NAACP - wikipedia NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Abbreviation NAACP Formation February 12, 1909 ; 109 years ago ( 1909 - 02 - 12 ) Purpose `` To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. '' Headquarters Baltimore, Maryland, US Membership 300,000 Chairman Leon W. Russell President and CEO Derrick Johnson Main organ Board of directors Budget $27,624,433 Website naacp.org African - American topics History ( timeline ) Atlantic slave trade African - American history Slavery in the United States History in agriculture African - American business history African - American military history Jim Crow laws Great Migration Redlining Second Great Migration Post-Civil War reform movements Civil Rights Movement Origins of the Civil Rights Movement Civil Rights Movement Black Power movement Post -- Civil Rights era New Great Migration Culture Studies Art Business history Black conductors Black mecca Black schools Black colleges and universities Juneteenth Kwanzaa Literature Museums Music Neighborhoods Religion Black church Black theology Nation of Islam Political movements Afrocentrism Black Power Anarchism Capitalism Conservatism Leftism Nationalism Populism Black Panther Party Garveyism Pan-Africanism Back - to - Africa movement Civic / economic groups Rights organizations National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) National Urban League ( NUL ) Association for the Study of African American Life and History ( ASALH ) United Negro College Fund ( UNCF ) Thurgood Marshall College Fund National Black Chamber of Commerce ( NBCC ) National Pan-Hellenic Council ( NPHC ) National Council of Negro Women ( NCNW ) TransAfrica Forum Sports Negro league baseball Athletic associations and conferences Central ( CIAA ) Southern ( SIAC ) Mid-Eastern ( MEAC ) Southwestern ( SWAC ) Ethnic subdivisions Americo - Liberians Black Indians Black Southerners Gullah Igbo Languages English American English African - American English Gullah Louisiana Creole French Diaspora Nova Scotia Liberia Sierra Leone France Lists African Americans African - American firsts First mayors US state firsts Landmark African - American legislation African American - related topics Topics related to Black and African people Category : African - American society African American portal The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as a bi-racial organization to advance justice for African Americans by W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington and Moorfield Storey. Its mission in the 21st century is `` to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race - based discrimination. '' Their national initiatives included political lobbying, publicity efforts, and litigation strategies developed by their legal team. The group enlarged its mission in the late 20th century by considering issues such as police misconduct, the status of black foreign refugees, and questions of economic development. Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term colored people, referring to people of some African ancestry. The NAACP bestows annual awards to people of color in two categories : Image Awards are for achievement in the arts and entertainment, and Spingarn Medals are for outstanding achievement of any kind. Its headquarters is in Baltimore, Maryland. Contents 1 Organization 2 Predecessor : The Niagara Movement 3 History 3.1 Formation 3.2 Jim Crow and disenfranchisement 3.3 Legal Defense Fund 3.4 Desegregation 3.5 The 1990s 3.6 Lee Alcorn controversy 3.7 George W. Bush 3.8 Tax exempt status 3.9 LGBT rights 3.10 Travel warning regarding Missouri 4 Geography 5 Current activities 5.1 Youth 5.1. 1 Youth and College Division 5.1. 2 ACT - SO program 6 Partner organizations 7 Criticism 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links 11.1 Archives Organization The NAACP is headquartered in Baltimore, with additional regional offices in New York, Michigan, Georgia, Maryland, Texas, Colorado and California. Each regional office is responsible for coordinating the efforts of state conferences in that region. Local, youth, and college chapters organize activities for individual members. In the U.S., the NAACP is administered by a 64 - member board, led by a chairperson. The board elects one person as the president and one as chief executive officer for the organization ; Benjamin Jealous is its most recent ( and youngest ) president, selected to replace Bruce S. Gordon, who resigned in March 2007. Julian Bond, Civil Rights Movement activist and former Georgia State Senator, was chairman until replaced in February 2010 by health - care administrator Roslyn Brock. For decades in the first half of the 20th century, the organization was effectively led by its executive secretary, who acted as chief operating officer. James Weldon Johnson and Walter F. White, who served in that role successively from 1920 to 1958, were much more widely known as NAACP leaders than were presidents during those years. Departments within the NAACP govern areas of action. Local chapters are supported by the ' Branch and Field Services ' department and the ' Youth and College ' department. The ' Legal ' department focuses on court cases of broad application to minorities, such as systematic discrimination in employment, government, or education. The Washington, D.C., bureau is responsible for lobbying the U.S. government, and the Education Department works to improve public education at the local, state and federal levels. The goal of the Health Division is to advance health care for minorities through public policy initiatives and education. As of 2007, the NAACP had approximately 425,000 paying and non-paying members. The NAACP 's non-current records are housed at the Library of Congress, which has served as the organization 's official repository since 1964. The records held there comprise approximately five million items spanning the NAACP 's history from the time of its founding until 2003. In 2011, the NAACP teamed with the digital repository ProQuest to digitize and host online the earlier portion of its archives, through 1972 -- nearly two million pages of documents, from the national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country, which offer first - hand insight into the organization 's work related to such crucial issues as lynching, school desegregation, and discrimination in all its aspects ( in the military, the criminal justice system, employment, housing ). Predecessor : the Niagara Movement The Pan-American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York featured many American innovations and achievements, but also included a disparaging caricature of slave life in the South as well as a depiction of life in Africa, called `` Old Plantation '' and `` Darkest Africa, '' respectively. A local African American women, Mary Talbert of Ohio was appalled by the exhibit, as a similar one in Paris highlighted black achievements. She informed W.E.B. DuBois of the situation, and a coalition began to form. In 1905, a group of thirty - two prominent African - American leaders met to discuss the challenges facing people of color and possible strategies and solutions. They were particularly concerned by the Southern states ' disenfranchisement of blacks starting with Mississippi 's passage of a new constitution in 1890. Through 1908, southern legislatures dominated by white Democrats ratified new constitutions and laws creating barriers to voter registration and more complex election rules. In practice, this caused the exclusion of most blacks and many poor whites from the political system in southern states, crippling the Republican Party in most of the South. Black voter registration and turnout dropped markedly in the South as a result of such legislation. Men who had been voting for thirty years in the South were told they did not `` qualify '' to register. White - dominated legislatures also passed segregation and Jim Crow laws. Because hotels in the US were segregated, the men convened in Canada at the Erie Beach Hotel on the Canadian side of the Niagara River in Fort Erie, Ontario. As a