Niagara Movement
The Niagara Movement (NM)
Background
During the
The most prominent African-American spokesman during the 1890s was
By the turn of the 20th century, other activists within the African-American community began demanding a challenge to racist government policies and higher goals for their people than those advocated by Washington. They believed that Washington was "accommodationist". Opponents included Northerner
In January 1904, Washington, with funding assistance from white philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, organized a meeting in New York to unite African American and civil rights spokesmen. Trotter was not invited, but Du Bois and a few other activists were. Du Bois was sympathetic to the activist cause and suspicious of Washington's motives; he noted that the number of activists invited was small relative to the number of Bookerites. The meeting laid the foundation for a committee to include both Washington and Du Bois, but it quickly fractured. Du Bois resigned in July 1905.[11] By this time, both Du Bois and Trotter recognized the need for a well-organized anti-Washington activist group.
Founding
Along with Du Bois and Trotter,
The organization founded at this meeting chose Du Bois as its general secretary and
- Massachusetts – CG Morgan
- Georgia – John Hope
- Arkansas – FB Coffin
- Illinois – CE Bentley
- Kansas – B. S. Smith
- D.C. – L. M. Henshaw
- New York – G. F. Miller
- Virginia – James Robert Lincoln Diggs
- Colorado – C. A. Franklin
- Pennsylvania – G. W. Mitchell
- Rhode Island – Byron Gunner
- New Jersey – T. A. Spraggins
- Maryland – G.R. Waller
- G. H. Woodson
- Tennessee – Richard Hill
- Minnesota – F. L. McGhee
- West Virginia – J. R. Clifford
Founders
The 29 founders who traveled to the inaugural meeting of the Niagara Movement came from 14 states, and became known as "The Original Twenty-nine":[17][18]
- James Robert Lincoln Diggs – College president; pastor; ninth African American to receive a doctorate in the United States
- Dr. Henry Lewis "H. L." Bailey (January 17, 1866 – July 16, 1933) – Teacher and medical doctor.[19]
- William Justin "W. Justin" Carter, Sr. (May 28, 1866 – March 23, 1947)[20] – Pennsylvania lawyer; civil right activist; scholar; early NAACP member[21]
- William Henry "W. H." Scott (June 15, 1848 – June 27, 1910)[22] – Born to slavery, soldier, teacher, bookseller, Baptist pastor, activist, founder of Massachusetts Racial Protective League and the National Independent Political League[18]
- Isaac F. "I.F." Bradley, Sr. (1862 – 1938) – Assistant county attorney, Wyandotte County; justice of the peace; judge; publisher and editor of The Wyandotte Echo (1930 – 1938);[23] father of Isaac F. Bradley, Jr., who was assistant attorney general for Kansas (1937-39)[24]
- Alonzo F. Herndon – Born to slavery; entrepreneur; one of the first African-American millionaires in the United States
- William Henry "W. H." Richards (January 15, 1856 – 1941) – Lawyer and law professor; secured funding from Julia B. Nelson, published about 1900[25]
- Brown Sylvester "B. S." Smith – Kansas City lawyer and City Councillor,[26] activist. Born to parents who were born into slavery; orphaned young.[18]
- Frederick L. McGhee
- William Monroe Trotter
- Garnett Russell "G.R." Waller (February 17, 1857 – March 7, 1941) – Shoemaker; pastor[18]
- Harvey A. Thompson — H. A. Thompson (July 24, 1863 – ), Columbus, Ohio native; Fisk University, Le Moyne College and Meharry Medical College alumni; Ninth United States Cavalry (1883 – 1888); adjutant and first lieutenant of the Eighth Illinois (1894); Chicago political and business figure; clerkship at the central police station; married Frances Gowins[27][18]
- District of Columbia
- Lafayette M. Hershaw
- W. E. B. Du Bois – Co-founder of the NAACP
- Charles E. Bentley
- Clement G. Morgan
- Freeman H. M. Murray
- J. Max Barber[28]
- George Frazier Miller (November 28, 1864 – May 9, 1943) — rector of St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, Brooklyn; socialist; civil rights activist[18]
- George Henry "G. H." Woodson (December 15, 1865 – July 7, 1933)[29] — Criminal trial attorney, born to newly emancipated slaves; founder and president of both the Iowa Negro Bar Association in 1901 and — subsequent to being denied membership in the American Bar Association (along with Gertrude Rush, S. Joe Brown, James B. Morris, and Charles P. Howard, Sr.) — the National Negro Bar Association, in 1925, which became the National Bar Association (NBA), of which he also served as president emeritus; President Coolidge appointed Woodson chairman of the first all-Negro commission ever sent overseas, with a mandate to investigate the economic conditions of the Virgin Islands (illustrated report available from the U. S. department of labor archives)[30]
