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106-715: In January 1942 after the US entry into World War II, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9040 to establish the War Production Board , which replaced the Office of Production Management and put the FEPC under it answering to the War Manpower Commission . The new board, concentrating on converting the domestic economy to a wartime footing , slashed the committee's limited budget. In response to strong support for

212-479: A National Council to lobby for this goal. Because of limited funds, Hedgeman hired a staff of women and college students to help with the publicity and fundraising for the FEPC. She wanted the FEPC Councils to promote fair employment policies in both state and local governments. Her staff introduced laws to this effect in almost every state, but not many state legislatures then supported such bills. A bill for

318-592: A Southern Congressman, also exerted control. In 1943 other opponents worked through the Senate to restrict agencies created by executive order; they required that after a year, the agency could have funds only if that money was appropriated to them by Congress, as was the policy for standing executive agencies set up by law. If the proposal had passed, the FEPC would likely have had even less money to carry out its program of holding hearings and taking testimony, as well as collecting and analyzing data from companies. Critics of

424-686: A forerunner to the NAACP. On May 30, 1909, the Niagara Movement conference took place at New York City's Henry Street Settlement House; they created an organization of more than 40, identifying as the National Negro Committee . Among other founding members were Lillian Wald , a nurse who had founded the Henry Street Settlement where the conference took place. Du Bois played a key role in organizing

530-422: A great turnaround. Military aircraft production, which totaled 6,000 in 1940, jumped to 85,000 in 1943. Factories that made silk ribbons now produced parachutes, automobile factories built tanks, typewriter companies converted to rifles, undergarment manufacturers sewed mosquito netting, and a rollercoaster manufacturer converted to the production of bomber repair platforms. The WPB ensured that each factory received

636-455: A lawyer and clergyman, was elected his successor. In the 1990s, the NAACP ran into debt. The dismissal of two leading officials further added to the picture of an organization in deep crisis. After such, Rupert Richardson began her term as president of the NAACP in 1992. In 1993, the NAACP's Board of Directors narrowly selected Reverend Benjamin Chavis over Reverend Jesse Jackson to fill

742-466: A major get-out-the-vote offensive in the 2000 U.S. presidential elections . 10.5 million African Americans cast their ballots in the election; this was one million more than four years before. The NAACP's effort was credited by observers as playing a significant role in Democrat Al Gore 's winning several states where the election was close, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. During

848-556: A march on Washington to put pressure on the administration. In May 1943, Roosevelt strengthened the FEPC by Executive Order 9346 , giving it independence by placing it within the Office for Emergency Management in the Executive Office of the President. The new executive order required that all government contracts have a mandatory non-discrimination clause, authorized twelve regional offices and appropriate staff and broadened

954-521: A national scrap metal drive in October 1942 resulted in an average of almost 82 pounds (37 kg) of scrap per American. WPB order M-9-C related to the conservation of copper and, in May 1942, The Film Daily reported that this would apply to the production of new motion picture sound and projection equipment but not to the delivery of items already produced. The WPB and the nation's factories effected

1060-525: A nationwide FEPC and anti-discrimination in employment made its way to Harry S. Truman after the death of President Roosevelt in 1945, who wanted to lobby the bill. By the time the Second World War ended in August, Congress "provided some additional funding but ordered the FEPC to cease all operations by June 30, 1946." Continuing tensions in cities that were booming with increased populations for

1166-483: A new constitution in 1890. Through 1908, Southern legislatures, dominated by white Southern Democrats , ratified new constitutions and laws creating barriers to voter registration and more complex election rules. In practice, this and the Lily-white movement caused the exclusion of most blacks and many poor whites from the political system in southern states. Black voter registration and turnout dropped markedly in

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1272-423: A new local welding school, yet local law enforcement terrorized the agents and plaintiffs and violently expelled them from the town. Overall, the FEPC was relatively ineffective in its efforts to address the issue of racial discrimination throughout World War II. In August 1942, President Roosevelt and others noticed that the progress of the FEPC was slowing. The agency had earlier that year been put under control of

1378-444: A result, several cities refused to allow the film to open. The NAACP began to lead lawsuits targeting disfranchisement and racial segregation early in its history. It played a significant part in the challenge of Guinn v. United States (1915) to Oklahoma 's discriminatory grandfather clause , which effectively disenfranchised most black citizens while exempting many whites from certain voter registration requirements. It persuaded

1484-469: A time with limited resources and internal conflict and disbanded in 1910. Seven of the members of the Niagara Movement joined the Board of Directors of the NAACP, founded in 1909. Although both organizations shared membership and overlapped for a time, the Niagara Movement was a separate organization. Historically, it is considered to have had a more radical platform than the NAACP. The Niagara Movement

