Social Activists: The Niagara Movement

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was growing in the Midwest, South, and creating areas of influence in other regions like the North and West. This led a handful of progressive white social activists to start talking with African American leaders about change. Prior to the Springfield riots, there were attempts to protect and advance African Americans. The Niagara Movement was started four years before the NAACP by about thirty African American professionals most notably, Dr. W.E.B DuBois. Their objective was set by DuBois stating, “We shall not be satisfied with less than full manhood rights…. We claim for ourselves every right that belongs to a free-born American –political, civil and social- and until we get these rights, we shall never cease to protest and assail the ears of Americana with the story of its shameful deeds toward us.” Their efforts died out in a hurry as they struggled to attract a crowd or money. Fortunately for DuBoise, he would get a second
They started to raise awareness to educate people. Oswald Garrison spread the reemergence of the “The Call” to protest the rise of racial violence and injustice that has been occurring in America. They highlighted segregation, oppression, deprivation