result, the group came to be known as the Niagara Movement. A year later, three non-African - Americans joined the group : journalist William English Walling, a wealthy socialist ; and social workers Mary White Ovington and Henry Moskowitz. Moskowitz, who was Jewish, was then also Associate Leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture. They met in 1906 at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and in 1907 in Boston, Massachusetts. The fledgling group struggled for a time with limited resources and internal conflict, and disbanded in 1910. Seven of the members of the Niagara Movement joined the Board of Directors of the NAACP, founded in 1909. Although both organizations shared membership and overlapped for a time, the Niagara Movement was a separate organization. Historically, it is considered to have had a more radical platform than the NAACP. The Niagara Movement was formed exclusively by African Americans. Three European Americans were among the founders of the NAACP. History See also : African - American -- Jewish relations Formation Founders of the NAACP : Moorfield Storey, Mary White Ovington and W.E.B. Du Bois. The Race Riot of 1908 in Springfield, Illinois, the state capital and President Abraham Lincoln 's hometown, was a catalyst showing the urgent need for an effective civil rights organization in the U.S. In the decades around the turn of the century, the rate of lynchings of blacks, particularly men, was at a high. Mary White Ovington, journalist William English Walling and Henry Moskowitz met in New York City in January 1909 to work on organizing for black civil rights. They sent out solicitations for support to more than 60 prominent Americans, and set a meeting date for February 12, 1909. This was intended to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln, who emancipated enslaved African Americans. While the first large meeting did not take place until three months later, the February date is often cited as the founding date of the organization. The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, by a larger group including African Americans W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimké, Mary Church Terrell, and the previously named whites Henry Moskowitz, Mary White Ovington, William English Walling ( the wealthy Socialist son of a former slave - holding family ), Florence Kelley, a social reformer and friend of Du Bois ; Oswald Garrison Villard, and Charles Edward Russell, a renowned muckraker and close friend of Walling. Russell helped plan the NAACP and had served as acting chairman of the National Negro Committee ( 1909 ), a forerunner to the NAACP. On May 30, 1909, the Niagara Movement conference took place at New York City 's Henry Street Settlement House ; they created an organization of more than 40, identifying as the National Negro Committee. Among other founding members was Lillian Wald, a nurse who had founded the Henry Street Settlement where the conference took place. Du Bois played a key role in organizing the event and presided over the proceedings. Also in attendance was Ida B. Wells - Barnett, an African - American journalist and anti-lynching crusader. At their second conference on May 30, 1910, members chose the new organization 's name to be the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and elected its first officers : National President, Moorfield Storey, Boston Chairman of the Executive Committee, William English Walling Treasurer, John E. Milholland ( a Lincoln Republican and Presbyterian from New York City and Lewis, New York ) Disbursing Treasurer, Oswald Garrison Villard Executive Secretary, Frances Blascoer Director of Publicity and Research, W.E.B. Du Bois. The NAACP was incorporated a year later in 1911. The association 's charter expressed its mission : To promote equality of rights and to eradicate caste or race prejudice among the citizens of the United States ; to advance the interest of colored citizens ; to secure for them impartial suffrage ; and to increase their opportunities for securing justice in the courts, education for the children, employment according to their ability and complete equality before law. The larger conference resulted in a more diverse organization, where the leadership was predominantly white. At its founding, the NAACP had one African American on its executive board, Du Bois. It did not elect a black president until 1975, but the executive directors, who were the chief operating officers, were primarily African Americans since the early 20th century. The Jewish community contributed greatly to the NAACP 's founding and continued financing. Jewish historian Howard Sachar writes in his book A History of Jews in America that `` In 1914, Professor Emeritus Joel Spingarn of Columbia University became chairman of the NAACP and recruited for its board such Jewish leaders as Jacob Schiff, Jacob Billikopf, and Rabbi Stephen Wise. '' Du Bois continued to play a pivotal leadership role in the organization. He served as editor of the association 's magazine, The Crisis, which had a circulation of more than 30,000. It was used both for news reporting and for publishing African - American poetry and literature. During the organization 's campaigns against lynching, Du Bois encouraged the writing and performance of plays and other expressive literature about this issue. Moorfield Storey, a white attorney from a Boston abolitionist family, served as the president of the NAACP from its founding to 1915. Storey was a long - time classical liberal and Grover Cleveland Democrat who advocated laissez - faire free markets, the gold standard, and anti-imperialism. Storey consistently and aggressively championed civil rights, not only for blacks but also for Native Americans and immigrants ( he opposed immigration restrictions ). Jim Crow and disenfranchisement An African American drinks out of a segregated water cooler designated for `` colored '' patrons in 1939 at a streetcar terminal in Oklahoma City. Sign for the `` colored '' waiting room at a bus station in Durham, North Carolina, 1940 In its early years, the NAACP was based in New York City. It concentrated on litigation in efforts to overturn disenfranchisement of blacks, which had been established in every southern state by 1908, excluding most from the political system, and the Jim Crow statutes that legalized racial segregation. In 1913, the NAACP organized opposition to President Woodrow Wilson 's introduction of racial segregation into federal government policy, workplaces, and hiring. African - American women 's clubs were among the organizations that protested Wilson 's changes, but the administration did not alter its assuagement of Southern cabinet members and the Southern block in Congress. By 1914, the group had 6,000 members and 50 branches. It was influential in winning the right of African Americans to serve as military officers in World War I. Six hundred African - American officers were commissioned and 700,000 men registered for the draft. The following year, the NAACP organized a nationwide protest, with marches in numerous cities, against D.W. Griffith 's silent movie The Birth of a Nation, a film that glamorized the Ku Klux Klan. As a result, several cities refused to allow the film to open. The NAACP began to lead lawsuits targeting disfranchisement and racial segregation early in its history. It played a significant part in the challenge of Guinn v. United States ( 1915 ) to Oklahoma 's discriminatory grandfather clause, which effectively disenfranchised most black citizens while exempting many whites from certain voter registration requirements. It persuaded the Supreme Court of the United States to rule in Buchanan v. Warley in 1917 that state and local governments can not officially segregate African Americans into separate residential districts. The Court 's opinion reflected the jurisprudence of property rights and freedom of contract as embodied in the earlier precedent it established in Lochner v. New York. In 1916, chairman Joel Spingarn invited James Weldon Johnson to serve as field secretary. Johnson