By Sister LaQuita Middleton
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was the brainchild of a multi-racial, multi-ethnic group of people in 1909 who were incensed at the “racial situation” of the United States.
United. States.
Hmmm… United in name – but not in reality.
When we check the record books, it lists the organization’s founders as the late great African American philosopher and Harvard-educated professor, W.E.B. Du Bois; the reigning queen of investigative evidence, newspaper owner, and journalist, Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett; the late great Archibald Grimke; Mary Church Terrell; white descendants of leading abolitionists liberals Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard; Henry Moskowitz, and William English Walling (https://bit.ly/30sn40l).
These great minds were born in different races with different faces, but the spaces called their minds made way for equality and justice over 100 years ago in Niagara Falls, New York with the Niagara Movement.
When the Movement called – they answered…especially after the race riots of Springfield, Illinois in 1908 that left two African Americans dead, over 40 homes burned to smithereens, and businesses ransacked. All of this happened because of the allegations of criminal activity of Black people against White people – a practice that is still in place in 2020.
Recount the plethora of times White police officers swore to the courts that they were “so scared” and shot a man to death out of “fear.” That is like throwing a rock and hiding your hand…except these times the rock is a bullet into Black flesh and the hand is of a white officer refusing accountability by hiding behind his badge.
So, when we consider the relevance of the NAACP in 2020, the answer is an astounding YESSSSSS!!! It is especially so when a national task force is assembled to investigate police officers is filled with former and current police officers ONLY . If you are wondering, yes, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and other entities that could have diversified this committee, were barred from participating, becoming aware of this committee after the standing committee members were appointed (https://wapo.st/3io8cX9).
We listen, too, to the current leader of the “free” world embolden a racist hate group to “stand back and stand by” to commit any atrocities against African American protestors who are exercising their First Amendment rights. That group - “Proud Boys” – have been around for years and are responsible for many racist acts, including the Charlottesville, Virginia protests where a young white female protestor was killed. The group seeks to preserve America for white hood and to seek to protect it at all costs – even at the expense of Black, immigrant, and Jewish families (https://yhoo.it/2HQxyjR).
We questioned the relevance of the oldest civil rights organization in the United States… but years after the founders and other notable leaders, such as the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Attorney Constance Baker Motley, fought diligently to remove inequities from this country, the real question is if the NAACP is the still best organization to represent us? The answer is a resounding Yes!
References
Jackman, T. (2020, May 10). NAACP Legal Defense Fund sues national policing commission. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://wapo.st/3io8cX9
Nation's Premier Civil Rights Organization. (2020). Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://bit.ly/30sn40l
Times, T. (2020, October 01). The Proud Boys, Who Trade in Political Violence, Get a Boost From Trump. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://yhoo.it/2HQxyjR