Celebrate Black History 2021 - NAACP

by Dick Mac

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded on this day, February 12, 1909, by W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wellsa, Mary White Ovington, and Moorfield Storey, with the mission:

To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

As a boy, I became aware of the NAACP after the assassination of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King., Jr., and the civil turmoil that followed it. Most of what I'd heard was negative. 

Racists opposed any organization, movement, or program that provided assistance to anyone who wasn't white, and some of the progressive black men and women I knew considered the organization to be too mainstream and more interested in promoting assimilation as opposed to acceptance and change. 

Some adults told me it was actually a Jewish organization using back people as a front - I never weas told what the front was hiding. It is true that much of the original funding for the NAACP was provided by Jewish citizens, but the organization has never been a "front" for anything and has always strived to keep to its mission.

It was only the open-mindedness and activism of my mother that kept me from believing that the NAACP was a problem. 

After race riots in Springfield, Illinois in 1908, a group of concerned citizens led by Mary White Ovington, met in New York City. They garnered the support of scores of prominent Americans and set a founding ceremony of the organization for February 12th, 1909 the anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

The NAACP works for legal reform to ensure civil rights, criminal justice, voting rights, employment rights, health advocacy, diversity promotion, environmental justice, runs a legal defense fund, an educational program, and much more. It is one of the most important organizations ever founded in the United States, and deserves the support of everyone.

Today is the 112th Anniversary of its founding.

The work done by the NAACP remains vital and the organization relies on membership dues to help cover operating expenses.  Anyone can join the NAACP, and you can do it here: https://www.naacp.org/membership/

Visit the NAACP website: https://www.naacp.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAACP

See this video produced by the History Channel: https://youtu.be/JXi2lM7-NB8

#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackLivesMatter #WorkForChange