1590-540: A total production of $ 185 billion (equivalent to $ 2.48 trillion in 2023 ) worth of armaments and supplies. At war's end, most production restrictions were quickly lifted, and the WPB was abolished on November 3, 1945, with its remaining functions transferred to the Civilian Production Administration. Executive Order 9638 created the Civilian Production Administration and terminated

1696-594: A wildcat strike in Detroit in 1943 at the Packard plant, when three blacks were promoted to work next to whites, activists and officials of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) became more effective in pressuring the companies and threatening white union members with the risk of being fired for refusing to work alongside African Americans. The Fair Employment Practice Committee encountered great resistance in

1802-475: A woman president, except on a temporary basis, and there have been calls to name one. Lorraine C. Miller served as interim president after Benjamin Jealous stepped down. Maya Wiley was rumored to be in line for the position in 2013, but Cornell William Brooks was selected. Departments within the NAACP govern areas of action. Local chapters are supported by the "Branch and Field Services" department and

1908-451: A year of the executive order being issued, the number of African Americans and other minorities being employed by the defense industries had increased, especially in shipbuilding and aircraft plants. Automobile plants, which were rapidly converted to wartime production, showed the most significant improvement in the hiring of minorities. They already had established unions that began to encourage compliance and force cooperation of members. After

2014-472: Is to advance health care for minorities through public policy initiatives and education. As of 2007 , the NAACP had approximately 425,000 paying and non-paying members. The NAACP's non-current records are housed at the Library of Congress , which has served as the organization's official repository since 1964. The records held there comprise approximately five million items spanning the NAACP's history from

2120-777: The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill . In alliance with the American Federation of Labor , the NAACP led the successful fight to prevent the nomination of John Johnston Parker to the Supreme Court, based on his support for denying the vote to blacks and his anti-labor rulings. It organized legal support for the Scottsboro Boys . The NAACP lost most of the internecine battles with the Communist Party and International Labor Defense over

2226-668: The Supreme Court of the United States to rule in Buchanan v. Warley in 1917 that state and local governments cannot officially segregate African Americans into separate residential districts. The Court's opinion reflected the jurisprudence of property rights and freedom of contract as embodied in the earlier precedent it established in Lochner v. New York . It also played a role in desegregating recreational activities via

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2332-745: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 , which provided for protection of the franchise, with a role for federal oversight and administrators in places where voter turnout was historically low. Under its anti-desegregation director J. Edgar Hoover , the FBI 's COINTELPRO program targeted civil rights groups, including the NAACP, for infiltration, disruption and discreditation. Kivie Kaplan became NAACP President in 1966. After his death in 1975, scientist W. Montague Cobb took over until 1982. Roy Wilkins retired as executive director in 1977, and Benjamin Hooks ,

2438-470: The War Production Board via Executive Order 9040, which was established to replace the Office of Production Management after US entry into the war, when it needed to convert industry to a wartime footing. Opponents of this action believed that Roosevelt was yielding to pressure from powerful southern Democrats in Congress. FEPC chairman MacLean objected to the transfer, saying that Roosevelt's administration

2544-418: The gold standard , and anti-imperialism . Storey consistently and aggressively championed civil rights , not only for blacks but also for Native Americans and immigrants (he opposed immigration restrictions). Du Bois continued to play a pivotal leadership role in the organization, serving as editor of the association's magazine, The Crisis , which had a circulation of more than 30,000. The Crisis

2650-568: The " separate but equal " doctrine announced by the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson . The NAACP's Baltimore chapter, under president Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson , challenged segregation in Maryland state professional schools by supporting the 1935 Murray v. Pearson case argued by Marshall. Houston's victory in Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938) led to the formation of

2756-553: The "Youth and College" department. The "Legal" department focuses on court cases of broad application to minorities, such as systematic discrimination in employment, government, or education. The Washington, D.C. , bureau is responsible for lobbying the U.S. government, and the Education Department works to improve public education at the local, state, and federal levels. The goal of the Health Division

2862-462: The 2000 presidential election, Lee Alcorn , president of the Dallas NAACP branch, criticized Al Gore's selection of Senator Joe Lieberman for his vice-presidential candidate because Lieberman was Jewish. On a gospel talk radio show on station KHVN , Alcorn stated, "If we get a Jew person, then what I'm wondering is, I mean, what is this movement for, you know? Does it have anything to do with

