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Speaker 1: Hi um Eve, Welcome to this Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that reveals a little bit more about history

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Speaker 1: day by day. Today is February twelve, twenty nineteen. The

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Speaker 1: day was February twelfth, nineteen o nine, in New York City,

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Speaker 1: a group of black and white people meant to talk

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Speaker 1: about the status of black people in the United States.

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Speaker 1: There were sixty people at the meeting, including suffragists, philanthropist, journalist, clergyman, educators,

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Speaker 1: and people from other traditions and attendance, and some of

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Speaker 1: them have been part of the Abolitionist movement. Many of

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Speaker 1: the people there had also been part of the Niagara Movement,

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Speaker 1: which was a civil rights group founded in nineteen o

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Speaker 1: five by sociologist and activists W. E. B. Du Bois,

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Speaker 1: an editor and activists William Monroe Trotter. The date of

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Speaker 1: this meeting was notable because it was the hundredth anniversary

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Speaker 1: of former US President Abraham Lincoln's birth, which many found

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Speaker 1: meaningful because Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. But anti black

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Speaker 1: violence was still endemic in the United States, and the

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Speaker 1: people who met in New York on this day were

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Speaker 1: committed to fighting racism and discrimination in the US By

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Speaker 1: starting what was sometimes called a new abolition movement. At

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Speaker 1: the time, Jim Crawl laws enforced racial segregation in the South,

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Speaker 1: though discrimination on the basis of race was a constant

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Speaker 1: throughout the United States. Thousands of black people were being

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Speaker 1: lynched by white mobs at public events that were made

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Speaker 1: into spectacles, and deadly race riots were taking place across

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Speaker 1: the country. In the period after the Reconstruction era, interpersonal

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Speaker 1: and institutionalized racism were playing American society, but activists, reformers,

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Speaker 1: and revolutionaries were organizing and fighting to combat the rampant

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Speaker 1: racism and violence in the country. In August nineteen o eight,

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Speaker 1: there was a violent race riot in Springfield, Illinois, where

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Speaker 1: mobs of white people destroyed the homes and businesses of

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Speaker 1: black people in the community and killed and lynched others.

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Speaker 1: Author and activist Anna Strunsky and her husband William English Walling,

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Speaker 1: a socialist and journalist, went to Springfield to investigate the riot,

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Speaker 1: and in September a magazine called The Independent published an

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Speaker 1: article by Walling titled the Race War in the North.

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Speaker 1: In the article, he wrote that people must revive the

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Speaker 1: spirit of the abolitionists and treat black people as social

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Speaker 1: and political equals or else the race war would continue

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Speaker 1: to spread across the country, and Walling went on to

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Speaker 1: write the following the day these methods become general in

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Speaker 1: the North, every hope of political democracy will be dead.

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Speaker 1: Other weaker races in classes will be persecuted. In the North,

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Speaker 1: as in the South, public education will undergo an eclipse,

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Speaker 1: and American civilization will await either a rapid degeneration or

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Speaker 1: another profounder and more revolutionary civil war, which shall obliterate

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Speaker 1: not only the remains of slavery, but all other obstacles

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Speaker 1: to a free democratic evolution that have grown up in

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Speaker 1: its wake. Who realizes the seriousness of the situation, and

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Speaker 1: what large and powerful body of citizens is ready to

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Speaker 1: come to their aid. Marie White Ovington, a social worker

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Speaker 1: and writer, heated Walling's call and sent him a letter

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Speaker 1: in support. So in January nineteen o nine, she met

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Speaker 1: with Walling and social worker Henry Moskovitz at Walling's New

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Speaker 1: York apartment to discuss proposing an organization that would fight

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Speaker 1: for the civil and political rights of black people. So

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Speaker 1: Oswald Garrison Valar, grandson of the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison,

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Speaker 1: wrote the call, which was a summons for civil rights

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Speaker 1: activists to form an organization that would advocate for ending

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Speaker 1: racial injustice in America and fight for African Americans rights.

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Speaker 1: The call was endorsed by sixty people, including W. E. B.

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Speaker 1: Du Bois, journalists and activist Ida B. Wells, philosopher and

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Speaker 1: reformer John Dewey, and activist Jane Adams, and on February twelve,

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Speaker 1: nineteen o nine, a group including married church Terrell Charles,

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Speaker 1: Edward Russell, and Florence Kelly, among others, met for a

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Speaker 1: national conference, but they didn't hold their first large meeting

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Speaker 1: until May, when they organized as the National Negro Committee.

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Speaker 1: There was some conflict at that first session as leaders

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Speaker 1: tried to get the more conservative book or T. Washington

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Speaker 1: to join in on the meetings. Also, tensions rose between

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Speaker 1: white and black members and the press fear the radical

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Speaker 1: nature of the conference. But by nineteen ten, members of

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Speaker 1: the committee had formed the National Association for the Advancement

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Speaker 1: of Colored People or the INN Double A CP. The

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Speaker 1: INN Double a cp S mission was quote to promote

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Speaker 1: equality of rights and to eradicate cast or race prejudice

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Speaker 1: among the citizens of the United States, to advance the

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Speaker 1: interests of colored citizens, to secure for them impartial suffrage

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Speaker 1: and to increase their opportunities for securing justice in the court,

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Speaker 1: education for the children, employment according to their ability, and

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Speaker 1: complete equality before law. The organization established its national office

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Speaker 1: in New York City and named a board of directors

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Speaker 1: and president. More filled story. At this time W. E. B.

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Speaker 1: Dubois was the only black executive in the organization, but

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Speaker 1: that same year Dubois started The Crisis, a journal that

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Speaker 1: offered discussion on race relations, politics, and black life, and

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Speaker 1: presented black intellectual and artistic work. In Double A CP

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Speaker 1: members went on to challenge segregation laws, stage Boycott's, start

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Speaker 1: an anti lynching campaign, and lobby and advocate for new legislation.

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Speaker 1: The Double A CPS methods aren't loved by people who

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Speaker 1: use more direct action tactics, but the organization did make

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Speaker 1: gains in the movement for black civil rights and it's

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Speaker 1: still going today. I'm Eves Jeff Coote, and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today and you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: We'll see you tomorrow.