, and Walter Sachs. Resounding the center of Du Bois' Niagara Movement started in 1905, the NAACP's expressed objective was to secure for all individuals the rights ensured in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution which guaranteed a conclusion to subjugation, the equivalent insurance of the law, and widespread grown-up male suffrage, separately CITATION Mat111 \l 1033 (Matthews).
The NAACP's foremost target is to guarantee the political, instructional, social and financial uniformity of minority gathering residents of the United States and dispense with race bias. The NAACP looks to evacuate all boundaries of racial separation through the vote based procedures. The NAACP set up its national office in New York City in 1910 and named a top managerial staff and in addition a president, Moorfield Story, a white established legal advisor and previous president of the American Bar Association. The main African American among the association's administrators, Du Bois was made executive of distributions and research and in 1910 set up the official diary of the NAACP, The Crisis. The crisis up to today remains to be a top model magazine and black periodical in the united states where people can express their freedom, issues and ideas concerning their civil rights. It remains to be an open forum where issues regarding American society, people of color and the world in general are confronted and published quarterly.
Civil Rights Era
There was an enormous growth in terms of membership with an average of 600,000 roughly. The NAACP continued to advocate for legislative and anti-lynching laws and for the whites to put to an end to the segregation of the Negros. By the 1950s the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, headed by Marshall, secured the remainder of these objectives through Brown v. Leader of body of Education (1954), which prohibited isolation in state funded schools. The NAACP's Washington, D.C., department, drove by lobbyist Clarence M. Mitchell Jr., progressed not just a combination of the military in 1948 additionally section of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1964, and 1968, and also the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Conclusion
The Niagara movement was started by a group of individuals and businessmen who met at the Niagara Falls led by the co-founder W.E.B DuBois. Women contributed a great part in the success of the Niagara movement. The Niagara movement formed a great component of the National Association For the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP was founded in the year 1909 and represents one of the largest organizations with more than half a million members in the world. The NAACP's foremost target was to guarantee the political, instructional, social and financial uniformity of minority gathering residents of the United States and dispense with race bias.
REFERENCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY Frederick. Papers of the NAACP: Branch Department Files. microfilm. New York: Md.: University Publications of America,, 1956-1965.
Kyle D, Wolf. "The Niagara Movement of 1905: A Look Back to a Century Ago." Afro-Americans in New York Life and History (2008): vol 32, No. 2.
Matthews, Nahal, Anita. "African American Women and the Niagara Movement, 1905-1909." Afro-Americans in New York Life and History (2011): 21-27.
Rolinson, Mary Gambrell. Community and Leadership in the First Twenty Years of the Atlanta NAACP. Library files. Atlanta: Atlanta History, 1917-1937.
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