How the National Association,
for the Advancement of
Colored People
Began
By
MARY WHITE OVINGTON
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
20 WEST 40th STREET, NEW YORK 18, N. Y.
mary dunlop maclean memorial fund
First Printing 1914
HOW THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE BEGAN
By Mary White Ovington
(As Originally printed in 1914)
THE National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
is five years old—old enough, it is be¬
lieved, to have a history; and I, who
am perhaps its first member, have
been chosen as the person to recite it.
As its work since 1910 has been set
forth in its annual reports, I shall
make it my task to show how it came
into existence and to tell of its first
months of work.
In the summer of 1908, the country
was shocked by the account of the race
riots at Springfield, Illinois. Here, in
the home of Abraham Lincoln, a mob
containing many of the town's "best
citizens," raged for two days, killed and
wounded scores of Negroes, and drove
thousands from the city. Articles on
the subject appeared in newspapers and
magazines. Among them was one in the
Independent of September 3d, by Wil¬
liam English Walling, entitled "Race
War in the North." After describing
the atrocities committed against the
colored people, Mr. Walling declared:
"Either the spirit of the abolition¬
ists, of Lincoln and of Love joy must
be revived and we must come to treat
the Negro on a plane of absolute po¬
litical and social equality, or Varda-
man and Tillman will soon have trans¬
ferred the race war to the North." And
he ended with these words, "Yet who
realizes the seriousness of the situation,
and what large and powerful body of
citizens is ready to come to their aid?"
It so happened that one of Mr. Wai¬
ting's readers accepted his question and
answered it. For four years I had been
studying the status of the Negro in
New York. I had investigated his hous¬
ing conditions, his health, his oppor¬
tunities for work. I had spent many
months in the South, and at the time
of Mr. Waiting's article, I was living
in a New York Negro tenement on a
Negro street. And my investigations and
my surroundings led me to believe with
the writer of the article that "the spirit
of the abolitionists must be revived."
So I wrote to Mr. Walling, and after
some time, for he was in the West, we
met in New York in the first week of
the year 1909. With us was Dr. Henry
Moskowitz, now prominent in the ad¬
ministration of John Purroy Mitchell,
Mayor of New York. It was then that
the National Association for the Ad¬
vancement of Colored People was born.
It was born in a tittle room of a
New York apartment. It is to be re¬
gretted that there are no minutes of
the first meeting, for they would make
interesting if unparliamentary reading.
Mr. Waiting had spent some years in
Russia where his wife, working in the
cause of the revolutionists, had suffered
imprisonment; and he expressed his be¬
lief that the Negro was treated with
greater inhumanity in the United
States than the Jew was treated in Rus¬
sia. As Mr. Waiting is a Southerner we
listened with conviction. I knew some¬
thing of the Negro's difficulty in se¬
curing decent employment in the North
and of the insolent treatment awarded
him at Northern hotels and restaurants,
and I voiced my protest. Dr. Mosko¬
witz, with his broad knowledge of con-
ditions among New York's helpless im¬
migrants, aided us in properly inter¬
preting our facts. And so we talked
and talked voicing our indignation.
Of course, we wanted to do some¬
thing at once that should move the
country. It was January. Why not
choose Lincoln's birthday, February 12,
to open our campaign? We decided,
therefore, that a wise, immediate ac¬
tion would be the issuing on Lincoln's
birthday of a call for a national con¬
ference on the Negro question. At this
conference we might discover the be¬
ginnings, at least, of that "large and
powerful body of citizens" of which Mr.
Walling had written.
And so the meeting adjourned. Some¬
thing definite was determined upon, and
our next step was to call others into
our councils. We at once turned to
Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard, president
of the N. Y. Evening Post Company.
He received our suggestions with en¬
thusiasm, and aided us in securing the
co-operation of able and representative
men and women. It was he who drafted
the Lincoln's birthday call and helped
to give it wide publicity. I give the
Call in its entirety with the signatures
since it expresses, I think, better than
anything else we have published, the
spirit of those who are active in the
Association's cause.
"The celebration of the Centennial
of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, wide¬
spread and grateful as it may be, will
fail to justify itself if it takes no note
of and makes no recognition of the
colored men and women for whom the
great Emancipator labored to assure
freedom. Besides a day of rejoicing,
Lincoln's birthday in 1909 should be
one of taking stock of the nation's prog¬
ress since 1865.
"How far has it lived up to the ob¬
ligations imposed upon it by the Eman¬
cipation Proclamation? How far has it
gone in assuring to each and every citi¬
zen, irrespective of color, the equality
of opportunity and equality before the
law, which underlie our American in¬
stitutions and are guaranteed by the
Constitution?
"If Mr. Lincoln could revisit this
country in the flesh, he would be dis¬
heartened and discouraged. He would
learn that on January 1, 1909, Georgia
had rounded out a new confederacy
by disfranchising the Negro, after the
manner of all the other Southern States.
