As segregation tightened and racial oppression escalated across the United States, some leaders of the African American community, often called the talented tenth, began to reject Booker T. Washington’s conciliatory approach. W. E. B. Du Bois and other black leaders channeled their activism by founding the Niagara Movement in 1905. Later, they joined white reformers in 1909 to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Early in its fight for equality, the NAACP used the federal courts to challenge disenfranchisement and residential segregation. Job opportunities were the primary focus of the National Urban League, which was established in 1910.
During the Great Migration (1910–1920), African Americans by the thousands poured into industrial cities to find work and later to fill labor shortages created by World War I. Though they continued to face exclusion and discrimination in employment, as well as some segregation in schools and public accommodations, Northern black men faced fewer barriers to voting. As their numbers increased, their vote emerged as a crucial factor in elections. The war and migration bolstered a heightened self-confidence in African Americans that manifested in the New Negro Movement of the 1920s. Evoking the “New Negro,” the NAACP lobbied aggressively for a federal anti-lynching law.
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal provided more federal support to African Americans than at any time since Reconstruction. Even so, New Deal legislation and policies continued to allow considerable discrimination. During the mid-thirties the NAACP launched a legal campaign against de jure (according to law) segregation, focusing on inequalities in public education. By 1936, the majority of black voters had abandoned their historic allegiance to the Republican Party and joined with labor unions, farmers, progressives, and ethnic minorities in assuring President Roosevelt’s landslide re-election. The election played a significant role in shifting the balance of power in the Democratic Party from its Southern bloc of white conservatives towards this new coalition.
See timeline for this period
NAACP Founder William English Walling
NAACP Founder Mary White Ovington
The Founding of the NAACP
Platform adopted by the National Negro Committee. Printed document, 1909. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (019.00.00)
Arthur Spingarn NAACP Lawyer
The Founding of the Urban League
Committee on Urban Conditions among Negroes. Minutes of the first meeting, September 29, 1910. National Urban League Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (022.00.00) Courtesy of the National Urban League
Guinn v. United States, 1915
Guinn v. United States. Board minutes, June 3, 1913. Typescript. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (023.00.00) Courtesy of the NAACP
Jim Crow Restrictions
“NO DOGS, NEGROES, MEXICANS.” Lonestar Restaurant Association, Dallas, Texas. Printed “Jim Crow” sign, n.d. Black History Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (024.00.00)
Author Toni Morrison Interviewed by Camille O. Cosby in 2004
An Open Letter of Protest to President Wilson
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A Letter to President Woodrow Wilson on Federal Race Discrimination, August 15, 1913. Printed document. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (025.00.00) Courtesy of the NAACP
The Silent Protest Parade
Charles H. Buchanan v. William Warley, 1917
In the Supreme Court of the United States, October Term, 1916 [no.231] Charles H. Buchanan v. William Warley. Pamphlet. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (026.00.00) Courtesy of the NAACP
Failure to Pass Bill on Lynchings
Federal Law Against Lynchings, Speech of Hon. L. C. Dyer of Missouri in the House of Representatives, May 7, 1918. Pamphlet. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (255.00.00) Courtesy of the NAACP
A. Philip Randolph on Marcus Garvey
Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Courtesy of NBC News
Report from the Detroit Branch of the NAACP
Lillian E. B. Johnson. Report of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP, September 1921. Typescript. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (256.00.00)
National Photo Company. Ku Klux Klan. Reproduction, ca. 1921–1922. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (266.00.00) Courtesy of the NAACP
Blues Musician "Big" Bill Broonzy Interviewed by Alan Lomax in 1947
Walter Francis White NAACP Leader
Walter White's Personal Tragic Story of the Segregated South
The New Negro
The New Negro: An Interpretation. Edited by Alain Locke; book decoration and portraits by Winold Reiss (1886−1953). New York: A. and C. Boni, 1925. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (033.00.00)
Nixon v. Herndon (1927) and Nixon v. Condon (1932)
L. W. Washington to Robert W. Bagnall, August 2, 1924. Typed letter. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (032.00.00)
Fred C. Knollenberg to NAACP Secretary Walter White, October 20, 1932. Typed letter. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (036.01.00) Courtesy of the NAACP
The Joint Committee on National Recovery
Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Civil Rights Activist
The Margold Report
Nathan R. Margold. Preliminary Report to the Joint Committee Supervising the Expenditure of the 1930 Appropriation by the American Fund for Public Service. Typescript, [1931]. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (035.00.00)
NAACP’s Chief Strategist Charles Hamilton Houston
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Efforts against Lynching
Eleanor Roosevelt to NAACP Secretary Walter White, March 19, 1936. Typed letter. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (041.00.00)
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Agreement with the Pullman Company, 1937. Pamphlet. A. Philip Randolph Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (044.00.00) Courtesy of the A. Philip Randolph Institute
Missouri ex. rel. Gaines v. Canada, 1938
Charles H. Houston to Walter White, May 24, 1938. Autograph letter. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (046.00.00)