- James S. Madden — Bookkeeper; activist; desegregationist; worked to establish the Chicago branch of the Niagara Movement with Charles E. Bentley; Provident Hospital trustee; assisted in the founding of the Equal Opportunity League[18]
- Henry C. Smith – Musician, composer; civil rights activist; Ohio deputy oil inspector; co-founder and editor of The Cleveland Gazette[28]
- Emery T. "E.T." Morris (1849 - 1924)Boston branch of the Movement[32]
- Richard Hill (October 12, 1864 – ) – Native of Nashville, Tennessee; teacher and city schools supervisor; insurance and real estate entrepreneur; served as NM Secretary for Tennessee; father of civil rights activist and lawyer Richard Hill, Jr.[18]
- Robert H. Bonner – Beverly, Massachusetts artist; Yale University alumni; Colored Yale Quartette singer; lawyer;[18] long associated the Trotter family[33]
- Byron Gunner (July 4, 1857 – February 9, 1922)[18] – Congregational minister; president of the National Equal Rights League; later a strong ally of William Monroe Trotter; Rhode Island Niagara Movement secretary; father of playwright Mary Frances Gunner
- Edwin Bush "E.B." Jourdain — Boston lawyer; hosted "the New Bedford Annex for Boston Radicals";[18][34] father of journalist, activist and first black alderman of Evanston, Illinois Edwin B. Jourdain, Jr.[35]
- George W. Mitchell – Washington, DC attorney; Howard University Latin and Greek professor; Pennsylvania NM secretary;[18] father of lawyer and real estate investor George Henry Mitchell[36]
Inaugural meeting location
The First Niagara Conference was originally scheduled for Buffalo, New York, but because of threatened disruptions from partisans of the politically powerful Booker T. Washington fled at the last minute to the Erie Beach Hotel in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. Du Bois described the meeting as "secret".[37] One Bookerite, Clifford Plummer, traveled to Buffalo to check up on the proceedings, looked around, and "happily" reported back that there was no conference.[38]: 106 [39]
To disguise this, it was said that they were refused accommodation in Buffalo.[40][41][42] However, no evidence supports this.[39]: 49 : 49 n. 28 According to contemporary reports, Buffalo hotels complied with a statewide anti-discrimination law passed in 1895, and in a recent article it is called an "unlikely...legend".[43][44]
Declaration of Principles
The attendees of the inaugural meeting drafted a "Declaration of Principles," primarily the work of Du Bois and Trotter.[45] The group's philosophy contrasted with the conciliatory approach by Booker T. Washington, who proposed patience over militancy.[46] The declaration defined the group's philosophy and demands: politically, socially and economically. It described the progress made by "Negro-Americans",
"particularly the increase of intelligence, the buy-in of property, the checking of crime, the uplift in home life, the advance in literature and art, and the demonstration of constructive and executive ability in the conduct of great religious, economic and educational institutions."[45]
It called for blacks to be granted manhood suffrage, for equal treatment for all American citizens alike. Very specifically, it demanded equal economic opportunities, in the rural districts of the South, where many blacks were trapped by sharecropping in a kind of indentured servitude to whites. This resulted in "virtual slavery". The Niagara Movement wanted all African Americans in the South to have the ability to "earn a decent living".
On the subject of education, the authors declared that not only should it be free, but it should also be made compulsory. Higher education, they declared, should be governed independently of class or race, and they demanded action to be taken to improve "high school facilities." This they emphasized: "either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States."[47] They demanded for judges to be selected independently of their race, and for convicted criminals, white or black, to be given equal punishments for their respective crimes.
