Someone imbued with the spirit of human freedom from among the oppressed themselves, has arisen to lead them on to victory.
Frederick Douglass, 1894
The founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in New York City on February 12, 1909, the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, signaled the beginning of a new era in the structure of leadership among African Americans as a strategy to help them arrive at their destination, the promised land. Principal among those who attended the inauguration of this important organization were William E. B. Du Bois, who had founded the Niagara Movement a year before, and Ida B. Wells, a young African American journalist whose eloquent editorials focused national attention on violence that included lynchings perpetrated against African Americans by white extremists, such as members of KKK. Participants of the conference agreed to work toward the elimination of race violence, end racial segregation, promote equal educational opportunity, and advance civil rights for all Americans. 1
In addition to Du Bois and Wells, Henry Moscowitz, Mary W. Ovington, Oswald G. Villard, and William E. Walling decided to lead African Americans in making a call for their struggle in advancing in their educational, economic, social, and political lives. Today NAACP is a net-
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