Historical Organization
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Also known as: NAACP
Details
Organization Timeline
The NAACP’s founding call mobilizes against racial violence
đź“… 12 February 1909A call for national organization launched the movement that became the NAACP. Black and white supporters responded to racial violence and exclusion. Its campaigns combined legal challenges,...
Black New Yorkers march silently against racist violence
đź“… 28 July 1917Thousands of Black men, women, and children marched down Fifth Avenue following racial violence, including killings in East St Louis. Their disciplined silence and placards challenged public...
Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial after exclusion
đź“… 9 April 1939Marian Anderson performed at the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused her access to Constitution Hall. The public concert challenged racial exclusion from...
Police blind Isaac Woodard after he challenges disrespect
📅 12 February 1946Returning Black veteran Isaac Woodard challenged a bus driver’s treatment and was removed from the bus in South Carolina. Police beat him and permanently blinded him. Campaigning around his case...
Irene Morgan’s case defeats state segregation on interstate buses
📅 3 June 1946The Supreme Court overturned Irene Morgan’s conviction for refusing segregated seating on an interstate bus. The ruling addressed an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce. Morgan’s resistance...
The Shelley family defeats judicial enforcement of racial housing covenants
📅 3 May 1948The Supreme Court held that courts could not enforce racially restrictive housing covenants. J. D. and Ethel Shelley’s legal struggle challenged the use of state power to exclude Black families from...
Barbara Johns leads a student strike at Moton High School
đź“… 23 April 1951Barbara Johns led students out of Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia, to protest inferior conditions in segregated education. Their organizing helped produce a lawsuit later...
Families and lawyers win Brown v. Board of Education
đź“… 17 May 1954The Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The decision grew from the actions of families, students and lawyers in several communities. It challenged the...
Rosa Parks resists Montgomery bus segregation
📅 1 December 1955Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat under Montgomery’s segregation practices and was arrested. An experienced activist, she acted within a community with a history of organizing against...
Black women challenge Montgomery bus segregation in federal court
đź“… 1 February 1956Lawyers filed Browder v. Gayle against the laws enforcing segregated buses. Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Claudette Colvin, Mary Louise Smith and initially Jeanatta Reese brought experiences of...
Autherine Lucy attends classes at the University of Alabama
đź“… 3 February 1956Autherine Lucy entered classes following a legal struggle against exclusion. Racist crowds attacked her presence, and the university suspended and later expelled her. The episode shows how formal...
The Browder ruling rejects compulsory bus segregation
📅 5 June 1956A federal three-judge panel ruled that Alabama’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. Black women’s litigation complemented the Montgomery boycott’s collective pressure. Campaigners continued...
The Prayer Pilgrimage presses for voting rights and desegregation
📅 17 May 1957Demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to demand progress on civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr.’s address emphasized voting rights as a means to change public institutions. Organizers...
The Little Rock Nine enter Central High under federal protection
đź“… 25 September 1957Nine Black students entered Central High School for their first full day of classes under federal troop escort. Their families and local campaigners had confronted state obstruction and racist crowds....
The Albany Movement forms a broad local coalition
📅 17 November 1961Local organizations formed the Albany Movement in Georgia to challenge segregation across community life. Students, churches, voting-rights organizers and women’s groups contributed to the...
Medgar Evers is assassinated in Mississippi
đź“… 12 June 1963NAACP organizer Medgar Evers was murdered outside his home in Jackson after returning from movement work. He had campaigned against segregation and barriers to Black political participation. His...