2968-605: The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the NAACP , and other prominent groups. Also, in both cities "activists [had] formed Metropolitan Fair Employment Practice Councils to help workers document discrimination and bring complaints before the FEPC and push local officials to implement Roosevelt's order." These cities also had histories of strong union organizing, and some union leaders were willing to cooperate to change workplaces. Etheridge stated his opposition to discrimination in

3074-639: The Civil Rights Movement by pressing for civil rights legislation. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on August 28, 1963. That fall, President John F. Kennedy sent a civil rights bill to Congress before he was assassinated. President Lyndon B. Johnson worked hard to persuade Congress to pass a civil rights bill aimed at ending racial discrimination in employment, education and public accommodations, and succeeded in gaining passage in July 1964. He followed that with passage of

3180-865: The Civil Rights Movement while it was barred from Alabama. New organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC, in 1957) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, in 1960) rose up with different approaches to activism. Rather than relying on litigation and legislation, these newer groups employed direct action and mass mobilization to advance the rights of African Americans. Roy Wilkins , NAACP's executive director, clashed repeatedly with Martin Luther King ;Jr. and other civil rights leaders over questions of strategy and leadership within

3286-490: The FEPC and a threatened march on the capital, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9346 in May 1943, which gave the FEPC independent status within the Office of the President , established 16 regional offices, and widened its jurisdiction to all federal agencies, in addition to those directly involved in defense. It was put within the president's Office of Emergency Management. Analysis of the incomes of blacks who gained entree into

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3392-526: The FEPC and the executive order could produce desired change. During the second round of hearings on the executive order, held in Chicago and New York in January and February 1942 after US entry into World War II, supporters of the policy spoke. Support was high in these cities for several reasons: some positions with the FEPC were held by influential black attorneys who also worked closely with activists from

3498-465: The FEPC argue that the agency was created to appease Randolph and other activists to prevent a march on the capital. The committee had a limited range of power and had to work largely by influence. The FEPC was limited to overseeing the defense industries and had no power in other industries where "numerous Negroes were employed or seeking employment." Within the private sector of the Northern region of

3604-435: The FEPC supported the idea that "economic rights can be obtained principally by activity in the economic sphere: through education, protest, self-help, and, at times, intimidation." It gained the support of states and government to eliminate racial discrimination in employment practices. During its relatively short period of operations from 1941 to 1946, the FEPC encouraged the formation of other groups with similar goals, such as

3710-633: The Fair Employment Practice Committee to implement the policy through education, acceptance of complaints of job discrimination, and work with industry on changing employment practices. The activists called off their march. After the executive order was signed, Roosevelt appointed Mark Etheridge, a liberal editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal , to head the new agency. Etheridge brought "important political connections and public relations expertise to

3816-571: The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights supporting the National Council for a Permanent FEPC. By opening some good-paying jobs in the defense industry, the FEPC created an opportunity for African Americans. By 1950, compared to other men in comparable positions, those blacks who gained jobs in defense were making 14% more than their counterparts outside. The proportion of blacks in the defense industry did not decline after

3922-692: The Legal Defense Fund in 1939. The campaign for desegregation culminated in a unanimous 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that held state-sponsored segregation of public elementary schools was unconstitutional . Bolstered by that victory, the NAACP pushed for full desegregation throughout the South. NAACP activists were excited about the judicial strategy. Starting on December 5, 1955, NAACP activists, including Edgar Nixon , its local president, and Rosa Parks , who had served as

4028-566: The NAACP and recruited for its board such Jewish leaders as Jacob Schiff , Jacob Billikopf , and Rabbi Stephen Wise ." In its early years, the NAACP was based in New York City . It concentrated on litigation in efforts to overturn disenfranchisement of blacks, which had been established in every southern state by 1908, excluding most from the political system, and the Jim Crow statutes that legalized racial segregation . In 1913,

4134-540: The NAACP had been infiltrated by Communists. To distance themselves from these accusations, the NAACP purged suspected Communists from its membership, according to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 's website. The board of directors of the NAACP created the Legal Defense Fund in 1939 specifically for tax purposes. It functioned as the NAACP legal department. Intimidated by the Department of

4240-477: The NAACP organized opposition to President Woodrow Wilson 's introduction of racial segregation into federal government policy, workplaces, and hiring. African-American women's clubs were among the organizations that protested Wilson's changes, but the administration did not alter its assuagement of Southern cabinet members and the Southern bloc in Congress. By 1914, the group had 6,000 members and 50 branches. It

