The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1919-04-12
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF
COLORED PEOPLE.
TEN YEARS OF ACTIVITY.
BY May White Ovington.
ARTICLE d.

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 MIR. Frank NJ.
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 ma
tional footing, our legal work was well
under way, and we are, n truth, Ma
tional Association, pledged to a nation
wide work for justice to the Negro
race.
AS l look back overs the past ten
years, l see that we ha surmounted
many difficulties. We have had to
encounter the malicious perversion of
our motives by those not in agreement
against insincere attack We have
also been obliged 20 reaffirm the in
tegrity of our motives to those sincere
critics who doubt that a democratic
organization of white and colored peo-
pie is possible. We have had to insist
sometimes to our most ardent enthus-
! lasts that we demand not faith alone
but works. But tbrou hout our ten
years we have .gained in eff
! ficiency in power and in national
repute.
Each year brings us many important
questions, and each year we try to
give them our West, most thoughtful
decisions. We are striving to secure
the constitutional rights of the color
ed people, to win Jim Grow" cases,
segregation cases, disfranchisement
cases. This brings us in close relation
with the courts, the most conservative
institution in our commonwealth. At
the same time we stand on the auda-
ciously radical platform of the aboli-
tion of all caste. Shall we always be
the voice of the prophet on the house
! top, telling the Nation of its sins, or
| shall we endeavor to practice diplo-
macy even in the midst of our agita-
tion? This is a question that may
never be satisfactorily answered. but
| it is interesting to note that the col
ored people have come to us with their
warmest allegiance in proportion to
the constructive work we have been
able to do. AS one of their distin-
guished scholars wrote me at the close
of the Associations first Conference:
/ 81 trust that the Conference will re-
! suit in real work, ! ann beginning to
| feel that too much time is wasted in
| talk which issues no definite action or
plan of action. There is an immense
amount of work to be done in many
lines, and when l say work, l do not
exclude agitation which is in itself a
real work, but needs to be organized
! just as any successful organization.
"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, Gods new Messiah,
| OllSliuS StCh the DlOOLi vi biiSAN'
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 it's prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses, while
the coward stands aside,
Doubling in his abject spirit, till his
Lord is crucified,
And the multitude makes virtue of the
faith they had denied
! (The End.)
N. B.-The foregoing articles have
been published by the Kansas City,
Missouri, local branch of the N. A. A.
C. p. with the permission Of the au'
thor to let the people know the facts
Of this true and tried organization.