The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1919-03-22
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF
COLORED PEOPLE.
First of Series of Articles on the
N. A. A. c. P.)
BY Mary White Ovington.

n. A. A. G. P)
BY Mary White Ovington.
The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People is ten
years old-old enough, it is believed
to have history; and l, who am per-
haps it's first member, have been
chosen as the person to recite it. AS
its work since 1910 has been set forth
in it's annual reports, shall make it
my task to show how it came into ex-
istence and to tell of it's first months
of work.
In the summer of 1908, the country
was shocked by the account of the
Race riots at Springfield, Ill. Here,
in the home of Abraham Lincoln, a
mob, containing many of the towns
best citizens" ragged 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 Sd, by William English
Walling, entitled Race War in the
North" After describing the atroci-
ties committed against the Colored
people, Mr.. Walling declared;
Either the spirit of the abolitionists,
of Lincoln and of Lovejoy must be re-
viYed and we must come to treat the
Negro on a plane of absolute political
and social equality, or Vardaman and
Tillman will soon have transferred the
~ hn
ed with these words, "Yet who real
ICES the seriousness of the situation,
and what large and powerful body of
citizens is ready to come to their ADJ
1t is so happened that one of Mr..
Walling's readers accepted his ques-
tion and answered it. For four years
had been studying the status of the
Negro in New York. had investi-
gated his housing conditions, his
health, his opportunities for work. l
had spent many months in the South,
and at the time of Mr.. Walling's ar
ticle, was living in a New York
Negro tenement on a Negro street.
And many investigations and my sur
roundings led me to believe with the
writer of the article that the spirit
of the abolitionists must be revived"
So l wrote to MIR. Walling and af-
ter some time, for he was in the West,
we met in New York in the first week
of the year 1909. With us Mr.. Henry
Moskowitz, now prominent in the ad-
ministration of John Purroy Mitchell,
Mayor of New York. 1t was then that
the National Association for the Ad-
vancement of Colored People was
born.
Northern White Woman Starts Hboi-
ton Movement.
It was born in a little room of
New York apartment. 1t is to be re-
gretted that there are no minutes of
the first meeting, for they would make
interesting if mparliamentary read
ing. Mr. Walling had spent some
years in Russia where his wife, work
ing in the cause of the revolutionists,
had suffered imprisonment; and he
expressed his belief that the Negro
was treated with greater inhumanity
in the United States than the Jew was
treated in Russia. AS Mr.. Walling is
a Southerner we listened with convic-
ton. l knew something of the Negroes
difficulty in securing decent employ
ment in the North and of the insolent
treatment awarded him at Northern
hotels and restaurants, and l voiced
my protest. DR.. Moskowitz, with his
broad knowledge Of conditions among
New York's helpless immigrants, aid
ed us in properly interpreting 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. 1t was January. Why not
choose Lincoln's birthday, February
12, to open our campaign? We de-
cided, therefore, that a wise immedi-
ate action would be the issuing on
Lincolns birthday of a call for ma
tional conference on the Negro ques-
tion, At this conference we might dis
cover the beginnings, at least, of that
large and powerful body of citizens"
of which Mr.. Walling had written.
And so the meeting adjourned.
Something definite was determined
upon, and our next step was to call