4346-412: The NAACP's membership from 9,000 to almost 90,000. In 1920, Johnson was elected head of the organization. Over the next ten years, the NAACP escalated its lobbying and litigation efforts, becoming internationally known for its advocacy of equal rights and equal protection for the "American Negro". The NAACP devoted much of its energy during the interwar years to fight the lynching of blacks throughout

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4452-694: The South as a result of such legislation. Men who had been voting for thirty years in the South were told they did not "qualify" to register. White-dominated legislatures also passed segregation and Jim Crow laws. Because hotels in the US were segregated, the men convened in Canada at the Erie Beach Hotel on the Canadian side of the Niagara River in Fort Erie, Ontario . As a result,

4558-646: The South were unable to elect representatives of their choice to office. The NAACP regularly displayed a black flag stating "A Man Was Lynched Yesterday" from the window of its offices in New York to mark each lynching. It organized the first of the two 1935 New York anti-lynching exhibitions in support of the Costigan-Wagner Bill , having previously widely published an account of the Lynching of Henry Lowry , as An American Lynching , in support of

4664-437: The South, where states had disfranchised blacks since the turn of the century and maintained legal segregation in public facilities under their Jim Crow laws. The executive order was strongly opposed by local employers and elected officials, as well as most white workers, and the civil rights organizations were not as influential because blacks were generally closed out of the political system, despite their significant portion of

4770-602: The State Department was "strongly opposed" to the public hearings that the FEPC was planning to hold in June 1942, worrying that they might damage the US reputation abroad by publicizing social inequities or give its enemies material to undermine United States morale at home and among its fighting troops. During the first year, the FEPC had a budget of $ 80,000. Over time, the committee added staff, but its eventual budget of $ 431,609 provided average spending on positions that

4876-618: The Supreme Court ruled against the white primary. Although states had to retract legislation related to the white primaries, the legislatures soon came up with new methods to severely limit the franchise for blacks. During the Second Red Scare the NAACP was often linked to Communism by right-wing politicians. The House Un-American Activities Committee , the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security , and security agencies sought to prove to

4982-661: The Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service, the Legal and Educational Defense Fund, Inc., became a separate legal entity in 1957, although it was clear that it was to operate in accordance with NAACP policy. After 1961 serious disputes emerged between the two organizations, creating considerable confusion in the eyes and minds of the public. By the 1940s, the federal courts were amenable to lawsuits regarding constitutional rights, against which Congressional action

5088-429: The U.S. In the decades around the turn of the century, the rate of lynchings of blacks, particularly men, was at an all-time high. Mary White Ovington , journalist William English Walling and Henry Moskowitz met in New York City in January 1909 to work on organizing for black civil rights. They sent out solicitations for support to more than 60 prominent Americans, and set a meeting date for February 12, 1909. This

5194-505: The United States by working for legislation, lobbying, and educating the public. The organization sent its field secretary Walter F. White to Phillips County , Arkansas, in October 1919, to investigate the Elaine Race Riot . Roving white vigilantes killed more than 200 black tenant farmers and federal troops after a deputy sheriff's attack on a union meeting of sharecroppers left one white man dead. White published his report on

5300-439: The United States, the FEPC began to make gains in enforcing non-discrimination. In the border region, its intervention led to some hate strikes by angry white workers. In the South, hate crimes and corruption among Southern government officials contributed to the FEPC's policies being relatively ineffective. In New Iberia, Louisiana , for example, the FEPC worked with the local NAACP branch to address admissions discrimination at

5406-479: The War Department. Patterson typically demanded that civilian needs be given lower priority because military supplies were essential to winning the war, and that argument usually prevailed. In February 1943, Roosevelt invited Bernard Baruch to replace Nelson as WPB head, but was persuaded to change his mind by advisor Harry Hopkins , and Nelson remained in the post. From 1942 to 1945 the WPB directed

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5512-553: The War Production Board on October 4, 1945. The Civilian Production Board was consolidated with other agencies to form the Office of Temporary Controls—an agency in the Office for Emergency Management of the executive office of the president. The latter had previously been established pursuant to the Reorganization Act of 1939. The executive order provided a Temporary Controls Administrator, appointed by

5618-527: The arts and media, Theatre Awards are for achievements in theatre and stage, and Spingarn Medals are for outstanding achievements of any kind. Its headquarters are in Baltimore , Maryland . The NAACP is headquartered in Baltimore , with additional regional offices in New York , Michigan , Georgia , Maryland, Texas , Colorado , and California . Each regional office is responsible for coordinating