was a former U.S. consul to Venezuela and a noted African - American scholar and columnist. Within four years, Johnson was instrumental in increasing the NAACP 's membership from 9,000 to almost 90,000. In 1920, Johnson was elected head of the organization. Over the next ten years, the NAACP escalated its lobbying and litigation efforts, becoming internationally known for its advocacy of equal rights and equal protection for the `` American Negro. '' The NAACP devoted much of its energy during the interwar years to fighting the lynching of blacks throughout the United States by working for legislation, lobbying and educating the public. The organization sent its field secretary Walter F. White to Phillips County, Arkansas, in October 1919, to investigate the Elaine Race Riot. More than 200 black tenant farmers were killed by roving white vigilantes and federal troops after a deputy sheriff 's attack on a union meeting of sharecroppers left one white man dead. White published his report on the riot in the Chicago Daily News. The NAACP organized the appeals for twelve black men sentenced to death a month later based on the fact that testimony used in their convictions was obtained by beatings and electric shocks. It gained a groundbreaking Supreme Court decision in Moore v. Dempsey 261 U.S. 86 ( 1923 ) that significantly expanded the Federal courts ' oversight of the states ' criminal justice systems in the years to come. White investigated eight race riots and 41 lynchings for the NAACP and directed its study Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States. NAACP leaders Henry L. Moon, Roy Wilkins, Herbert Hill, and Thurgood Marshall in 1956. The NAACP also worked for more than a decade seeking federal anti-lynching legislation, but the Solid South of white Democrats voted as a bloc against it or used the filibuster in the Senate to block passage. Because of disenfranchisement, African Americans in the South were unable to elect representatives of their choice to office. The NAACP regularly displayed a black flag stating `` A Man Was Lynched Yesterday '' from the window of its offices in New York to mark each lynching. In alliance with the American Federation of Labor, the NAACP led the successful fight to prevent the nomination of John Johnston Parker to the Supreme Court, based on his support for denying the vote to blacks and his anti-labor rulings. It organized legal support for the Scottsboro Boys. The NAACP lost most of the internecine battles with the Communist Party and International Labor Defense over the control of those cases and the legal strategy to be pursued in that case. The organization also brought litigation to challenge the `` white primary '' system in the South. Southern state Democratic parties had created white - only primaries as another way of barring blacks from the political process. Since southern states were dominated by the Democrats, the primaries were the only competitive contests. In 1944 in Smith v. Allwright, the Supreme Court ruled against the white primary. Although states had to retract legislation related to the white primaries, the legislatures soon came up with new methods to severely limit the franchise for blacks. Legal Defense Fund The board of directors of the NAACP created the Legal Defense Fund in 1939 specifically for tax purposes. It functioned as the NAACP legal department. Intimidated by the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service, the Legal and Educational Defense Fund, Inc., became a separate legal entity in 1957, although it was clear that it was to operate in accordance with NAACP policy. After 1961 serious disputes emerged between the two organizations, creating considerable confusion in the eyes and minds of the public. Desegregation NAACP representatives E. Franklin Jackson and Stephen Gill Spottswood meeting with President Kennedy at the White House in 1961 By the 1940s the federal courts were amenable to lawsuits regarding constitutional rights, which Congressional action was virtually impossible. With the rise of private corporate litigators such as the NAACP to bear the expense, civil suits became the pattern in modern civil rights litigation. The NAACP 's Legal department, headed by Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall, undertook a campaign spanning several decades to bring about the reversal of the `` separate but equal '' doctrine announced by the Supreme Court 's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. The NAACP 's Baltimore chapter, under president Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson, challenged segregation in Maryland state professional schools by supporting the 1935 Murray v. Pearson case argued by Marshall. Houston 's victory in Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada ( 1938 ) led to the formation of the Legal Defense Fund in 1939. Locals viewing the bomb - damaged home of Arthur Shores, NAACP attorney, Birmingham, Alabama, on September 5, 1963. The bomb exploded on September 4, the previous day, injuring Shores ' wife. The campaign for desegregation culminated in a unanimous 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that held state - sponsored segregation of public elementary schools was unconstitutional. Bolstered by that victory, the NAACP pushed for full desegregation throughout the South. NAACP activists were excited about the judicial strategy. Starting on December 5, 1955, NAACP activists, including Edgar Nixon, its local president, and Rosa Parks, who had served as the chapter 's Secretary, helped organize a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. This was designed to protest segregation on the city 's buses, two - thirds of whose riders were black. The boycott lasted 381 days. The State of Alabama responded by effectively barring the NAACP from operating within its borders because of its refusal to divulge a list of its members. The NAACP feared members could be fired or face violent retaliation for their activities. Although the Supreme Court eventually overturned the state 's action in NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449 ( 1958 ), the NAACP lost its leadership role in the Civil Rights Movement while it was barred from Alabama. New organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) rose up with different approaches to activism. These newer groups relied on direct action and mass mobilization to advance the rights of African Americans, rather than litigation and legislation. Roy Wilkins, NAACP 's executive director, clashed repeatedly with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders over questions of strategy and leadership within the movement. The NAACP continued to use the Supreme Court 's decision in Brown to press for desegregation of schools and public facilities throughout the country. Daisy Bates, president of its Arkansas state chapter, spearheaded the campaign by the Little Rock Nine to integrate the public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. By the mid-1960s, the NAACP had regained some of its preeminence in the Civil Rights Movement by pressing for civil rights legislation. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on August 28, 1963. That fall President John F. Kennedy sent a civil rights bill to Congress before he was assassinated. President Lyndon B. Johnson worked hard to persuade Congress to pass a civil rights bill aimed at ending racial discrimination in employment, education and public accommodations, and succeeded in gaining passage in July 1964. He followed that with passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provided for protection of the franchise, with a role for federal oversight and administrators in places where voter turnout was historically low. After Kivie Kaplan died in 1975, scientist W. Montague Cobb became President of the NAACP and served until 1982. Benjamin Hooks, a lawyer and clergyman, was elected as the NAACP 's executive director in 1977, after the retirement of Roy Wilkins. The 1990s In the 1990s, the NAACP ran into debt. The dismissal of two leading officials further added to the picture of an organization in deep crisis. In 1993 the NAACP 's Board of Directors narrowly selected Reverend Benjamin Chavis over Reverend Jesse Jackson to fill the position of Executive Director. A controversial figure, Chavis was ousted eighteen months later by the same board. They accused him of using NAACP funds for an out - of - court settlement in a sexual harassment lawsuit. Following the dismissal of Chavis, Myrlie Evers - Williams narrowly defeated NAACP chairperson William Gibson for president in 1995, after Gibson was accused of overspending and mismanagement of the organization 's funds. In 1996 Congressman Kweisi Mfume, a Democratic Congressman from Maryland and former head of the Congressional Black Caucus, was named the organization 's president. Three years later strained finances forced the organization to drastically cut its staff, from 250 in 1992 to 50. In the second half of the 1990s, the organization restored its finances, permitting the NAACP National Voter Fund to launch a major get - out - the - vote offensive in the 2000 U.S. presidential elections. 10.5 million African Americans cast their ballots in the election. This was one million more than four years before. The NAACP 's effort was credited by observers as playing a significant role in Democrat Al Gore 's winning several states where the election was close, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. Lee Alcorn controversy During the 2000 Presidential election, Lee Alcorn, president of the Dallas NAACP branch, criticized Al Gore 's selection of Senator Joe Lieberman for his Vice-Presidential candidate because Lieberman was Jewish. On a gospel talk radio show on station KHVN, Alcorn stated, `` If we get a Jew person, then what I 'm wondering is, I mean, what is this movement for, you know ? Does it have anything to do with the failed peace talks ? ''... `` So I think we need to be very suspicious of any kind of partnerships between the Jews at that kind of level because we know that their interest primarily has to do with money and these kind of things. '' NAACP President Kweisi Mfume immediately suspended Alcorn and condemned his remarks. Mfume stated, `` I strongly condemn those remarks. I find them to be repulsive, anti-Semitic, anti-NAACP and anti-American. Mr. Alcorn does not speak for the NAACP, its board, its staff or its membership. We are proud of our long - standing relationship with the Jewish community and I personally will not tolerate statements that run counter to the history and beliefs of the NAACP in that regard. '' Alcorn, who had been suspended three times in the previous five years for misconduct, subsequently resigned from the NAACP. He founded what he called the Coalition for the Advancement of Civil Rights. Alcorn criticized the NAACP, saying, `` I ca n't support the leadership of the NAACP. Large amounts of money are being given to them by large corporations that I have a problem with. '' Alcorn also said, `` I can not be bought. For this reason I gladly offer my resignation and my membership to the NAACP because I can not work under these constraints. '' Alcorn 's remarks were also condemned by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Jewish groups and George W. Bush 's rival Republican presidential campaign. Jackson said he strongly supported Lieberman 's addition to the Democratic ticket, saying, `` When we live our faith, we live under the law. He ( Lieberman ) is a firewall of exemplary behavior. '' Al Sharpton, another prominent African - American leader, said, `` The appointment of Mr. Lieberman was to be welcomed as a positive step. '' The leaders of the American Jewish Congress praised the NAACP for its quick response, stating that : `` It will take more than one bigot like Alcorn to shake the sense of fellowship of American Jews with the NAACP and black America... Our common concerns are too urgent, our history too long, our connection too sturdy, to let anything like this disturb our relationship. '' George W. Bush Louisiana NAACP leads Jena 6 March. In 2004, President George W. Bush declined an invitation to speak to the NAACP 's national convention. Bush 's spokesperson said that Bush had declined the invitation to speak to the NAACP because of harsh statements about him by its leaders. In an interview, Bush said, `` I would describe my relationship with the current leadership as basically nonexistent. You 've heard the rhetoric and the names they 've called me. '' Bush said he admired some members of the NAACP and would seek to work with them `` in other ways. '' On July 20, 2006, Bush addressed the NAACP national convention. He made a bid for increasing support by African Americans for Republicans, in the midst of a midterm election. He referred to Republican Party support for civil rights. Tax exempt status In October 2004 the Internal Revenue Service informed the NAACP that it was investigating its tax - exempt status based on chairman Julian Bond 's speech at its 2004 Convention, in which he criticized President George W. Bush as well as other political figures. In general, the US Internal Revenue Code prohibits organizations granted tax - exempt status from `` directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of ( or in opposition to ) any candidate for elective public office. '' The NAACP denounced the investigation as retaliation for its success in increasing the number of African Americans who were voting. In August 2006, the IRS investigation concluded with the agency 's finding `` that the remarks did not violate the group 's tax - exempt status. '' LGBT rights As the American LGBT rights movement gained steam after the Stonewall riots of 1969, the NAACP became increasingly affected by the movement to gain rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Bond, while chairman of the NAACP, became an outspoken supporter of the rights of gays and lesbians, and stated his support for same - sex marriage. He boycotted the 2004 funeral services for Coretta Scott King, as he said the King children had chosen an anti-gay megachurch. This was in contradiction to their mother 's longstanding support for the rights of gay and lesbian people. In a 2005 speech in Richmond, Virginia, Bond said : African Americans... were the only Americans who were enslaved for two centuries, but we were far from the only Americans suffering discrimination then and now... Sexual disposition parallels race. I was born this way. I have no choice. I would n't change it if I could. Sexuality is unchangeable. In a 2007 speech on the Martin Luther King Day Celebration at Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, Bond said, `` If you do n't like gay marriage, do n't get gay married. '' His positions have pitted elements of the NAACP against religious groups in the Civil Rights Movement who oppose gay marriage, mostly within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ). The NAACP became increasingly vocal in opposition against state - level constitutional amendments to ban same - sex marriage and related rights. State NAACP leaders such as William J. Barber, II of North Carolina participated actively against North Carolina Amendment 1 in 2012, but it was passed by conservative voters. On May 19, 2012, the NAACP 's board of directors formally endorsed same - sex marriage as a civil right, voting 62 - 2 for the policy in a Miami, Florida quarterly meeting. Benjamin Jealous, the organization 's president, said of the decision, `` Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law... The NAACP 's support for marriage equality is deeply rooted in the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution and equal protection of all people. '' Possibly significant in the NAACP 's vote was its concern with the HIV / AIDS crisis in the black community ; while AIDS support organizations recommend that people live a monogamous lifestyle, the government did not recognize same - sex relationships as part of this. As a result of this endorsement, Rev. Keith Ratliff Sr. of Des Moines, Iowa resigned from the NAACP board. Travel warning regarding Missouri On June 7, 2017, the