In his address to the nation, W. E. B. Du Bois stated, "We are not more lawless than the white race; we [are] more often arrested, convicted and mobbed. We want justice, even for criminals and outlaws." He called for the abolition of the
The declaration also targeted the treatment blacks received from labor unions, often oppressed and not fully protected by their employers nor granted permanent employment. It validated the already announced affirmation that such protest against outright injustice would not cease until such discrimination did. Secondly, Du Bois and Trotter stated the irrationality of discriminating based on one's "physical peculiarities", whether it be place of birth or color of skin. Perhaps one's ignorance, or immorality, poverty or diseases are legitimate excuses, but not the matters over which individuals have no control. Near its end, the document condemns the
Opposition
Booker T. Washington and his supporters tried to discourage growth of this rival movement. Washington,
Despite Washington's attempts at suppression, Du Bois reported at the end of 1905 that a number of black publications had published accounts of the Movement's activities, and it received further publicity as a consequence of Bookerite press attacks against it.[56] Washington also attacked the Constitution League, a multi-racial civil rights group that was also opposed to his accommodationist policies. The Niagara Movement made common cause with this organization.[57]
Meetings
- Scheduled for Ontario, Canada
- Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (1906)
- Boston, Massachusetts(1907)
- Oberlin, Ohio (1908)
- Sea Isle City, New Jersey (1909)
After the initial meeting, delegates returned to their home territories to establish local chapters. By mid-September 1905, they had established chapters in 21 states, and the organization had 170 members by year's end.[58] Du Bois founded a magazine, The Moon, in an attempt to establish an official mouthpiece for the organization. Due to lack of funding, it failed after a few months of publication.[59] A second publication, The Horizon, was started in 1907 and survived until 1910.[60][61]
The movement's second meeting, the first to be held on U.S. soil and arguably the movement's high point, took place at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, the site of abolitionist John Brown's 1859 raid. The three-day gathering, from August 15 to 18, 1906, took place at the campus of Storer College (now part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park). The Hill Top House Hotel hosted many of the guests. Convention attendees discussed how to secure civil rights for African Americans, and the meeting was later described by Du Bois as "one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held." Attendees walked from Storer College to the nearby Murphy Family farm, relocation site of the historic fort where John Brown's quest to end slavery reached its bloody climax. Once there, they removed their shoes and socks to honor the hallowed ground and participated in a ceremony of remembrance.[41]
Several of the organization's chapters made substantive contributions to the advance of civil rights in 1906. The
During the early months of 1906 friction began to develop between Du Bois and Trotter over the admission of women to the organization. Du Bois supported the idea, and Trotter opposed it, but eventually relented, and the matter was smoothed over during the 1906 meeting.
In 1906 there were several proposals floated in the black press that the Movement be merged with other organizations. None of these proposals got off the ground, with the only substance being a meeting between the Movement's
The Movement, in conjunction with the Constitution League (which took Du Bois on as a director), began organizing legal challenges to segregationist laws in early 1907. For an organization with a limited budget, this was an expensive proposition: the single case they mounted challenging Virginia's railroad segregation law put the organization into debt.[60]
Du Bois had sought to return to Harpers Ferry for the 1907 annual meeting, but Storer College refused to grant them permission, claiming the group's presence in 1906 had been followed by financial and political pressure from its supporters to distance itself from them. The 1907 meeting was held in Boston, with conflicting attendance reports. Du Bois claimed 800 attendees, while the Bookerite Washington Bee claimed only about 100 in attendance.[68] The convention published an "Address to the World" in which it called on African-Americans not to vote for Republican Party candidates in the 1908 presidential election, citing President Theodore Roosevelt's support for Jim Crow laws.[69]
End of the Movement
William Monroe Trotter's departure after the 1907 meeting had a serious negative impact on the organization, as did disagreements about which party to support in the 1908 election. Du Bois, with some reluctance, endorsed
In 1909, chapter activities continued to dwindle, membership dropped, and the 1910 annual meeting (held at Sea Isle City, New Jersey) was a small affair that again received no significant press.[74] It was the organization's last meeting.[75]
Legacy
In the wake of the
The Niagara Movement did not appear to be very popular with the majority of the African-American population, especially in the South. Booker T. Washington, at the height of the Movement's activities in 1905 and 1906, spoke to large and approving crowds across much of the country.
