![]() Of the over 60 people who attended this first meeting, only a handful were African-American, including W.E.B.DuBois, anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett, and educator Mary Church Terrell.Īmong the white leaders invited were lawyer Archibald Grimke, social reformer Florence Kelley, and muckraker Charles Edward Russell. Led by suffragist Mary Ovington White, and social organizes Henry Moskowitz and Oswald Garrison Villard, they called on activists of similar mind to a meeting to consider the creation of a new civil rights effort. The irony of a race riot in the city that was home to Abraham Lincoln was not lost on a group of white liberals who decided to take action. The spark for the creation of this new organization came in the wake of a deadly race riot in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908. While the Niagara Movement accomplished little in the way of actual legislation, the group gave voice to grievances that would be addressed more directly by the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909-1910. Membership began to drop, and the national organization held their last meeting in 1909. The Niagara group met for the next several years in spite of the opposition they faced both internally and from those who ironically agreed on the need to address discrimination but felt their tactics were too aggressive. Niagara members argued among themselves as well, over such issues as the inclusion of women in the group and what role they should play in national elections. Supporters of Washington, including a number of white moderate activists, denounced the Niagara effort and lobbied against the formation of Niagara chapters in a number of states. Washington, including a number of white moderate activists, denounced the Niagara effort and lobbied against the formation of Niagara chapters in a number of states. Led by DuBois and William Monroe Trotter, a Boston publisher, the group drafted a “Declaration of Principles,” calling for an end to racial discrimination in all areas of American life, calling for full enfranchisement, equal job opportunities, fair treatment in the courts, access to higher education, and an end to such Jim Crow outrages as the convict lease system and the bondage caused by sharecropping among for poor blacks living in rural areas. Led by DuBois and William Monroe Trotter, the group drafted a “Declaration of Principles,” calling for an end to racial discrimination in all areas of American life More likely, the choice was an effort to meet quietly and avoid adverse publicity from those in the black community who felt they were being too aggressive in their demands. One story holds that no hotels on the US side of the Falls would allow them to reserve rooms. Significantly, this group met on Canadian side of the Falls rather than in Buffalo, NY. Washington in particular, for being too accepting of racial discrimination as long as they could gain some economic equality. ![]() DuBois who criticized black leadership, Booker T. The spark for the Niagara meeting came after the 1903 publication of The Souls of Black Folk, a work by W.E.B.
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