He would learn that the Supreme Court
of the United States, supposedly a bul¬
wark of American liberties, had refused
every opportunity to pass squarely upon
this disfranchisement of millions, by
laws avowedly discriminatory and open¬
ly enforced in such manner that the
white men may vote and black men
be without a vote in their government;
he would discover, therefore, that taxa¬
tion without representation is the lot
of millions of wealth-producing Ameri¬
can citizens, in whose hands rests the
economic progress and welfare of an
entire section of the country.
"He would learn that the Supreme
Court, according to the official state¬
ment of one of its own judges in the
Berea College case, has laid down the
principle that if an individual State
chooses, it may 'make it a crime for
white and colored persons to frequent
the same market place at the same time,
or appear in an assemblage of citizens
convened to consider questions of a
public or political nature in which all
citizens, without regard to race, are
equally interested.'
"In many states Lincoln would find
justice enforced, if at all, by judges
elected by one element in a community
to pass upon the liberties and lives of
another. He would see the black men
and women, for whose freedom a hun¬
dred thousand of soldiers gave their
lives, set apart in trains, in which they
pay first-class fares for third-class ser¬
vice, and segregated in railway stations
and in places of entertainment; he
would observe that State after State de¬
clines to do its elementary duty in pre¬
paring the Negro through education
for the best exercise of citizenship.
"Added to this, the spread of law¬
less attacks upon the Negro, North,
South, and West—even in the Spring¬
field made famous by Lincoln—often
accompanied by revolting brutalities,
sparing neither sex nor age nor youth,
could but shock the author of the senti¬
ment that 'government of the people,
by the people, for the people; should
not perish from the earth.'
"Silence under these conditions
means tacit approval. The indifference
of the North is already responsible for
more than one assault upon democ¬
racy, and every such attack reacts' as
unfavorably upon whites as upon
blacks. Discrimination once permitted
cannot be bridled; recent history in the
South shows that in forging chains for
the Negroes the white voters are forg¬
ing chains for themselves. 'A house di¬
vided against itself cannot stand'; this
government cannot exist half-slave and
half-free any better to-day than it could
in 1861.
"Hence we call upon all the believ¬
ers in democracy to join in a national
conference for the discussion of pres¬
ent evils, the voicing of protests, and
the renewal of the struggle for civil
and political liberty."
This call was signed by: Jane Ad-
dams, Chicago; Samuel Bowles
(Springfield Republican); Prof W. L.
Bulkley, New York; Harriet Stanton
Blatch, New York; Ida Wells Barnett,
Chicago; E. H. Clement, Boston; Kate
H. Claghorn, New York; Prof. John
Dewey, New York; Dr. W. E. B. Du-
Bois, Atlanta; Mary E. Dreier, Brook¬
lyn; Dr. John L. Elliott, New York;
Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Boston; Rev.
Francis J. Grimke, Washington, D. C.;
William Dean Howells, New York;
Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, Chicago; Rev.
John Haynes Holmes, New York; Prof.
Thomas C. Hall, New York; Hamilton
Holt, New York; Florence Kelley, New
York; Rev. Frederick Lynch, New
York; Helen Marot, New York; John
E. Milholland, New York; Mary E.
McDowell, Chicago; Prof. J. G. Mer¬
rill, Connecticut; Dr. Henry Mosko-
witz, New York; Leonora O'Reilly,
New York; Mary W. Ovington, New
York; Rev. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst,
New York; Louis F. Post, Chicago;
Rev. Dr. John P. Peters, New York;
Dr. Jane Robbins, New York; Charles
Edward Russell, New York; Joseph
Smith, Boston; Anna Garlin Spencer,
New York; William M. Salter, Chi¬
cago; J. G. Phelps Stokes, New York;
Judge Wendell Stafford, Washington;
Helen Stokes, Boston; Lincoln Steffens,
Boston; President C. F. Thwing, West¬
ern Reserve University; Prof. W. I.
Thomas, Chicago; Oswald Garrison
Villard, New York Evening Post; Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise, New York; Bishop
Alexander Walters, New York; Dr. Wil¬
liam H. Ward, New York; Horace
White, New York; William English
Walling, New York; Lillian D. Wald,
New York; Dr. J. Milton Waldron,
Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Rodman
Wharton, Philadelphia; Susan P. Whar¬
ton, Philadelphia; President Mary E.
Woolley, Mt. Holyoke College; Prof.
Charles Zueblin, Boston.
It was thus decided that we should
hold a conference, and the next two
months were busily spent arranging for
it. Among the men and women who
attended those first committee meetings
were, Bishop Alexander Walters, Mr.
Ray Stannard Baker, Mr. Alexander
Irvine, Dr. Owen M. Waller, Mr. Gay-
lord S. White, Miss Madeline Z. Doty,
Miss Isabel Eaton, besides many of the
New York signers of the Call. It was
agreed that the conference should be
by invitation only, with the one open
meeting at Cooper Union. Over a
thousand people were invited, the Char¬
ity Organization Hall was secured, and,
on the evening of May 30th, the con¬
ference opened with an informal recep¬
tion at the Henry Street Settlement,
given by Miss Lillian D. Wald, one of
the Association's first and oldest friends.
The next morning our deliberations
began.
