About the NAACP
Pictured above: Gallows on the square of Springfield, IL.
The NAACP was formed partly in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, the capital of Illinois and resting place of President Abraham Lincoln.
Appalled at the violence that was committed against blacks, a group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, both the descendants of abolitionists, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln’s birth.
Other early members included Joel and Arthur Spingarn, Josephine Ruffin, Mary Talbert, Inez Milholland, Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Sophonisba Breckinridge, John Haynes Holmes, Mary McLeod Bethune, George Henry White, Charles Edward Russell, John Dewey, William Dean Howells, Lillian Wald, Charles Darrow, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Fanny Garrison Villard, and Walter Sachs.
Echoing the focus of Du Bois’ Niagara Movement began in 1905, the NAACP’s stated goal was to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which promised an end to slavery, the equal protection of the law and universal adult male suffrage, respectively.
The NAACP’s principal objective is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice. The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through the democratic processes.
The NAACP established its national office in New York City in 1910 and named a board of directors as well as a president, Moorfield Storey, a white constitutional lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association. The only African American among the organization’s executives, Du Bois was made director of publications and research and in 1910 established the official journal of the NAACP, The Crisis.
History of Mansfield NAACP
Pictured above: Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site facade night view.
Under the leadership of Mr. L.T. Wisdom, the first charter for the Mansfield Branch NAACP was issued on February 9, 1920.
Starting in 1936 with Lloyd F. Gaines and the University of Missouri Law School, it culminated with the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education, which overturned the separate, but equal doctrine in public education.
With the Brown decision, activity was revived in Mansfield. A second charter was issued on October 11, 1954, under the skillful leadership of former branch presidents; George Bingham, Esq. Wilbur Flippin, Jr., Dr. John Gaskins, Joseph Hill, Dr. William Childress, Harold Dorsey, Samuel Belcher, John F. Jones, Samuel Belcher, Rev. Henry Washington, Betty A. Palmer-Harris, Cynthia B. O’neal, Marcia G. Webb, Sesan O. Popoola, Alice F. Williams, Geron L. Tate, Ronald E. Moton Sr., and current president Leonard S. Dillon.
