National Negro Committee

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The National Negro Committee (formed:

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was formally named during the second meeting in May 1910.[1][2]

Origins

In early September 1908, American socialist

Henry Moskowitz.[4]

The three decided to organize a national conference on the civil and political

African Americans, to be held in New York on the centennial of Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1909. They issued a call to progressives, and many people responded. They formed the National Negro Committee, which held its first meeting in New York on May 31 and June 1, 1909, at the Henry Street Settlement House on the Lower East Side.[4] The group leaders initially tried to get the famous Booker T. Washington to attend meetings to gain popularity. Although Oswald G. Villard, the grandson of William Lloyd Garrison and one of the founders, was fed up with Washington ignoring "the real injustices" that affected African Americans, Villard knew that inviting him would help the organization gain momentum. Villard told Washington that the organization would avoid allying with either the more radical activists and scholars such as W. E. B. Du Bois or the conservatism of Black Tuskegee
activists, but attempt to benefit all African Americans. He nonetheless clarified that the organization would be a "radical political movement". Washington refused to attend, out of fear of ensuing Southern controversy, a concern of ruining the tone of the meeting, and a desire to avoid agitation. The Committee was not overly bothered by his absence, as Villard was more interested in attracting those like Du Bois to shake up Washington's widespread conservatism.

The meetings sparked tensions with Washington and his supporters. Many of the Committee's members had been part of the Niagara Movement, which had had notoriously poor relations with Washington. The meetings also lacked many of Washington's allies, such as Andrew Carnegie, who pointedly did not attend. The Committee generated a fair amount of controversy, with some fearing that it would dramatically worsen race relations, and others expressing concern over its "political emphasis". Many claimed that the Conference was "anti-Washingtonian". Nevertheless, the organizers continued on. The attendance of both Black and white activists was a positive indicator of a "successful cooperation of the races". The meetings covered topics including social and economic issues, voting rights, physiological differences between races, lynching, and education. The June 1 meeting brought about disputes between white members and Black members, who expressed a lack of trust in their white counterparts. This tension was partly due to the resurgence of the issue of courting Washington's support, this time in the context of including him in a steering committee to appeal to potential white donors. The committee was eventually formed without Washington. It also overlooked more radical members such as Ida B. Wells (although she was later included in the committee), who were not chosen in favor of more moderate members, which caused more argument. During the debates of the evening, white leaders were generally patronizing towards Black members, as Ovington herself acknowledged:

I find myself still occasionally forgetting that the Negroes aren't poor people for whom I must kindly do something, and then comes a gathering such as that last evening and I learn they are men with most forceful opinions of their own.[2]

Willard even went so far as to suggest the formation of a separate group with less "trying" members. Du Bois was the eventual savior of the evening, as he managed to win over the whites. He later recounted the evening as "warm and passionate", and described a woman who stood up and "cried in passionate, almost tearful earnestness – an earnestness born of bitter experience – 'They are betraying us again – these white friends of ours.'" Following more discussion, the committee eventually came to a resolution:

We agree fully with the prevailing opinion that the transformation of the unskilled colored laborers in industry and agriculture into skilled workers is of vital importance to that race and to the nation, but we demand for the Negroes as for all others a free and complete education, whether by city, state, or nation, a grammar school and industrial training for all, and technical, professional and academic education for the most gifted.[2]

Washington was, unsurprisingly, unhappy with the committee's more radical stance. The resolution also drew scathing criticism from large publications, who expressed fears of a "socialist revolution" sparked by "More Fool Negroes".[2]

By May 1910, the National Negro Committee and attendees at its second conference organized a permanent body known as the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).[4]

National Negro Committee Membership on June 1, 1909

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-312-64884-8
    .
  2. ^
    JSTOR 273282
    .
  3. ^ Walling, William English. "The Race War in the North", The Independent 65 (September 3, 1908): 529–534.
  4. ^ a b c "NAACP History: Mary White Ovington". National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Archived from the original on 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2019-03-15.
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