We have had five conferences since
1909, but I doubt whether any have
been so full of a questioning surprise,
amounting swiftly to enthusiasm, on
the part of the white people in attend¬
ance. These men and women, engaged
in religious, social and educational
work, for the first time met the Negro
who demands, not a pittance, but his
full rights in the commonwealth. They
received a stimulating shock and one
which they enjoyed. They did not want
to leave the meeting. We conferred all
the time, formally and informally, and
the Association gained in those days
many of the earnest and uncomprom¬
ising men and women who have since
worked unfalteringly in its cause. Mr.
William Hayes Ward, senior editor of
the Independent, opened the confer¬
ence, and Mr. Charles Edward Rus¬
sell, always the friend of those who
struggle for opportunity, presided at
the stormy session at the close. The full
proceedings have been published by the
Association.
Out of this conference we formed a
committee of forty and secured the ser¬
vices of Miss Frances Blascoer, as sec¬
retary. We were greatly hampered by
lack of funds. Important national work
would present itself which we were un¬
able to handle. But our secretary was
an excellent organizer, and at the end
of a year we had held four mass meet¬
ings, had distributed thousands of
pamphlets, and numbered our member¬
ship in the hundreds. In May, 1910,
we held our second conference in New
York, and again our meetings were at¬
tended by earnest, interested people. It
was then that we organized a perma¬
nent body to be known as the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People. Its officers were:
National President, Moorfield Storey,
Boston; Chairman of the Executive
Committee, William English Walling;
Treasurer, John E. Milholland; Dis¬
bursing Treasurer, Oswald Garrison
Villard; Executive Secretary, Frances
Blascoer; Director of Publicity and Re¬
search, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois.
The securing of a sufficient financial
support to warrant our calling Dr. Du¬
Bois from Atlanta University into an
executive office in the Association was
the most important work of the second
conference.
When Dr. DuBois came to us we
were brought closely in touch with an
organization of colored people, formed
in 1905 at Niagara and known as the
Niagara Movement. This organization
had held important conferences at Ni¬
agara, Harpers Ferry, and Boston, and
had attempted a work of legal redress
along very much the lines upon which
the National Association for the Ad¬
vancement of Colored People was work¬
ing. Its platform, as presented in a
statement in 1905, ran as follows:
Freedom of speech and criticism.
An unfettered and unsubsidized
press.
Manhood suffrage.
The abolition of all caste distinctions
based simply on race and color.
The recognition of the principle of
human brotherhood as a practical pres¬
ent creed.
The recognition of the highest and
best training as the monopoly of no
class or race.
A belief in the dignity of labor.
United effort to realize these ideals
under wise and courageous leadership.
In 1910 it had conducted important
civil rights cases and had in its mem¬
bership some of the ablest colored
lawyers in the country, with Mr. W.
Ashbie Hawkins, who has since worked
with our Association, on the Baltimore
Segregation acts, as its treasurer.
The Niagara Movement, hampered
as it was by lack of funds and by a
membership confined to one race only,
continued to push slowly on, but when
the larger possibilities of this new As¬
sociation were clear, the members of
the Niagara Movement were advised
to join, as the platforms were practi¬
cally identical. Many of the most prom¬
inent members of the Niagara Move¬
ment thus brought their energy and
ability into the service of the Associa¬
tion, and eight are now serving on its
Board of Directors.
Our history, after 1910, may be read
in our annual reports, and in the num¬
bers of The Crisis. We opened two
offices in the Evening Post building.
With Dr. DuBois came Mr. Frank M.
Turner, a Wilberforce graduate, who
has shown great efficiency in handling
our books. In November of 1910 ap¬
peared the first number of The Crisis,
with Dr. DuBois as editor, and Mary
Dunlop MacLean, whose death has
been the greatest loss the Association
has known, as managing editor. Our
propaganda work was put on a na¬
tional footing, our legal work was well
under way and we were in truth, a
National Association, pledged to a na¬
tion-wide work for justice to the Negro
race.
I remember the afternoon that The
Crisis received its name. We were sit¬
ting around the conventional table that
seems a necessary adjunct to every
Board, and wpre having an informal
talk regarding the new magazine. We
touched the subject of poetry.
"There is a poem of Lowell's," I
said, "that means more to me to-day
than any other poem in the world—
'The Present Crisis.'"
Mr. Walling looked up. "The Crisis,"
he said. "There is the name for your
magazine, The Crisis."
And if we had a creed to which our
members, black and white, our branches
North and South and East and West,
our college societies, our children's
circles, should all subscribe, it should
be the lines of Lowell's noble verse,
lines that are as true to-day as when
they were written seventy years ago:
"Once to every man and nation comes the
moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood for
the good or evil side;
Some great Cause, God's New Messiah,
offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and
the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that
darkness and that light.
"Then to side with Truth is noble when we
share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and
'tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the
coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord
is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue of the
faith they had denied."
C^^il>426
LIFT EV'RY VOICE AND SING
Lift ev'ry voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod.
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light.
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our God
True to our native land.
Words by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
Music by ROSAMOND JOHNSON
Copyright by Edward M. Marks Music Co.
R.C.A. Building, Radio City, New York, N. Y.