The NAACP
Created | Updated Feb 12, 2009
Far back in the mists of the nineteen fifties the country on Earth that represented freedom was called America. Now this country had, and in many ways still does, have a problem. The problem that they were living at a time of great upheaval in the social order and they way people looked at life and in general everything under the sun. People were changing slowly from black and white to color tv's as well as learning to embrace and love the concept of rock and roll. This would not come around for several other movements. However since this is the age many African Americans were gaining their freedom we must first look at the earliest roots of the movement which started at the dawn of the 1900's.
It was during this time that a small group of about forty negroes banded together and began to speak their minds against the segregation of this country. They decided to create a movement known as the Niagara Movement. it was headed by W.E.B Du Bois For several years up and after the race riot in Springfield Illinois the people of this movement began working to overthrow Jim Crow laws and spoke out against the segregation in the United States. While the movement started with a small following like all grass roots movements it took a few decades for it to catch on.
Fast forward through several decades of American in justice, past the decades of the First World War past the year of 1907 when the NAACP was first created we have the civil rights movements. This is important to mention because this is the era of suburbia and the era as by its nature, was also one of the first to test out teenage angst. Now as teenagers in suburbia were figuring out that their parents were not perfect and their homes not isolated from the rest of the world and they were looking for a cause. As films that were influential on teens like "Rebel Without A Cause" became famous the teenagers were also introduced for the first time to other races of color. It was when the young men began to go to college that they saw the people of color that had been held from their eyes for so long and it was during this era that they learned to accept the African Americans living amongst them.
It was important to mention the suburban white kids for the reason that after being exposed to the African Americans they had been conditioned to accept them more than their parents had. It was also this age that the teenagers were looking for a cause to rally around and when many read about the riots of race and the Jim Crow laws that were being overturned they realized that had to be what they fought for. So it was during this era that the organization began to grow.
We also see in this age popular men like the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King coming to popularity. It cannot be a mistake that the people who were listening to him were largely those influence by the stifling suburban culture that demanded conformity and obedience.
We also have Brown vs Board of Education going on at this age to, so it cannot be a coincidence that it was during this era people like Doctor King came to power and women like Rosa Parks. It was in part because of the rebellion going on in the late fifties that the movements was allowed to continue and grow into what it is today.
It was during this time that a small group of about forty negroes banded together and began to speak their minds against the segregation of this country. They decided to create a movement known as the Niagara Movement. it was headed by W.E.B Du Bois For several years up and after the race riot in Springfield Illinois the people of this movement began working to overthrow Jim Crow laws and spoke out against the segregation in the United States. While the movement started with a small following like all grass roots movements it took a few decades for it to catch on.
Fast forward through several decades of American in justice, past the decades of the First World War past the year of 1907 when the NAACP was first created we have the civil rights movements. This is important to mention because this is the era of suburbia and the era as by its nature, was also one of the first to test out teenage angst. Now as teenagers in suburbia were figuring out that their parents were not perfect and their homes not isolated from the rest of the world and they were looking for a cause. As films that were influential on teens like "Rebel Without A Cause" became famous the teenagers were also introduced for the first time to other races of color. It was when the young men began to go to college that they saw the people of color that had been held from their eyes for so long and it was during this era that they learned to accept the African Americans living amongst them.
It was important to mention the suburban white kids for the reason that after being exposed to the African Americans they had been conditioned to accept them more than their parents had. It was also this age that the teenagers were looking for a cause to rally around and when many read about the riots of race and the Jim Crow laws that were being overturned they realized that had to be what they fought for. So it was during this era that the organization began to grow.
We also see in this age popular men like the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King coming to popularity. It cannot be a mistake that the people who were listening to him were largely those influence by the stifling suburban culture that demanded conformity and obedience.
We also have Brown vs Board of Education going on at this age to, so it cannot be a coincidence that it was during this era people like Doctor King came to power and women like Rosa Parks. It was in part because of the rebellion going on in the late fifties that the movements was allowed to continue and grow into what it is today.
