Evening star., 1934-02-11
|COLORED PEOPLE
'PLANANN|vERSARY
National Association VIII
Observe Founding on
LincoIn's Birthday.
The National Association for the

The National Association for the
Advancement Of Colored People, COM
prising 378 branches throughout the
country, will celebrate its twenty-ffth
anniversary on Lincoln'S birthday
with a series of dinners and meetings
in various cities. In 1909 a small
group of socially minded people. who
wanted to help the Negro raise his
status, formed the N. A. A. G. P,
which has since then directed its ac-
sivities along three lines, economic,
cultural and political.
According to Walter White, seventh
secretary of the organization, the
problems facing the Negro today are
practically the same as those OF 1910.
At that time the Negro was suffering
from Jim Grow discrimination and
economic exclusion from the more
profitable professions. He was in con-
stant danger of being beaten and in
jured, perhaps killed, in sporadic race
riots and lynch parties which swept
through Western and Southern towns
like sudden prairie fires. Most of all,
the Negro was kept on a low level of
subsistence by means of small wages.
the tenant system and the custom of
the South and parts of the West
which forbade him from exercising his
political rights.
Problems Similar Today.
Although the same problems are
present today, in a greater or lesser
degree, the association has interpoSed
a record of solid achievements between
them and the Negro during its quar-
ter century of existence. When Negro
labor was being overworked and un-
perpaid on a Federal f1ood-control
project along the Mississippi River in
1892, the association made vigorous
protests. Now such practices against
members of the race are specifically
outlawed in the contractors code un-
der the N. R. A.
When certain cities passed ordl-
nances requiring Negroes to live with
in certain sections, the association
fought this residential discrimination
so well that the Supreme Court de-
clared such ordinances unconstltu-
tional. Through its system of field
research and accurate study of condl-
tions leading to lynching the associa-
ton has done much to gather data
on and organized public opinion
against occurrences of mob violence.
The lynchingS year Of Negroes have
decreased appreciably since the asso-
citation became active. In 1908 and
1909, respectively. 90 and rs Negroes
were lynched, while in 1882 a total of
10 persons, Negro and white, met
death at the hands of mobS.
Politically, the association had ad-
vanced the status of the Negro. It
has repeatedly fought for the right of
Negroes to serve on juries in Southern
States, and since the George Crawford
case in Virginia many counties have
automatically included the names of
Negroes on the jury rolls.
Conditions Affect Workers.
Until the Roosevelt administration,
Mr. White said, it was difficult to OBJ
tain Federal action on the abuses of
Negroes by contractors. But coinci-
dent with the more liberal govern
ment of the Democrats, Negroes faced
increased discrimination in jobs and
ldOOl LII lI1dIIy AdcCo
throughout the South. Negroes lost
their positions, which they had held
for years, in order to clear the way
for white men.
One of the most remarkable fights
was that against Judge John j. Parker
of North Carolina, whom President
Hoover nominated to vacant place
on the Supreme Court in 1880. At
one time Judge Parker had spoken in
favor Of denying the Negro the vote.
Through the dynamic lobbying of Mr.
White it became apparent that the
Senate would not confirm Parker's
nomination. His name was Withdrawn
and that of Owen j. Roberts, now
associate justice, was substituted Al
though Justice Roberts is not a lib
eral in the strict sense, Mr.. White
explained, he satisfied the associa-
tion's requirements against racial
prejudice.
Activities of Association.
Other activities of the association
have ranged in the quarter century of
its existence from protests, actively
waged and successfully concluded,
against discrimination toward Negroes
in many cities; an anti-lynching cam
paign, in which research of lynchings
and fact-finding have helped gather
material which is now included in an
anti-lynching bill before Congress;
and, most important, mass education
OF Negroes by means of pamphlets,
speakers, newspapers and the asso-
Observation-Disclosures