5724-621: The assembly line. The FEPC worked to avoid such "hate" strikes and help employers manage integration, and to negotiate settlements in cases when strikes did take place. The Fair Employment Practice Committee did not end racial discrimination in employment practices during World War II, but it did have a lasting effect in that era. It opened some doors, as far more of its cases were based on "refusal to hire" than "refusal to upgrade" or "discriminatory working conditions". It apparently helped blacks enter "industries, firms, and occupations that otherwise might have remained closed to them." The operation of

5830-781: The board was dissolved. The national WPB constituted the chair, the Secretaries of War , Navy , and Agriculture , the lieutenant general in charge of War Department procurement, the director of the Office of Price Administration , the Federal Loan Administrator , the chair of the Board of Economic Warfare , and the special assistant to the President for the defense aid program. The WPB had advisory, policy-making, and progress-reporting divisions. The WPB employed mathematicians who were responsible for constructing and maintaining multilevel models of resources needed for

5936-769: The chapter's Secretary, helped organize a bus boycott in Montgomery , Alabama. This was designed to protest segregation on the city's buses, two-thirds of whose riders were black. The boycott lasted 381 days. In 1956 the South Carolina legislature created an anti-NAACP oath, and teachers who refused to take the oath lost their positions. After twenty-one Black teachers at the Elloree Training School refused to comply, White school officials dismissed them. Their dismissal led to Bryan v. Austin in 1957, which became an important civil rights case. In Alabama,

6042-501: The cities with the largest number of cases filed with the FEPC, about 200 in each place. With the help of the FEPC, black men outside the South made substantial economic progress in the 1940s. As suggested by William J. Collins, the FEPC helped make opportunities by the following: *providing advice on how to integrate the workplace; To promote the establishment of a permanent FEPC in the government, A. Philip Randolph recruited young feminists Anna Arnold Hedgeman in 1944 to work with

6148-543: The control of those cases and the legal strategy to be pursued in that case. The organization also brought litigation to challenge the " white primary " system in the South. Southern state Democratic parties had created white-only primaries as another way of barring blacks from the political process. Since the Democrats dominated southern states, the primaries were the only competitive contests. In 1944 in Smith v. Allwright ,

6254-571: The defense industries compared to men outside them showed that they benefited from the higher wages and generally retained their jobs in the early postwar years until 1950. On June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt created the Committee on Fair Employment Practice , generally known as the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) by signing Executive Order 8802 , which stated that "there shall be no discrimination in

6360-467: The defense industries erupted in race riots in 1943 in Detroit , Los Angeles , Mobile, Alabama ; and Beaumont, Texas . In each city, new populations were competing for jobs and housing, and expectations were rising among African Americans to share in the wartime boom. In many places, white workers were resisting this change. In the Detroit Packard plant, 25,000 white workers walked off the job in 1943 when three blacks were promoted to work next to whites in

6466-479: The distribution of materials and services, and prohibited nonessential production. It rationed such commodities as gasoline, heating oil, metals, rubber, paper, and plastics. It was dissolved shortly after the defeat of Japan in 1945 and was replaced by the Civilian Production Administration in late 1945. In 1942–1945, WPB supervised the production of $ 183 billion (equivalent to $ 2.46 trillion in 2023 ) worth of weapons and supplies, about 40 percent of

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6572-399: The efforts of state conferences in that region. Local, youth, and college chapters organize activities for individual members. In the U.S., the NAACP is administered by a 64-member board led by a chairperson. The board elects one person as the president and one as the chief executive officer for the organization. Julian Bond , civil rights movement activist and former Georgia State Senator,

6678-447: The employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race , creed , color, or national origin." A. Philip Randolph , the founding president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters , had lobbied with other activists for such provisions because of the wide discrimination against African Americans in employment across the country. With the buildup of defense industries for World War II , many African Americans moved to

6784-453: The employment practices of companies that failed to implement the EO. In this second round of hearings, Etheridge took action related to companies that had complaints filed against them. For companies in Chicago and Milwaukee, he demanded that all the companies on trial update their employment policies to conform to the EO. The companies were required to document the changes made and send updated information to employment agencies (to alert them to

6890-465: The event and presided over the proceedings. Also in attendance was Ida B. Wells-Barnett , an African-American journalist and anti- lynching crusader. Wells-Barnett addressed the conference on the history of lynching in the United States and called for action to publicize and prosecute such crimes. The members chose the new organization's name to be the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and elected its first officers: The NAACP

6996-491: The group came to be known as the Niagara Movement . A year later, three non-African-Americans joined the group: journalist William English Walling , a wealthy socialist; and social workers Mary White Ovington and Henry Moskowitz . Moskowitz, who was Jewish, was then also Associate Leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture . They met in 1906 at Storer College , Harpers Ferry, West Virginia , and in 1907 in Boston, Massachusetts . The fledgling group struggled for

