Research: NAACP: What it is — and isn’t
Competition is part of human nature. Perhaps that’s why better aspects of cultural tribalism are so often outweighed by the bad — behavior lending itself toward misinformation, unwarranted fears, discrimination and worst of all, violence.
All compelling the formation and continued work of the NAACP.
Begun as a biracial endeavor, the first chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in New York in 1909 by white and black activists, with a white lawyer as its first president. Early members included suffragists, social workers, journalists, educators, labor reformers, intellectuals and others impassioned by the tragic Springfield race riot, when a white mob burned down 40 homes in a black residential district, ransacked local businesses and murdered two African Americans in Illinois — sadly not the only 20th century example of prejudicial mob violence.
The NAACP was formed to “secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.” In essence, to ensure a society in which race doesn’t determine rights. To ensure the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees protect everyone equally.
According to NAACP.org, its principal objectives are:
• To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens
• To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice
• To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes
• To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights
• To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination
• To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and take all lawful action to secure their exercise
In its first few decades, anti-lynching was central to the NAACP agenda, followed by key statutory equal rights victories in the 1960s. Their strategic plan has since broadened to include six goals to improve areas of inequality still facing African Americans:
1. Economic sustainability (the American Dream): Equal opportunity to achieve economic success, sustainability, and financial security for every person.
2. Education: Every child will receive a free, high quality, equitably-funded, public pre-K and K-12 education followed by diverse opportunities for accessible, affordable vocational or university education.
3. Health: Everyone will have equal access to affordable, high-quality health care, and racially disparate health outcomes will end.
4. Public safety and criminal justice: Disproportionate incarceration, racially motivated policing strategies, and racially biased, discriminatory, and mandatory minimum sentencing will end. Incarceration will be greatly reduced and communities will be safer. The death penalty will be abolished at the state and federal level, as well as in the military.
(This category has perhaps the greatest statistical disparity, carefully chronicled in the book “The New Jim Crow” by former U.S. Supreme Court staff attorney Michelle Alexander.)
5. Voting rights and political representation: Every American will have free, open, equal, and protected access to the vote and fair representation at all levels of the political process. By protecting democracy, enhancing equity, and increasing democratic participation and civic engagement, African Americans will be proportionally elected to political office.
6. Expanding youth and young adult engagement: Young adult engagement will be key in policy research, development and advocacy on all levels.
With more than a half million members, 400 chapters and 2,200 local units nationwide — including the newest in Kootenai County — the NAACP helped secure the right to vote for all (including support for women’s suffrage), as well as improving equal access to housing, education, and justice. Its policy is to work actively through the judicial and legal systems, to lobby state and federal legislatures, rather than focusing on direct methods of protest favored by other civil rights groups.
February is African American History Month and marks the 111th anniversary of the NAACP.
“We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.” — Abraham Lincoln
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Sholeh Patrick, J.D., is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Email: sholeh@cdapress.com