NAACP issued a warning for African - American travelers to Missouri : Individuals traveling in the state are advised to travel with extreme CAUTION. Race, gender and color based crimes have a long history in Missouri. Missouri, home of Lloyd Gaines, Dred Scott and the dubious distinction of the Missouri Compromise and one of the last states to lose its slaveholding past, may not be safe... ( Missouri Senate Bill ) SB 43 legalizes individual discrimination and harassment in Missouri and would prevent individuals from protecting themselves from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in Missouri. Moreover, over-zealous enforcement of routine traffic violations in Missouri against African Americans has resulted in an increasing trend that shows African Americans are 75 % more likely to be stopped than Caucasians. Missouri NAACP Conference president Rod Chapel, Jr., suggested that visitors to Missouri `` should have bail money. '' Geography This section 's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia 's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. ( April 2017 ) The organization 's national initiatives, political lobbying, and publicity efforts were handled by the headquarters staff in New York and Washington DC. Court strategies were developed by the legal team based for many years at Howard University. NAACP local branches have also been important. When, in its early years, the national office launched campaigns against The Birth of a Nation, it was the local branches that carried out the boycotts. When the organization fought to expose and outlaw lynching, the branches carried the campaign into hundreds of communities. And while the Legal Defense Fund developed a federal court strategy of legal challenges to segregation, many branches fought discrimination using state laws and local political opportunities, sometimes winning important victories. Those victories were mostly achieved in Northern and Western states before World War II. When the Southern civil rights movement gained momentum in the 1940s and 1950s, credit went both to the Legal Defense Fund attorneys and to the massive network of local branches that Ella Baker and other organizers had spread across the region. Local organizations built a culture of Black political activism. Current activities Youth Youth sections of the NAACP were established in 1936 ; there are now more than 600 groups with a total of more than 30,000 individuals in this category. The NAACP Youth & College Division is a branch of the NAACP in which youth are actively involved. The Youth Council is composed of hundreds of state, county, high school and college operations where youth ( and college students ) volunteer to share their opinions with their peers and address issues that are local and national. Sometimes volunteer work expands to a more international scale. Youth and College Division `` The mission of the NAACP Youth & College Division shall be to inform youth of the problems affecting African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities ; to advance the economic, education, social and political status of African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities and their harmonious cooperation with other peoples ; to stimulate an appreciation of the African Diaspora and other people of color 's contribution to civilization ; and to develop an intelligent, militant effective youth leadership. '' Act - SO program Since 1978 the NAACP has sponsored the Afro - Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics ( ACT - SO ) program for high school youth around the United States. The program is designed to recognize and award African - American youth who demonstrate accomplishment in academics, technology, and the arts. Local chapters sponsor competitions in various categories for young people in grades 9 -- 12. Winners of the local competitions are eligible to proceed to the national event at a convention held each summer at locations around the United States. Winners at the national competition receive national recognition, along with cash awards and various prizes. Partner organizations The Emerald Cities Collaborative is a partner organization with the NAACP. Criticism Main article : Resignation of Shirley Sherrod In May 2012 right - wing journalist Andrew Breitbart publicized an edited video of a speech at a NAACP - sponsored Georgia event by USDA worker Shirley Sherrod. The mainstream press repeated his words without criticism, and the organization itself added their own words without properly checking what had happened. The NAACP president and CEO has since apologized. The organization has never had a woman president, except on a temporary basis, and there have been calls to name one. Lorraine C. Miller served as interim president after Benjamin Jealous stepped down. Maya Wiley was rumored to be in line for the position in 2013, but Cornell William Brooks was selected. See also African American portal African - American Civil Rights Movement ( 1896 -- 1954 ) The Crisis, official magazine NAACP New Orleans Branch NAACP Theatre Awards NAACP Theatre Award -- President 's Award Niagara Movement Racial integration References Jump up ^ NAACP is usually pronounced `` N double - A C P. '' Jump up ^ naacp.org, August 4, 2011, `` NAACP Passes Resolution Supporting Strong Clean Air Act Archived August 8, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. ''. Accessed December 8, 2011. Jump up ^ Charitynavigator.org Jump up ^ Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. Africana : The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, in articles `` Civil Rights Movement '' by Patricia Sullivan ( pp 441 - 455 ) and `` National Association for the Advancement of Colored People '' by Kate Tuttle ( pp 1,388 - 1,391 ). ISBN 0 - 465 - 00071 - 1. ^ Jump up to : `` NAACP History and Geography ''. Mapping American Social Movements Through the 20th Century. University of Washington. Retrieved April 13, 2017. Jump up ^ `` NAACP -- Our Mission ''. Archived from the original on June 11, 2008. Retrieved September 5, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Contact Us ''. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Archived from the original on November 9, 2009. Retrieved November 17, 2009. Jump up ^ NAACP, `` Youth and College -- Advisor 's Manual '', p 9. Jump up ^ Ian Urbina, `` Health Executive Named Chairwoman of N.A.A.C.P. '', The New York Times, February 21, 2010, p. 4. Jump up ^ Texeira, Erin ( March 5, 2007 ). `` NAACP president to step down, cites discord with board ''. USA Today. Associated Press. Retrieved March 4, 2007. Jump up ^ `` The NAACP Records ''. Information Bulletin, March 2010. Library of Congress. Retrieved January 4, 2017. Jump up ^ Dempsey, Beth ( November 7, 2011 ). `` NAACP Archives Go Digital ''. ProQuest. Retrieved January 4, 2017. Jump up ^ Laguardia, Cheryl ; Swoger, Bonnie J.M. ( June 5, 2014 ). `` ProQuest 's NAACP Papers, History Vault & Treehouse ''. Reference eReviews. Library Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2017. ^ Jump up to : Goldman, Mark ( 2007 ). City on the edge : Buffalo, New York. Amherst, New York : Prometheus Books. pp. 19 -- 22. ISBN 9781591024576. Jump up ^ `` Niagara Movement First Annual Meeting ''. Retrieved November 27, 2012. ^ Jump up to : `` The story of the Niagara Movement and the N.A.A.C.P. '' Jump up ^ `` Niagara Movement ''. W.E.B. DuBois Papers, Special Collections and University Archives W.E.B Du Bois Library, UMass, Amherst, Massachusetts. ^ Jump up to : `` NAACP Timeline ''. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Archived from the original on June 17, 2010. Jump up ^ Simkin, John. `` William English Walling biography ''. Spartacus Educational. Archived from the original on January 4, 2014. Jump up ^ Kathryn Kish Sklar, `` Florence Kelley '', in Rima Lunin Schultz and Adele Hast ( eds ), Women Building Chicago, 1790 -- 1990 : A Biographical Dictionary, Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2001, p. 463. Jump up ^ Library of Congress. `` NAACP Founder Charles Edward Russell ''. Library of Congress. Archived from the original on May 24, 2013. Jump up ^ Marlin, John Tepper. `` NAACP, Happy 100th Birthday ''. The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 12, 2017. Jump up ^ `` NAACP -- How NAACP Began ''. Archived from the original on January 22, 2009. ^ Jump up to : Howard Sachar. `` Working to Extend America 's Freedoms : Jewish involvement in the Civil Rights movement ''. Excerpt from A History of Jews in America, published by Vintage Books. MyJewishLearning.com. Archived from the original on March 1, 2009. Retrieved February 4, 2009. Jump up ^ Kenneth Robert Janken, Walter White : Mr. NAACP, Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina, 2006, p. 49 Jump up ^ Kenneth Robert Janken, Walter White : Mr. NAACP, Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina, 2006, p. 2 and 42 Jump up ^ Benjamin L. Hooks, `` Birth and Separation of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, '' Crisis 1979 86 ( 6 ) : 218 - 220. 0011 - 1422 Jump up ^ Richard L. Pacelle, Jr ; Brett W. Curry ; Bryan W. Marshall ( 2011 ). Decision Making by the Modern Supreme Court. Cambridge University Press. p. 111. Jump up ^ James T. Patterson and William W. Freehling, Brown v. Board of Education : A civil rights milestone and its troubled legacy ( 2001 ). Jump up ^ Randall Kennedy, `` Martin Luther King 's constitution : a legal history of the Montgomery bus boycott. '' Yale Law Journal 98.6 ( 1989 ) : 999 - 1067. Jump up ^ Judith Bloom Fradin, and Dennis B. Fradin, The power of one : Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine ( Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004 ). ^ Jump up to : Marable, Manning ( August 2002 ). `` The NAACP 's 93rd Convention : An Assessment ( archived copy ) '' ( PDF ). Along the Color Line. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on January 6, 2007. ^ Jump up to : `` NAACP Leader Quits Under Fire ''. CBS News. August 9, 2000. Jump up ^ `` Bush campaign denounces Dallas NAACP comments on Lieberman ''. CNN. August 9, 2000. Jump up ^ Duncan Campbell ( August 10, 2000 ). `` Black leader suspended for anti-semitic Lieberman slur ''. London : The Guardian. Jump up ^ AJCongress on Statement by NAACP Chapter Director on Lieberman, American Jewish Congress ( AJC ), August 9, 2000. Jump up ^ `` Editorial : No mutual respect : Mr. Bush unwisely forgoes NAACP meeting ''. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. July 17, 2004. ^ Jump up to : Allen, Mike ( July 10, 2004 ). `` Bush Criticizes NAACP 's Leadership ''. The Washington Post. p. A05. Jump up ^ `` President Bush addresses the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 's ( NAACP ) national convention '' ( video ). FORA.tv. July 20, 2006. Jump up ^ Bush invokes civil rights in NAACP speech, Associated Press ( reprinted by MSNBC.com ), July 20, 2006. ( retrieved on October 14, 2008 ). ^ Jump up to : Janofsky, Michael ( October 29, 2004 ). `` Citing July Speech, I.R.S. Decides to Review N.A.A.C.P. '' The New York Times. Jump up ^ `` NAACP chairman calls for Bush 's ouster ''. CNN. July 13, 2004. Jump up ^ `` Election Year Activities and the Prohibition on Political Campaign Intervention for Section 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) Organizations ''. Internal Revenue Service. February 2006. Archived from the original on March 5, 2011. Jump up ^ Anderson, Makebra M ( February 8, 2005 ). `` NAACP says IRS has no `` Legitimate '' Claim ``. National Newspaper Publishers Association. Amsterdam News. Jump up ^ Fears, Darryl ( September 1, 2006 ). `` IRS Ends 2 - Year Probe Of NAACP 's Tax Status ''. The Washington Post. Jump up ^ Bronner, Angela ( September 25, 2006 ). `` BV Q&A With Julian Bond ; Why This Civil Rights Icon Embraces Gay Rights ''. Blackvoices.com. Archived from the original on May 4, 2010. Retrieved April 13, 2017. Jump up ^ `` NAACP chair says ' gay rights are civil rights ' ''. Washington Blade. April 8, 2004. Archived from the original on March 21, 2006. Retrieved September 24, 2009. Jump up ^ Michael Barbaro ( May 19, 2012 ). `` N.A.A.C.P. Endorses Same - Sex Marriage ''. The Caucus. The New York Times. Jump up ^ `` NAACP Passes Resolution in Support of Marriage Equality ''. NAACP. May 19, 2012. Jump up ^ Castellanos, Dalina ( May 19, 2012 ). `` NAACP endorses same - sex marriage, says it 's a civil right ''. Los Angeles Times. Jump up ^ After NAACP 's Gay Marriage Stance, Discord And Discussion. NPR ( June 8, 2012 ). Retrieved on 2014 - 05 - 24. Jump up ^ http://www.monaacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/170605-NAACP-MO-Travel-Advisory.pdf. The following linguistic corrections have been made : loose > lose, over zealous > over-zealous, Dredd > Dred, African - Americans > African Americans. − Jump up ^ Nancy Coleman, `` NAACP issues its first statewide travel advisory, for Missouri, '' CNN, August 3, 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/02/us/naacp-missouri-travel-advisory-trnd/index.html. Jump up ^ `` NAACP Proudly Announces 30th Anniversary ACT - SO Medalists ''. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Archived from the original on February 4, 2009. Retrieved January 31, 2009. Jump up ^ Rich, Frank ( May 28, 2012 ). `` Post-Racial Farce ''. New York. Jump up ^ `` Amid Tumult, N.A.A.C.P. Elects 18th Leader ''. The New York Times. May 17, 2014. Jump up ^ `` Who 's going to be the next president of the NAACP ? ''. The Washington Post. September 20, 2013. Further reading Alexander, Shawn Leigh. An Army of Lions : The Civil Rights Struggle Before the NAACP. ( University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012 ). Berg, Manfred. The Ticket to Freedom : The NAACP and the Struggle for Black Political Integration ( Univ. Press of Florida. 2007 ). Browne - Marshall, Gloria J. The Voting Rights War : The NAACP and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice. Lanham, MD : Rowman and Littlefield, 2016. Bynum, Thomas L. NAACP : Youth and the Fight for Black Freedom, 1936 -- 1965. Knoxville, TN : University of Tennessee Press, 2013. Carle, Susan D. Defining the Struggle : National Racial Justice Organizing, 1880 -- 1915 ( Oxford UP, 2013 ). 404pp. focus on NAACP. Dalfiume, Richard. `` The Forgotten Years of the Negro Revolution, '' Journal of American History 55 ( June 1969 ) : 99 - 100. fulltext in JSTOR Fleming, Cynthia Griggs. In the Shadow of Selma : The Continuing Struggle for Civil Rights in the Rural South. Lanham, MD : Rowman and Littlefield, 2004. Goings, Kenneth W. The NAACP Comes of Age : The Defeat of Judge John J. Parker. ( 1990 ). Hughes, Langston. Fight for Freedom : The Story of the NAACP. ( 1962 ) Janken, Kenneth Robert. White : The Biography of Walter White, Mr. NAACP. New York : The New Press, 2003. Jonas, Gilbert S. Freedom 's Sword : The NAACP and the Struggle against Racism in America, 1909 -- 1969. London : Routledge, 2005. Kellogg, Charles Flint. NAACP : A History of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Baltimore, MD : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967. Lewis, David Levering. W.E.B. DuBois. In Two Volumes. ( 1994, 2001 ). Mosnier, L. Joseph. Crafting Law in the Second Reconstruction : Julius Chambers, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Title VII. University of North Carolina, 2005. Reed, Christopher Robert. The Chicago NAACP and the Rise of Black Professional Leadership, 1910 -- 1966. Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press, 1997. Ring, Natalie J. `` National Association for the Advancement of Colored People '' in Encyclopedia of American Studies, ed. Simon J. Bronner ( Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015 ), online. Ross, Barbara Joyce. J.E. Spingarn and the Rise of the NAACP, 1911 -- 1939. ( 1972 ) Ryan, Yvonne. Roy Wilkins : The Quiet Revolutionary and the NAACP. Lexington, KY : University Press of Kentucky, 2014. Sartain, Lee. Borders of Equality : The NAACP and the Baltimore Civil Rights Struggle, 1914 -- 1970. Jackson, MS : University Press of Mississippi, 2013. Sartain, Lee. Invisible Activists : Women of the Louisiana NAACP and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1915 -- 1945. Baton Rouge, LA : Louisiana State University Press. Press 2007. St. James, Warren D. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People : A Case Study in Pressure Groups. ( 1958 ) Schneider, Mark Robert. We Return Fighting : The Civil Rights Movement in the Jazz Age. Boston, MA : Northeastern University Press, 2001. Sullivan, Patricia. Lift Every Voice : The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement. New York : The New Press, 2010. Thompson, Christina M. ( 2010 ). A More Perfect Union : Race, Rights, and Rhetoric in the NAACP and the White Citizens ' Council. ( M.A. thesis ) Simmons College. OCLC 754658741. Topping, Simon ; `` ' Supporting Our Friends and Defeating Our Enemies ' : Militancy and Nonpartisanship in the NAACP, 1936 -- 1948, '' Journal of African American History, Vol. 89, 2004 in JSTOR Tushnet, Mark V. The NAACP 's Legal Strategy against Segregated Education, 1925 -- 1950. Chapel Hill, NC : University of North Carolina Press, 1987. Wedin, Carolyn. Inheritors of the Spirit : Mary White Ovington and the Founding of the NAACP. Wiley 1998. Woodley, Jenny. Art for Equality : The NAACP 's Cultural Campaign for Civil Rights. Lexington, KY : University Press of Kentucky, 2014. Verney, Kevern and Lee Sartain ( eds. ), Long Is the Way and Hard : One Hundred Years of the NAACP. ( 2009 ). Zangrando, Robert. The NAACP Crusade Against Lynching, 1909 -- 1950. Philadelphia, PA : Temple University Press, 1980. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to NAACP. Wikisource has original text related to this article : Barack Obama 's Remarks at NAACP centennial Official website NAACP History and Geography Map of NAACP branches One Person, One Vote project Civil Rights Movement Veterans, crmvet.org Annual ACT - SO Contest, naacp - Los Angeles.org Official site of the Brooklyn, New York Branch, brooklynnaacp.org NAACP in Georgia, georgiaencyclopedia.org President Obama NAACP Speech : `` Your Destiny Is In Your Hands... No Excuses '' -- video by The Huffington Post NAACP Turns 100 : The History and Future of the Nation 's Oldest and Largest Civil Rights Organization, democracywow.org video FBI file on the NAACP Archives Overview of NAACP records at the Library of Congress, the official repository of the national organization NAACP branches database, including membership numbers and officer names. From the Mapping American Social Movements project at the University of Washington. Niagara Movement Du Bois Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Umass Amherst National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Region 1 Photograph Collection, ca. 1940 -- 1982 at The Bancroft Library National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Region I, Records, 1942 -- 1986 ( bulk 1945 -- 1977 ) at The Bancroft Library National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Vancouver Branch records. 1914 -- 1967. 2.10 cubic feet ( 5 boxes ). At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections NAACP Convention in Atlanta, Civil Rights Digital Library. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Leaders Presidents / CEOs ( executive secretaries 1910 -- 77 ; executive directors 1977 -- 96 ) Frances Blascoer ( 1910 -- 11 ) Mary White Ovington ( 1911 -- 12 ) Mary Childs Nerney ( 1912 -- 16 ) Mary White Ovington ( 1916 ) Royall Freeman Nash ( 1916 -- 17 ) James Weldon Johnson ( 1917 -- 18 ) John R. Shillady ( 1918 -- 20 ) James Weldon Johnson ( 1920 -- 31 ) Walter Francis White ( 1931 -- 55 ) Roy Wilkins ( 1955 -- 77 ) Benjamin Hooks ( 1977 -- 92 ) Benjamin Chavis ( 1993 -- 94 ) Earl Shinhoster ( 1994 -- 96 ) Kweisi Mfume ( 1996 -- 2004 ) Dennis Courtland Hayes ( 2005 ) Bruce S. Gordon ( 2005 -- 7 ) Dennis Courtland Hayes ( 2007 -- 8 ) Benjamin Jealous ( 2008 -- 13 ) Lorraine Miller ( interim, 2013 -- 2014 ) Cornell William Brooks ( 2014 -- 2017 ) Elected presidents ( 1909 -- 96, abolished ) Moorfield Storey ( 1909 -- 29 ) Joel Elias Spingarn ( 1930 -- 39 ) Arthur B. Spingarn ( 1940 -- 65 ) Kivie Kaplan ( 1966 -- 75 ) William Montague Cobb ( 1976 -- 82 ) James Kemp ( 1983 ) Enolia McMillan ( 1984 -- 90 ) Hazel N. Dukes ( 1990 -- 92 ) Rupert Richardson ( 1992 -- 96 ) Chairpersons William English Walling ( 1910 -- 11 ) Oswald Garrison Villard ( 1911 -- 14 ) Joel Elias Spingarn ( 1914 -- 19 ) Mary White Ovington ( 1919 -- 34 ) Louis T. Wright ( 1934 -- 53 ) Channing Heggie Tobias ( 1953 -- 60 ) Robert C. Weaver ( 1960 -- 61 ) Stephen Gill Spottswood ( 1961 -- 75 ) Margaret Bush Wilson ( 1975 -- 83 ) Kelly Alexander Sr ( 1983 -- 84 ) William Gibson ( 1985 -- 95 ) Myrlie Evers - Williams ( 1995 -- 98 ) Julian Bond ( 1998 -- 2010 ) Roslyn Brock ( 2010 -- present ) See also NAACP Theatre Awards NAACP Image Awards NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund NAACP Youth Council Afro - Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics Spingarn Medal Niagara Movement National Negro Committee The Crisis Civil Rights Movement Notable events ( timeline ) 1954 -- 1959 Brown v. Board of Education Bolling v. Sharpe Briggs v. Elliott Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County Gebhart v. Belton Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company Emmett Till Montgomery bus boycott Browder v. Gayle Tallahassee bus boycott Mansfield school desegregation 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom `` Give Us the Ballot '' Royal Ice Cream sit - in Little Rock Nine National Guard blockade Civil Rights Act of 1957 Kissing Case Biloxi wade - ins 1960 -- 1963 Greensboro sit - ins Nashville sit - ins Sit - in movement Civil Rights Act of 1960 Gomillion v. Lightfoot Boynton v. Virginia Rock Hill sit - ins Robert F. Kennedy 's Law Day Address Freedom Rides attacks Garner v. Louisiana Albany Movement University of Chicago sit - ins `` Second Emancipation Proclamation '' Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot `` Segregation now, segregation forever '' Stand in the Schoolhouse Door 1963 Birmingham campaign Letter from Birmingham Jail Children 's Crusade Birmingham riot 16th Street Baptist Church bombing John F. Kennedy 's Report to the American People on Civil Rights March on Washington `` I Have a Dream '' St. Augustine movement 1964 -- 1968 Twenty - fourth Amendment Bloody Tuesday Freedom Summer workers ' murders Civil Rights Act of 1964 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches `` How Long, Not Long '' Voting Rights Act of 1965 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections March Against Fear White House Conference on Civil Rights Chicago Freedom Movement / Chicago open housing movement Memphis sanitation strike King assassination funeral riots Poor People 's Campaign Civil Rights Act of 1968 Green v. County School Board of New Kent County Activist groups Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights Atlanta Student Movement Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Committee on Appeal for Human Rights Council for United Civil Rights Leadership Dallas County Voters League Deacons for Defense and Justice Georgia Council on Human Relations Highlander Folk School Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Montgomery Improvement Association Nashville Student Movement NAACP Youth Council Northern Student Movement National Council of Negro Women National Urban League Operation Breadbasket Regional Council of Negro Leadership Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Southern Regional Council Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) The Freedom Singers Wednesdays in Mississippi Women 's Political Council Activists Ralph Abernathy Victoria Gray Adams Zev Aelony Mathew Ahmann William G. Anderson Gwendolyn Armstrong Arnold Aronson Ella Baker Marion Barry Daisy Bates Harry Belafonte James Bevel Claude Black Gloria Blackwell Randolph Blackwell Unita Blackwell Ezell Blair Jr. Joanne Bland Julian Bond Joseph E. Boone William Holmes Borders Amelia Boynton Raylawni Branch Ruby Bridges Aurelia Browder H. Rap Brown Guy Carawan Stokely Carmichael Johnnie Carr James Chaney J.L. Chestnut Colia Lafayette Clark Ramsey