7102-428: The hiring of minorities), in addition to providing reports about their employment status to the FEPC, for updates on minority hires. The FEPC alone did not end employment discrimination in New York or Chicago but contributed to improvements. Progress was also dependent on other parties, for instance, the government officials and local activists who worked together to enforce President Roosevelt's executive order. Within

7208-408: The historic Bob-Lo Excursion Co. v. Michigan after plaintiff Sarah Elizabeth Ray was wrongfully discriminated against when attempting to board a ferry. In 1916, chairman Joel Spingarn invited James Weldon Johnson to serve as field secretary. Johnson was a former U.S. consul to Venezuela and a noted African-American scholar and columnist. Within four years, Johnson was instrumental in increasing

7314-431: The industrial and urban centers in the North and West during the second phase of the Great Migration in search of jobs and to avoid rampant racial segregation, bigotry, and violence in the rural South. Upon arriving there, they were constantly excluded from applying in the defense industries because of racism and the fear of competition by Northern and Western whites. With all groups of Americans being asked to support

7420-430: The job" but "emphasized interracial cooperation over equality and refused to challenge the southern system of segregation." Knowing that industry was likely to be hostile, Randolph and other activists believed that the FEPC would depend on workers keeping their own records as to practices at workplaces and taking cases of discrimination to the committee. The committee had a limited budget of $ 80,000 in its first year, which

7526-639: The jurisdiction of the agency to federal government agencies. During World War II the federal government was operating airfields, shipyards, supply centers, ammunition plants, and other facilities that employed millions. The FEPC operated until the end of the war overseeing defense industries and federal agencies. The FEPC expanded its jurisdiction to federal government departments and agencies as employers; they were "now were explicitly covered along with war industries, unions, and war-training programs." Agency records show that New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, all major sites of defense industries, were

7632-407: The late 20th century by considering issues such as police misconduct , the status of black foreign refugees and questions of economic development. Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term colored people , referring to those with some African ancestry. The NAACP bestows annual awards on African Americans in three categories: Image Awards are for achievements in

7738-466: The law. The larger conference resulted in a more diverse organization, where the leadership was predominantly white. Moorfield Storey , a white attorney from a Boston abolitionist family, served as the president of the NAACP from its founding to 1915. At its founding, the NAACP had one African American on its executive board, Du Bois. Storey was a long-time classical liberal and Grover Cleveland Democrat who advocated laissez-faire free markets,

7844-574: The materials it needed to produce the most war goods in the shortest time. Without American production the Allies could never have won the war. Nelson faced extensive criticism from the military during his tenure. Described by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin as "habitually indecisive", Nelson had difficulty sorting the conflicting requests from various agencies. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson regularly criticized Nelson for his "inability to take charge". He argued endlessly with Robert P. Patterson of

7950-521: The military, the criminal justice system, employment, housing). The Pan-American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York , featured many American innovations and achievements, but also included a disparaging caricature of slave life in the South as well as a depiction of life in Africa, called "Old Plantation" and "Darkest Africa", respectively. A local African-American woman, Mary Talbert of Ohio ,

8056-581: The movement. The NAACP continued to use the Supreme Court's decision in Brown to press for desegregation of schools and public facilities throughout the country. Daisy Bates , president of its Arkansas state chapter, spearheaded the campaign by the Little Rock Nine to integrate the public schools in Little Rock , Arkansas. By the mid-1960s, the NAACP had regained some of its prominence in

8162-596: The organization's funds. In 1996, Congressman Kweisi Mfume , a Democratic Congressman from Maryland and former head of the Congressional Black Caucus , was named the organization's president. Three years later strained finances forced the organization to drastically cut its staff, from 250 in 1992 to 50. In the second half of the 1990s, the organization restored its finances, permitting the NAACP National Voter Fund to launch

8268-506: The population in many areas of the region. Black activists were effective in some areas in getting local officials to address discrimination in employment. As historian Thomas Maloney noted in a review of Andrew E. Kersten's book on the FEPC, "Success in promoting greater labor market equality was dependent on support from local government, federal government offices in the city, and local activist organizations." The FEPC had little power and no authority to regulate employment practices. The FEPC

8374-417: The position of executive director. A controversial figure, Chavis was ousted eighteen months later by the same board. They accused him of using NAACP funds for an out-of-court settlement in a sexual harassment lawsuit. Following the dismissal of Chavis, Myrlie Evers-Williams narrowly defeated NAACP chairperson William Gibson for president in 1995, after Gibson was accused of overspending and mismanagement of