See also
References
- ^ Nielsen, Euell A. (March 9, 2016). "Norris B. Herndon (1897-1977)". BlackPast.org. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
- ^ a b ""Niagara Movement Digital Archive", W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved February 24, 2021". Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
- ^ ""Niagara Movement:Selected Sources in the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library", July 2012, page 1. Retrieved February 28, 2020" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
- OCLC 159922058.
- OCLC 369409006.
- ^ Fox, pp. 46–48.
- ^ Fox, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Lewis, pp. 179–182.
- ^ Fox, pp. 38–40.
- ^ Fox, pp. 49–58.
- ^ Lewis, pp. 208–211.
- ^ Fox, p. 89.
- ^ "Niagara Movement First Annual Meeting" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 18, 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2012.
- ^ Fox, p. 90.
- OCLC 756717945.
- ^ The Voice of the Negro, Volumes 1 - 4, 1903–1907, Negro Universities Press, New York, 1949, page 704. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
- ^ ""Niagara Movement, 'The Original Twenty-Nine', 1905", W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (Series 17. Photographs [IMAGE depicts 27 of 29 founders]), Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved October 12, 2019". Archived from the original on October 12, 2019. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
- ^ ISBN 9780313393600. Archivedfrom the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
- ISBN 9781937622183. Archivedfrom the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
- ^ "Evening News obituary, March 26, 1947 via Geocities.". Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
- ISBN 9780415517430. Archivedfrom the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
- ^ "SCOTT, WILLIAM H. (WILLIAM HENRY), 1848-1910. William H. Scott family papers, 1848-1982, Emory University Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, archived 2012, page 2. Retrieved February 11, 2020". Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
- ^ ""Early black graduates exemplify how diversity makes us better", by Aaron Holmes, "KU Law Blog", University of Kansas School of Law, March 3, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2020". 3 March 2017. Archived from the original on February 19, 2020. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
- ^ Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer Archived 2020-08-06 at the Wayback Machine, 1844-1944, by J. Clay Smith, Jr. (1885 – 1975), University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999, page 519.
- from the original on 2020-02-26. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
- ^ The Battle for the Souls of Black Folk: W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and the Debate That Shaped the Course of Civil Rights Thomas Aiello, ABC-CLIO, 2016, page 336. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
- ^ Goode, W. T. (1899). The "Eighth Illinois". Blakely Printing. p. 77. Archived from the original on 2021-02-14. Retrieved 2021-02-07.
- ^ a b Men of mark; eminent, progressive and rising by Rev. Wm. J. Simmons, Geo. R. Rewell & Co., Ohio, 1887, page 194.
- ^ ""Woodson, George Henry ", THE BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF IOWA, University of Iowa Press Digital Editions. Retrieved February 3, 2021". Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
- ^ ""The Des Moines Negro and His Contribution to American Life", by Lawrence C. Howard, The Annals of Iowa, Volume 30, Number 3 (Winter 1950), pages 211-221, State Historical Society of Iowa. Retrieved February 3, 2021". Archived from the original on August 22, 2021. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
- ^ a b ""Emery T. Morris", Cambridge.usa, The Cambridge Office for Tourism. Retrieved February 17, 2021". Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
- ^ ""Tufts Project Maps The Landmarks Of Black Boston", by Alexa Vazquez, The Artery, Tufts University, October 16, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2021". 16 October 2017. Archived from the original on December 12, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
- ISBN 9781631495359. Archivedfrom the original on December 3, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
- ^ "Boston radicals found a home in New Bedford", by Ted Langston Chase, February 13, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ^ "House of Edwin B. Jourdain Jr., city’s first black alderman, designated new African American heritage site", by Jacob Fulton Archived 2020-07-21 at the Wayback Machine, The Daily Northwestern, July 19, 2020. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ^ Caldwell, Arthur Bunyan (1921). ""History of the American Negro and His Institutions", Arthur Bunyan Caldwell, Editor, A. B. Caldwell Publishing Company, 1921, page 281". Archived from the original on 2021-12-03. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
- LCCN 68-14103.
- ^ Fox, Stephen R. (1970). The Guardian of Boston: William Monroe Trotter. New York: Atheneum. p. 90.
- ^ S2CID 150352156.
- PBS. Retrieved October 9, 2007.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b Gilbert, David T. (August 11, 2006). "The Niagara Movement at Harpers Ferry". National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 27, 2007. Retrieved October 9, 2007.
- OCLC 1058473018.
