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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1978)
Portland Observer the organization, interracial in composition, because the major watchdog of civil rights inte rests. The National Urban League was established in 1910 and became a major organization for helping rural migrant Blacks ad just to the rigors and vagaries of Northern urban life. The Black press kept up a steady stream of editorial pro test against racial injustices. A. Philip Randolph was the moving force in founding the all Black Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Smaller, more locally- based protest groups developed from time to time to picket and protest against racial segrega tion and discrimination. A fter World War II, a rather large number of voters' leagues developed in the South, led fre quently by returning war veter ans. And with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, the Black civil rights movements entered into a new stage. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as a national leader, and more and more Blacks began to participate in mass direct action in the North and South. Black college students gave added impetus to thrust with their sit-in movement beginning on February 1st, 1960. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a small Northern based interracial, direct-action group, began to grow in numbers and conducted a dramatic Freedom Ride in 1961 to test segregated interstate travel in the South. Northern local groups began to step up their protest activity against defacto segregation and discrimination in labor unions, housing and education in North ern cities in the 1960’s. Through these myriad activi ties the essentially regionalized issue of civil rights became a national issue. Thus, while Blacks were un able to participate on a large scale in electoral politics in the South, and while their electoral participation was diluted in the North, they were beginning, especially from the mid-1950's, to mobilize in increasing numbers of protest organizations. It was reasonably clear that the rela tively quiescent days of pre- World W ar II were over. Blacks would be seen and* heard politi cally through one form or another. Certainly one form Black poli tical action took was the national convention movement. How ever, this was not a recent, twentieth century phenomenon. As early as 1830, Blacks began to hold national conventions to ad dress the problems confronting the race. The first convention as held in 1830 in Philadelphia at tended by fifteen delegates from five states. Annual conventions were held subsequently until 1836, aimed at improving the status of free Blacks, and calling for the abolition of slavery. Other meetings were held in Buffalo, New York, in 1847, 1848 and 1853. The National Equal Rights League grew out of the conven tion movement and was formed in 1864. The specific goal was to achieve the right to vote. State and local leagues were establish ed. Several years later, in 1890, the National Afro American Lea gue was founded with the major objective being to secure for Black Americans the full pri vileges of citizenship in “every avocation of life.” Professor Hanes Walton, Jr. wrote: “Like N E R L , N A A L , was never a strong organization. Plagued by personal jealousies and internal dissensions, it lapsed into dor mancy after a couple of meetings. But like the national conventions of the 1830's and 1840's, it was later revived - on September 15th, 1898 as the National Afro- American Council. The following year, this organization merged with the National Association of Colored Women and issued four strongly worded resolutions - two condemning the prevalence of anti-Negro mob violence and Section I I Thursday, February 23, 1978 Page 9 A woodcut, circa 1 885, shows a Negro being pulled along on icy stream by members of the Ku Klux Kian. the lynching of Negroes, the third asserting that it was the duty of the Federal government to protect Negroes from such harsh treatment, and the last indicating the convention's w ill ingness to pursue its objectives through peaceful means.” The Negro National Democra tic League was created in 1900, and the all-Black National Liber ty Party was formed in March, 1904. These groups were very critical of both the Democratic and Republican Parties, but they engaged mainly in educational, not electoral work, constantly h ig h ligh tin g and p ro testin g against racial injustices. Throughout the several de cades of the Twentieth Century, Blacks continued to form national and local political party-type or ganizations. These have met with varying degrees of success, but those established on state and local levels have tended to be more successful. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was formed in 1964; the Lowndes County Freedom Party (Ala bama) in 1966; the South Caro lina Progressive Democratic Party in 1964; the United C iti zen’s Party (South Carolina) in 1969; the National Alabama P U B L IS H E R S M ilk located In Oregon Oregon City Portland Toledo New berg M o lalla Philomath Clackamas Tillamook Sweet Home Other locations Anacortes, W a. V irginia, M inn. Burney, Calif. PUBLISHERS WELCOMES THE OPPORTUNITY TO EMPLOY QU A LI FIED FEAAALES A N D MINORITIES W ITHO UT REGARD TO NATIONAL O R IG IN , SEX, AGE, RELIGION OR HANDICAP. 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