St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1956-08-10
Coroner Writer
Tells Story Of
The NAAcP
BY Calvin Lytle in August
COrOnet Magazine

/ ny WI y ~ ~ w ia AAe nv
COronet Magazine
CONTINUED from Aug. 3 edition.
The NAACP already is engsg-
ed in a drive 10 secure 5000. 900
Negro voters In the South by the
1856 presidential election. Field
workers will be assigned law
yers will be available"
Such detectives now have the
weight OF a mass movement. But
II Is only comparatively recently
that this could be said Through
out the 1920s the NAACP's board
remained white-dominated and its
membership almost exclusively
Northern. Most Of its Negro mem
bership was among intellectuals
and professional people-so much
so that II was known by many
working class Negroes as the ma
tional Association for the Ad-
vancement OF Certain People"
In the South, membership was
spotty and virtually underground.
To white Southerners who knew Of
Il, the NAACP was a dangerous
and radical influence, a NEEDLE
some" outfit run by a noisy clique
Of New Workers Negroes general
ly did not risk the white boss dis
pleasure by joining.
Most white Southerners saw the
NAACP either in the image or the
shadow Of one man Walter
White, who served as executive
secretary from, 1880 until his
death last year. Whites naggings
at Congressional hearings, his
newspapers articles, his relentless
and brazenly frontal attack on
Southern traditions, made him a
constant irritant.
As recently as 1912, the MA
ACP's total membership was only
50, 900. But after World War II,
membership started booming, so
that today the NAACP has over
100000 members and 1900
branches in 43 states, with IS per-
cent OF the membership and 6S
per cent Of the branches In the
South. Most OF the present mem
bers are middle-class and lower
class Negroes. Whites now repre-
sent less than ten per cent Of the
total membership figure.
The organizations national
headquarters occupies two and
half stories in the Wendell willhie
Memorial in New York City. In
addition, II maintains a legisla-
tive bureau In Washington and
three regional offices: in Birming-
ham, Dallas and San Francisco. It
has 90 paid staff members, a few
Of them white.
Last year the national office
took in 1884, 765, a far cry from
the $4,000 a year II operated on
in the sos. Its branches raised
an additional 1891, 900 and its Le-
gal Defense and Educational Fund.
which operates on a separate bud
get. collected S2i3,s4O Total for
1855: S1,l7s, sos.
Most Of this money came from
the rank and file, whose 81 dues
are split between the branches and
the national office. Sale OF MA
ACP Christmas seals brought in
more than $4,000, and the rest
was made up of special contribu-
tons and $500 life memberships.
Contributions TO the NAACP
proper are not tax exempt be-
cause OF its position as a register
ed lobbyist in Washington. But
gifts TO the Legal Fund are. and
among the heavier contributors
last year were the Fund for the
Republic $3.50, 0OO) and the Philip
Murray Memorial Foundation
(S75. 0O0),
Life members In the NAACP
are identified on a bronze plaque
In the national headquarters re-
ception room. Some OF the more
prominent ones: Marshall Field,
Arthur Godfrey Horace Heidi,
Mrs, Eleanor Roosevelt, Wendell
wnllie The gave $1,000 Of his
royalties from zone world"l
Richard Rogers and Jawaharlal
Nehru
BY tradition, the NAACP's
president is a white man. Since
1870 he has been Arthur b. Sping-
arm, a New York lawyer long &C
tive in civil-liberties circles.
Chairman Of the board is DR..
Claiming Tobias. former YMCA
official who is widely thought Of
rs the elder Negro statesman.
But IN the public mind, NAACP
today is largely personified by
rhurgood Marshall its special
counsel. and Roy wilkins, its ex-
ecutive secretary. Marshall, AZ, is
a tall, vigorous six-footer, who
Y NOW COON OUT ANDLETN