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
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