The St. Mary’s County NAACP #7025 is a branch of The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) the nation’s oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization in the United States founded Feb. 12, 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans. The NAACP was formed partly in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, the capital of Illinois and resting place of President Abraham Lincoln. This group included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, both the descendants of abolitionists, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz. They issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln’s birth.
Its more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, campaigning for equal opportunity and conducting voter mobilization. National advocacy and mobilization include:
- Anti-lynching demonstrations– Challenged the American people and government to face the violence of lynching. Approximately 8,000 black Americans marched down Fifth Avenue in New York City in a silent protest against ongoing murder, violence, and racial discrimination on July 28, 1917.
- Successfully lobbied for the passage of landmark legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, barring racial discrimination in voting.
- Litigators in the first major event of the modern civil rights movement, 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown vs.Board of Education, which overturned desegregated schools across the nation. Schools, especially in the South, were slow to comply, and often attempts to register black students broke out in violence.
More – See listings on the National Website: https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained
St. Mary’s County Branch- 501 c4 non-profit
The St. Mary’s County Branch Charter was approved by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (National) Board of Directors on January 7th, 1946.