8480-404: The president's intent to issue an executive order announcing a policy of non-discrimination in federal vocational and training programs. Randolph and his allies convinced him that more was needed, especially directed at the booming defense industries. President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 to prohibit discrimination among defense firms that had contracts with the government. He established

8586-654: The president, to head the Office of Temporary Controls and vested in him, among other things, the functions of the Price Administrator. NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois , Mary White Ovington , Moorfield Storey , Ida B. Wells , Lillian Wald , and Henry Moskowitz . Over

8692-435: The previously named whites Henry Moskowitz , Mary White Ovington , William English Walling (the wealthy Socialist son of a former slave-holding family), Florence Kelley , a social reformer and friend of Du Bois; Oswald Garrison Villard , and Charles Edward Russell , a renowned muckraker and close friend of Walling. Russell helped plan the NAACP and had served as acting chairman of the National Negro Committee (1909),

8798-610: The riot in the Chicago Daily News . The NAACP organized the appeals for twelve black men sentenced to death a month later based on the fact that testimony used in their convictions was obtained by beatings and electric shocks. It gained a groundbreaking Supreme Court decision in Moore v. Dempsey 261 U.S. 86 (1923) that significantly expanded the Federal courts' oversight of the states' criminal justice systems in

8904-690: The state level. War Production Board The War Production Board ( WPB ) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II . President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board and the Office of Production Management . The WPB directed conversion of companies engaged in activities relevant to war from peacetime work to war needs, allocated scarce materials, established priorities in

9010-449: The state responded by effectively barring the NAACP from operating within its borders because of its refusal to divulge a list of its members. The NAACP feared members could be fired or face violent retaliation for their activities. Although the Supreme Court eventually overturned the state's action in NAACP v. Alabama , 357 U.S. 449 (1958), the NAACP lost its leadership role in

9116-463: The time of its founding until 2003. In 2011, the NAACP teamed with the digital repository ProQuest to digitize and host online the earlier portion of its archives, through 1972 – nearly two million pages of documents, from the national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country, which offer first-hand insight into the organization's work related to such crucial issues as lynching, school desegregation, and discrimination in all its aspects (in

9222-500: The turn of the century, Southern Democrats had powerful positions in Congress, controlling chairmanships of important committees, and opposed these measures. In 1950, the House approved a permanent FEPC bill, but Southern senators filibustered and the bill failed. Congress has never enacted the FEPC into law. But Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Washington successfully enacted and enforced their own FEPC laws at

9328-421: The war effort, Randolph demanded changes in the employment practice of the defense industries. Together with other activists, Rudolph planned to muster tens of thousands of persons for a 1941 March on Washington to protest the continued segregation in the military and discrimination in defense industries. A week before the planned march, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia met with him and other officials to discuss

9434-573: The war effort. Their models included manufacturing defects, materials lost when ships were sunk at sea, &c. Upon analyzing field reports which revealed systematic shortages, the mathematicians decided to increase allocations submitted to the board by a factor of 10. The WPB managed 12 regional offices and operated 120 field offices throughout the nation. They worked alongside state war production boards, which maintained records on state war production facilities and also helped state businesses obtain war contracts and loans. The national WPB's primary task

9540-407: The war, suggesting that many men had gained an entree into important new work. In 1948, President Truman asked Congress to approve a permanent FEPC, anti- lynching legislation and the abolition of the poll tax in federal elections. A Democratic coalition prevented the legislation's passage. Still operating effectively with one-party systems in their states due to disenfranchisement of blacks at

9646-534: The world output of munitions. The UK, the USSR, and other allies produced an additional 30 percent, while the Axis produced only 30 percent. One fourth of the US output was warplanes; one fourth was warships. Meanwhile, the civilian standard of living was about level. The first chair of the board was Donald Nelson , who served from 1942 to 1944. He was succeeded by Julius Albert Krug , who served from 1944 until

9752-482: The years to come. White investigated eight race riots and 41 lynchings for the NAACP and directed its study Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States . The NAACP also worked for more than a decade seeking federal anti-lynching legislation, but the Solid South of white Democrats voted as a bloc against it or used the filibuster in the Senate to block passage. Because of disenfranchisement, African Americans in

9858-422: The years, leaders of the organization have included Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins . Its mission in the 21st century is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination". NAACP initiatives include political lobbying, publicity efforts, and litigation strategies developed by its legal team. The group enlarged its mission in