- ^ "NIAGARA MOVEMENT - A Mystery Solved!". University at Buffalo. 2005. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008. Retrieved October 9, 2007.
- ^ Van Ness, Cynthia (Winter 2011). "Buffalo Hotels and the Niagara Movement: New Evidence Refutes an Old Legend" (PDF). Western New York Heritage Magazine. 13 (4): 18–23. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
Van Ness says that the "Malby Law" (1895) prohibited discrimination in hotels on the basis of color, and The New York Times reported on a successful test of that state law in Buffalo, thus making the hotel legend unlikely.
- ^ a b c "The Niagara Movement's "Declaration of Principals"". Black History Bulletin. 68 (1): 21–23. March 2005.
- ISBN 978-0-07-338552-5.
- ^ Du Bois, W. E. B. (August 16, 1900). "Address to the Nation". Harper's Ferry, West Virginia: Second annual meeting of the Niagara Movement. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
- ^ Wells, Ida B; Frederick Douglass; Irvine Garland Penn; Ferdinand L. Barnett (1999). "Chapter 3: The Convict Lease System". The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition: The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature. Illinois: University of Illinois Press. p. 23.
- ^ Douglas Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name
- ^ Williams, Scott. "The Niagara Movement". Department of Mathematics, University at Buffalo. Archived from the original on October 30, 2012. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
- ^ Fox, p. 92.
- ^ Fox, p. 95.
- ^ Fox, p. 97.
- ^ Fox, p. 99.
- ^ Fox, p. 100.
- ^ Rudwick, pp. 180–181.
- ^ Rudwick, pp. 183–185.
- ^ "Du Bois Central: Resources on the life and legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois. Niagara Movement". Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Archived from the original on February 13, 2010. Retrieved September 2, 2009.
- ^ Fox, p. 101
- ^ a b Rudwick, p. 190.
- ^ a b c Rudwick, p. 198.
- ^ Rudwick, p. 187.
- ^ Fox, p. 103.
- ^ Fox, pp. 104–106.
- ^ Fox, p. 108.
- ^ Fox, pp. 109–110.
- ^ Rudwick, pp. 187–189.
- ^ Rudwick, p. 191.
- ^ Rudwick, p. 192.
- ^ Rudwick, pp. 194–195.
- ^ Rudwick, pp. 195–198.
- ISBN 978-0-8262-1519-2.
- ^ Rudwick, p. 196.
- newspapers.com.
- ^ Rudwick, p. 197.
- ^ Fox, pp. 128–130, 260–270.
- OCLC 35223026.
- ^ Norrell, pp. 331–336.
- ^ Norrell, pp. 338–347.
- ^ Norrell, p. 422.
Further reading
- Capeci, Dominic J., and Jack C. Knight. 1999. "W.E.B. Du Bois's Southern Front: Georgia" Race Men" and the Niagara Movement, 1905-1907." Georgia Historical Quarterly 83.3 (1999): 479-507 online.
- Forth, Christopher E. (1987). "Booker T. Washington and the 1905 Niagara Movement Conference". S2CID 150352156.
- Fox, Stephen (1970). The Guardian of Boston: William Monroe Trotter. New York: Atheneum Press. OCLC 21539323.
- Jones, Angela. 2016. "Lessons from the Niagara movement: Prosopography and discursive protest." Sociological Focus 49.1 (2016): 63-83 online.
- Jones, Angela. 2011. African American civil rights: Early activism and the Niagara Movement (ABC-CLIO, 2011). details
- Lewis, David (2009). W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography. New York: Henry Holt. OCLC 176972569.
- Nahal, Anita; Lopez, D. Matthews Jr. (July 2008). "African American Women and the Niagara Movement, 1905-1909". Afro-Americans in New York Life and History. 32 (2).
- Norrell, Robert (2009). Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. OCLC 225874300.
- Rudwick, Elliott (July 1957). "The Niagara Movement". S2CID 150116928.
Primary sources
- Du Bois, W. E. B. "Niagara movement speech." (1905). online.
External links
- Niagara's Declaration of Principles
- Details from the 1908 Niagara Conference at Oberlin
- Du Bois Central. Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- "The Early Black Experience", The Pan African Historical Museum (PAHMUSA) Archived 2020-07-09 at the Wayback Machine