The NAACP works for the elimination of racial discrimination, fair housing and employment through political lobbying, social change, legal action and education to improve the quality of life for African Americans.

NAACP Facts and History Timeline for kids: Fast Fact Sheet
Fast, fun facts and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) about the NAACP Facts.

What does NAACP stand for? The NAACP stands for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Who founded the NAACP? The NAACP was founded by a group of white progressives and liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard and African American civil rights activists including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell

What was the reason for the founding of the NAACP? The NAACP was founded in response to  racial discrimination and violence against African Americans including the practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois

What did the NAACP do? The NAACP fought for civil rights, the elimination of racial discrimination, desegregation, fair voter registration and the advancement of African Americans through lobbying, legal action, and education..

NAACP Facts and History Timeline for kids: The Progressive Era and the Niagara Movement
The NAACP was sparked by the spirit of the Progressive Movement that tackled many social problems, passed laws, amendments and reforms to protect workers and regulate big business during the presidencies of Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson.  However there were limits to Progressivism which failed to address African American reform issues. In 1905 twenty-eight Prominent African American leaders and civil rights activists, led by W.E.B. Du Bois, formed the Niagara Movement. Members and supporters of the Niagara Movement formed the NAACP four years later in 1909.

Facts about NAACP Facts and Timeline
The following fact sheet contains interesting facts and information on NAACP Facts and Timeline.

Booker T. Washington delivers a speech calling for a moderate approach to race relations. W.E.B. Du Bois attacked Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise speech accusing him of abandoning the fight for black political rights and accepting segregation in exchange for deceptive economic gains..

In 1896 the Supreme Court decided in Plessy vs. Ferguson that "separate but equal" facilities satisfied the guarantees of 14th Amendment, thus giving legal sanction to Jim Crow Segregation Laws

W.E.B. Du Bois, formed the Niagara Movement in 1905

The Springfield, Illinois race riot of 1908 took place on August 14 and 15, 1908

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded by Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell

The National Negro Conference was held on May 31 - June 1, 1910 in New York City. W.E.B DuBois is selected as the director of publications and research.

The Crisis, the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor)

in 1913 the federal government, under President Wilson, imposed racial segregation in government offices in Washington, D.C.

The NAACP organization learned to harness the power of publicity through its 1915 battle against D. W. Griffith's inflammatory movie 'Birth of a Nation'. 'Birth of a Nation' perpetuated demeaning stereotypes of African Americans and glorified the Ku Klux Klan. Many NAACP members protested at the premieres of the movie in numerous American cities and riots broke out in Boston and Philadelphia.

Guinn v. United States (1915). The Supreme Court struck down grandfather clauses in state constitutions as unconstitutional barriers to voting rights granted under the 15th Amendment

The NAACP established an anti-lynching committee.

Buchanan v. Warley (1917). The Supreme Court barred municipal ordinances requiring racial segregation in housing

During WW1 the newly-formed NAACP led the fight against discrimination and segregation and to prevent mistreatment of African Americans in the military.

The East St. Louis riot (May and July 1917) was an outbreak of labor and race-related violence in the city of East St. Louis, Illinois

The NAACP organizes the Silent Protest March in New York, N.Y. attended by 8,000 - 10,000 African Americans on July 28, 1917.

The Assistant Field Secretary of the NAACP, Walter White, travels into the south IN 1918 and  reports on
lynching and other violence against African Americans, including the lynching of 15 year old Sammie Smith in Nashville, Tennessee.

The NAACP released the booklet "Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918" and begins to fly a flag from its office with the words, “A Man Was Lynched Yesterday”.

Harlem, New York had the highest concentration of black people in the world, and was the cultural heart of African-Americans with many NAACP members. The whole of the all-black 369th Infantry regiment called the Harlem Hellfighters received the French Croix de Guerre.

The NAACP appointed James Weldon Johnson as its first African American executive director.  James Weldon Johnson was a Harlem Renaissance writer and, with his brother, had written the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

The  Supreme Court ruled in Moore v. Dempsey (1923) that exclusion of African Americans from a jury was inconsistent with the right to a fair trial.

The NAACP provided legal, financial, and moral support in the Great Depression of the 1920's and 1930s

Marian Anderson is denied permission to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution’s (DAR) Constitution Hall. Eleanor Roosevelt resigns from the DAR in protest and helps arrange the concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Marian Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial at the request of the First Lady

The NAACP created separate legal arm in 1940 called the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Thurgood Marshall was appointed as its director-counsel

During World War II the NAACP renewed efforts to end discrimination in the military. The Air Force began training black pilots in 1941 at a segregated base at Tuskegee Institute.

Support is given to A. Philip Randolph’s proposed mass March on Washington to protest discrimination in defense industries and armed forces.

The first segregated airman unit, the 99th Squadron, famously known as the Tuskegee Airmen, was established in 1941

In 1942 the Navy and Marines agreed to enlist blacks for general service

In 1945 the NAACP sent Walter White and W. E. B. Du Bois to the United Nations Conference on International Organization to propose the abolition of the colonial system.

W. E. B. Du Bois reinforced the NAACP’s  by submitting to the United Nations “An Appeal to the World,” a petition linking the history of racism in America to the treatment of people of color under colonial imperialism.

President Truman abolished racial segregation in armed services in 1948 by executive order

The Supreme Court ruled in Sweatt v. Painter 1950 that racially segregated professional schools inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional

The first integrated combat units saw action in Korea

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional

Member Rosa Parks was arrested and fined for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama

Martin Luther King became involved in protests against the incident involving Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott began.

The president of the Arkansas State Conference of NAACP Branches, Daisy Bates, leads the fight to
desegregate Arkansas schools.

In September, 1957 the Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated.

NAACP political lobbying led to passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

NAACP political lobbying led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act

Thurgood Marshall was appointed as the first African American associate justice of the Supreme Court.

NAACP lobbying led to passing of the 1968 Fair Housing Act

Milliken v. Bradley saw the Supreme Court overturned efforts to integrate white suburban school districts with black urban districts.

The 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Regents of University of California v. Bakke 1978 in which the Supreme Court placed limits on affirmative action programs

The 1989 Silent March protesting against U.S. Supreme Court decisions reversing many of the gains
made against discrimination.

NAACP launched the Economic Reciprocity Program  initiating the "Stop The Violence, Start the Love' campaign.

The 2001 Cincinnati riots. NAACP develops a five year strategic plan.

The NAACP joins a class action lawsuit against the state of Florida in 2001 alleging voter irregularities in the 2000 presidential election.

In 2010 Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States and for the first time, an African American was elected to the most important position in the land