9964-587: Was appalled by the exhibit, as a similar one in Paris highlighted black achievements. She informed W. E. B. Du Bois of the situation, and a coalition began to form. In 1905, a group of thirty-two prominent African-American leaders met to discuss the challenges facing African Americans and possible strategies and solutions. They were particularly concerned by the Southern states ' disenfranchisement of blacks starting with Mississippi 's passage of

10070-500: Was below that for other agencies. Those who opposed the FEPC did so in many ways. Many efforts were taken to discredit the committee by questioning the constitutionality of its mission and accusing the FEPC of communism. Congressional attacks, including from powerful Southern Democrats, took place when the FEPC was required to testify before the House of Representatives Committee that oversaw its program. The House Rules Committee, headed by

10176-521: Was chairman until replaced in February 2010 by healthcare administrator Roslyn Brock . For decades in the first half of the 20th century, the organization was effectively led by its executive secretary, who acted as chief operating officer. James Weldon Johnson and Walter F. White , who served in that role successively from 1920 to 1958, were much more widely known as NAACP leaders than were presidents during those years. The organization has never had

10282-506: Was converting civilian industry to war production. The WPB assigned priorities and allocated scarce materials such as steel, aluminum, and rubber, prohibited nonessential industrial production such as that of nylons and refrigerators, controlled wages and prices, and mobilized the people through patriotic propaganda such as "give your scrap metal and help Oklahoma boys save our way of life". It initiated events such as scrap metal drives, which were carried out locally to great success. For example,

10388-471: Was formed exclusively by African Americans. Four European Americans were among the founders of the NAACP, they included Mary White Ovington , Henry Moskowitz , William English Walling and Oswald Garrison Villard . The Race Riot of 1908 in Springfield, Illinois , the state capital and Abraham Lincoln 's hometown, was a catalyst showing the urgent need for an effective civil rights organization in

10494-507: Was given a very low budget, small staff, and little means for reinforcement. Historians such as Ronald Takaki believe it was a "show" kind of agency, set up for failure. It was opposed for ideological reasons by Southern Democrats and other congressmen, and by some labor officials. Some Federal officials in Washington actively frustrated the FEPC's efforts; for example, Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles advised President Roosevelt that

10600-448: Was incorporated a year later in 1911. The association's charter expressed its mission: To promote equality of rights and eradicate caste or race prejudice among citizens of the United States; to advance the interest of colored citizens; to secure for them impartial suffrage; and to increase their opportunities for securing justice in the courts, education for their children, employment according to their ability, and complete equality before

10706-544: Was influential in winning the right of African Americans to serve as military officers in World War ;I . Six hundred African-American officers were commissioned and 700,000 men registered for the draft. The following year, the NAACP organized a nationwide protest, with marches in numerous cities, against D. W. Griffith 's silent movie The Birth of a Nation , a film that glamorized the Ku Klux Klan . As

10812-470: Was intended to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln , who emancipated enslaved African Americans. While the first large meeting did not occur until three months later, the February date is often cited as the organization's founding date. The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, by a larger group including African Americans W. E. B. Du Bois , Ida B. Wells , Archibald Grimké , Mary Church Terrell , and

10918-635: Was paid from the emergency funds of the Office of the President, which continued to fund it, as for some other agencies created by executive order. Etheridge needed to focus on a few activities in certain areas of the country. He held the first of the FEPC hearings in Los Angeles in October 1941. Some companies admitted they were discriminating based on race when hiring for new job positions, but Etheridge did little to change their practices. That lack of enforcement caused many union leaders, civil rights leaders, government officials, and employers to doubt whether

11024-722: Was reducing the FEPC to "a small Federal bureau without power." A. Philip Randolph said the White House's policy was completely "emasculating" the usefulness of the committee. Roosevelt said the change was intended to support the anti-discrimination agency, but some observers believed the change hampered it. As a start, the chairman of the War Manpower Commission "slashed its budget, denied requests for office space, and refused to aid in conflicts with discriminatory contractors." Key personnel resigned in protest. Randolph and other activists protested as well, threatening

11130-571: Was used both for news reporting and for publishing African-American poetry and literature. During the organization's campaigns against lynching, Du Bois encouraged the writing and performance of plays and other expressive literature about this issue. The Jewish community contributed greatly to the NAACP's founding and continued financing. Jewish historian Howard Sachar 's book A History of Jews in America notes "In 1914, Professor Emeritus Joel Spingarn of Columbia University became chairman of

11236-472: Was virtually impossible. With the rise of private corporate litigators such as the NAACP to bear the expense, civil suits became the pattern in modern civil rights litigation, and the public face of the Civil Rights Movement . The NAACP's Legal department, headed by Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall , undertook a campaign spanning several decades to bring about the reversal of

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