Clark Septima Clark Xernona Clayton Eldridge Cleaver Kathleen Cleaver Charles E. Cobb Jr. Annie Lee Cooper Dorothy Cotton Claudette Colvin Vernon Dahmer Jonathan Daniels Joseph DeLaine Dave Dennis Annie Devine Patricia Stephens Due Joseph Ellwanger Charles Evers Medgar Evers Myrlie Evers - Williams Chuck Fager James Farmer Walter E. Fauntroy James Forman Marie Foster Golden Frinks Andrew Goodman Fred Gray Jack Greenberg Dick Gregory Lawrence Guyot Prathia Hall Fannie Lou Hamer William E. Harbour Vincent Harding Dorothy Height Lola Hendricks Aaron Henry Oliver Hill Donald L. Hollowell James Hood Myles Horton Zilphia Horton T.R.M. Howard Ruby Hurley Jesse Jackson Jimmie Lee Jackson Richie Jean Jackson T.J. Jemison Esau Jenkins Barbara Rose Johns Vernon Johns Frank Minis Johnson Clarence Jones J. Charles Jones Matthew Jones Vernon Jordan Tom Kahn Clyde Kennard A.D. King C.B. King Coretta Scott King Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Sr. Bernard Lafayette James Lawson Bernard Lee Sanford R. Leigh Jim Letherer Stanley Levison John Lewis Viola Liuzzo Z. Alexander Looby Joseph Lowery Clara Luper Malcolm X Mae Mallory Vivian Malone Thurgood Marshall Benjamin Mays Franklin McCain Charles McDew Ralph McGill Floyd McKissick Joseph McNeil James Meredith William Ming Jack Minnis Amzie Moore Douglas E. Moore William Lewis Moore Irene Morgan Bob Moses William Moyer Elijah Muhammad Diane Nash Charles Neblett Edgar Nixon Jack O'Dell James Orange Rosa Parks James Peck Charles Person Homer Plessy Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Fay Bellamy Powell Al Raby Lincoln Ragsdale A. Philip Randolph George Raymond Jr. Bernice Johnson Reagon Cordell Reagon James Reeb Frederick D. Reese Gloria Richardson David Richmond Bernice Robinson Jo Ann Robinson Bayard Rustin Bernie Sanders Michael Schwerner Cleveland Sellers Charles Sherrod Alexander D. Shimkin Fred Shuttlesworth Modjeska Monteith Simkins Glenn E. Smiley A. Maceo Smith Kelly Miller Smith Mary Louise Smith Maxine Smith Ruby Doris Smith - Robinson Charles Kenzie Steele Hank Thomas Dorothy Tillman A.P. Tureaud Hartman Turnbow Albert Turner C.T. Vivian Wyatt Tee Walker Hollis Watkins Walter Francis White Roy Wilkins Hosea Williams Kale Williams Robert F. Williams Andrew Young Whitney Young Sammy Younge Jr. James Zwerg Influences Nonviolence Padayatra Sermon on the Mount Mohandas K. Gandhi Ahimsa Satyagraha The Kingdom of God Is Within You Frederick Douglass W.E.B. Du Bois Related Jim Crow laws Plessy v. Ferguson Separate but equal Buchanan v. Warley Hocutt v. Wilson Sweatt v. Painter Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States Katzenbach v. McClung Loving v. Virginia Fifth Circuit Four Brown Chapel Holt Street Baptist Church Edmund Pettus Bridge March on Washington Movement African - American churches attacked Journey of Reconciliation Freedom Songs `` Kumbaya '' `` Keep Your Eyes on the Prize '' `` Oh, Freedom '' `` This Little Light of Mine '' `` We Shall Not Be Moved '' `` We Shall Overcome '' Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam `` Beyond Vietnam : A Time to Break Silence '' Watts riots Voter Education Project 1960s counterculture In popular culture King Memorial Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument Freedom Riders National Monument Civil Rights Memorial Noted historians Taylor Branch Clayborne Carson John Dittmer Michael Eric Dyson Chuck Fager Adam Fairclough David Garrow David Halberstam Vincent Harding Steven F. Lawson Doug McAdam Diane McWhorter Charles M. Payne Timothy Tyson Akinyele Umoja Movement photographers African American topics History Atlantic slave trade Maafa Slavery in the United States Partus sequitur ventrem Free negro Reconstruction Era Military history of African Americans Jim Crow laws Nadir of American race relations Redlining Great Migration Civil Rights Movement 1865 -- 95 / 1896 -- 1954 / 1954 -- 68 Black Power movement Second Great Migration Afrocentrism New Great Migration Post-Civil Rights era Inauguration of Barack Obama 2009 / Inauguration of Barack Obama 2013 Black Lives Matter Culture Art African - American names Black mecca Dance Film Juneteenth Kwanzaa Literature Music Musical theater Neighborhoods Sexual orientation Soul food Education, science and technology Black schools Black colleges and universities Museums African - American studies Inventors and scientists Women in computer science in medicine in STEM fields Religion Black church Black theology Doctrine of Father Divine American Society of Muslims Nation of Islam Black Hebrew Israelites Political movements Pan-Africanism Self - determination Nationalism Black Power Black fist Anarchism Capitalism Conservatism Populism Leftism Garveyism Back - to - Africa movement Civic and economic groups National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) Black Panther Party National Urban League ( NUL ) Rights organizations Association for the Study of African American Life and History ( ASALH ) Thurgood Marshall College Fund United Negro College Fund ( UNCF ) National Black Chamber of Commerce ( NBCC ) National Pan-Hellenic Council ( NPHC ) National Council of Negro Women ( NCNW ) Sports Negro league baseball Baseball color line Black players in professional American football African Americans in the Canadian Football League Black players in ice hockey Athletic associations and conferences Central ( CIAA ) Southern ( SIAC ) Mid-Eastern ( MEAC ) Southwestern ( SWAC ) Ethnic subdivisions Black Indians Gullah Fula Igbo Louisiana Creole ( of color ) Melungeon Yoruba Demographics Neighborhoods list U.S. cities with large populations 2000 majorities 2010 majorities Metropolitan areas Black Belt Languages English American English African - American English Gullah Louisiana Creole French By state / city Alabama Florida Georgia ( Atlanta ) Illinois ( Chicago ) Iowa ( Davenport ) Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts ( Boston ) Michigan ( Detroit ) Mississippi Nebraska ( Omaha ) New York New York City Pennsylvania ( Philadelphia ) Puerto Rico Tennessee Texas ( Houston ) Diaspora Africa Ghana Liberia Sierra Leone Back - to - Africa movement Americas Caribbean history Canada Nova Scotia Dominican Republic Haiti Other France Israel Lists African Americans visual artists Republicans US senators African - American firsts mayors US state firsts Neighborhoods Landmark African - American legislation African American - related articles Topics related to the African diaspora Portal VIAF : 225491580 LCCN : n80049704 ISNI : 0000 0001 2019 0436 GND : 1047543 - 6 SUDOC : 028031407 BNF : cb11994871d ( data ) NLA : 35373774 NKC : kn20080606005 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NAACP&oldid=825777771 '' Categories : National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Nonpartisan organizations in the United States Organizations based in Baltimore 1909 establishments in the United States Organizations established in 1909 Civil liberties advocacy groups in the United States African - American organizations Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Use mdy dates from April 2017 Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages Wikipedia indefinitely move - protected pages Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2007 All articles containing potentially dated statements Wikipedia articles needing style editing from April 2017 All articles needing style editing All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from February 2018 Articles with unsourced statements from March 2015 Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Talk View source Contents About Wikipedia Wikinews Wikisource Languages Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Español Euskara فارسی Français Frysk Galego 한국어 हिन्दी Hrvatski Íslenska Italiano עברית Lëtzebuergesch Magyar Македонски Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Русский Simple English Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 15 February 2018, at 10 : 25. 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Question: who founded the naacp and what was their purpose
Answer: W. E. B. Du Bois