Niagara Movement
Encyclopedia
The Niagara Movement was a black civil rights
organization founded in 1905 by a group led by W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter
. It was named for the "mighty current" of change the group wanted to effect and Niagara Falls
, the Canadian side of which was where the first meeting took place in July 1905. The Niagara Movement was a call for opposition to racial segregation
and disenfranchisement was opposed to policies of accommodation and conciliation promoted by African American
leaders such as Booker T. Washington
.
, Fredrick L. McGhee
, and William Monroe Trotter
met at the Fort Erie Hotel in Fort Erie, Ontario
, opposite Buffalo, New York
, to discuss full civil liberties
, an end to racial discrimination
, and recognition of human brotherhood. Differing opinions exist on why the group met in southern Ontario
. A popular legend, which cannot be substantiated with primary sources, is that they had originally planned to meet in Buffalo, but were refused accommodation. And the other, which is substantiated with many primary sources, states that the original plan was to find a quiet, out of the way location for the event.
The philosophies of the group were in direct contrast to more conciliatory philosophies that proposed patience over militancy. Fifty-nine men were invited to this first meeting but only 29 attended. The Niagara Movement eventually split into separate committees and divided among the states, establishing chapters in twenty one states by mid-September and reaching 170 members by year’s end. By 1910 however, due to weak finances and internal dissension the group was disbanded.
Their second meeting, the first to be held on U.S. soil, took place at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
, the site of John Brown
's raid. The three-day gathering, starting on August 15, 1906 at the campus of Storer College (now part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park), discussed how to secure civil rights for African Americans and was later described by Du Bois as "one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held." Attendees walked from Storer College to the nearby Murphy Family farm, relocation site of the historic fort where John Brown's quest to free four million enslaved blacks reached its bloody climax. Once there they removed their shoes and socks to honor the hallowed ground and participated in a ceremony of remembrance.
, the Niagara Movement admitted their first white
member, Mary White Ovington
, a settlement worker and socialist
. In 1911, the remaining membership of the Niagara Movement joined with a number of white progressives to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP).
es and listed several concerns. First among these concerns were suffrage
for women, civil liberty, equal economic opportunities, decent housing and neighborhoods, and equal access to education. The movement also made demands for equal justice in the American court system including removing discrimination from jury selection, equal punishments and equal efforts at reformation. The group also called for facilities for dependent children and juvenile delinquents and the abolition of the convict lease
system. Employers were challenged to provide Negro-Americans with permanent employment. Labor unions were similarly challenged to stop boycotting Black laborers. The declaration also called for the nation to treat Black soldiers fairly by rewarding them for their service with promotions and to stop barring Blacks from military academies. The nation was also called upon to enforce the Thirteenth
, Fourteenth
, and Fifteenth
Amendments
to the United States Constitution
.
The Declaration of Principles also made clear that any practice of segregation and discrimination was intolerable whether it was from the government, businesses, or even the Christian church. The document condemns any impression of assent to inferiority and submissiveness and indicated an absolute refusal to apologize for complaining loudly and insistently stating that "Persistent manly agitation is the way to liberty". In closing the document thanks those who have provided support for equal opportunity and promised to continue to demand the rights listed and to carry out the following duties: voting, respecting the rights of others, working, obeying the laws, being clean and orderly, sending their children to school, and self respect.
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
organization founded in 1905 by a group led by W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter
William Monroe Trotter
William Monroe Trotter was a newspaper editor and real estate business man, and an activist for African-American civil rights. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard University, and was the first man of color to earn a Phi Beta Kappa key...
. It was named for the "mighty current" of change the group wanted to effect and Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls
The Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...
, the Canadian side of which was where the first meeting took place in July 1905. The Niagara Movement was a call for opposition to racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
and disenfranchisement was opposed to policies of accommodation and conciliation promoted by African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
leaders such as Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
.
History
In July 1905 a group led by W. E. B. Du Bois, John HopeJohn Hope (educator)
John Hope , born in Augusta, Georgia, was an African-American educator and political activist. He was the son of James Hope, a white Scottish merchant, born in Langholm, Scotland in 1805. Arriving in New York City in 1817, he was a successful grocer in Manhattan before moving south to Augusta in...
, Fredrick L. McGhee
Fredrick L. McGhee
Fredrick L. McGhee , a black civil rights activist and one of America’s first African American lawyers. McGhee, born as a slave but who later was able to achieve a substantial career as an attorney and become one of the civil rights pioneers, was a contemporary of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B...
, and William Monroe Trotter
William Monroe Trotter
William Monroe Trotter was a newspaper editor and real estate business man, and an activist for African-American civil rights. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard University, and was the first man of color to earn a Phi Beta Kappa key...
met at the Fort Erie Hotel in Fort Erie, Ontario
Fort Erie, Ontario
Fort Erie is a town on the Niagara River in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly across the river from Buffalo, New York....
, opposite Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, to discuss full civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
, an end to racial discrimination
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, and recognition of human brotherhood. Differing opinions exist on why the group met in southern Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. A popular legend, which cannot be substantiated with primary sources, is that they had originally planned to meet in Buffalo, but were refused accommodation. And the other, which is substantiated with many primary sources, states that the original plan was to find a quiet, out of the way location for the event.
The philosophies of the group were in direct contrast to more conciliatory philosophies that proposed patience over militancy. Fifty-nine men were invited to this first meeting but only 29 attended. The Niagara Movement eventually split into separate committees and divided among the states, establishing chapters in twenty one states by mid-September and reaching 170 members by year’s end. By 1910 however, due to weak finances and internal dissension the group was disbanded.
Their second meeting, the first to be held on U.S. soil, took place at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. In many books the town is called "Harper's Ferry" with an apostrophe....
, the site of John Brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
's raid. The three-day gathering, starting on August 15, 1906 at the campus of Storer College (now part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park), discussed how to secure civil rights for African Americans and was later described by Du Bois as "one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held." Attendees walked from Storer College to the nearby Murphy Family farm, relocation site of the historic fort where John Brown's quest to free four million enslaved blacks reached its bloody climax. Once there they removed their shoes and socks to honor the hallowed ground and participated in a ceremony of remembrance.
End of the Niagara Movement
The Niagara Movement suffered from a number of organizational flaws including a lack of funding and central leadership. Additionally, Booker T. Washington's opposition drew support away from the group. Following the Springfield Race Riot of 1908Springfield Race Riot of 1908
The Springfield Race Riot of 1908 was a mass civil disturbance in Springfield, Illinois, USA sparked by the transfer of two African American prisoners out of the city jail by the county sheriff. This act enraged many white citizens, who responded by burning black-owned homes and businesses and...
, the Niagara Movement admitted their first white
European American
A European American is a citizen or resident of the United States who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...
member, Mary White Ovington
Mary White Ovington
Mary White Ovington was a suffragette, socialist, Unitarian, journalist, and co-founder of the NAACP.-Biography:...
, a settlement worker and socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
. In 1911, the remaining membership of the Niagara Movement joined with a number of white progressives to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
(NAACP).
Declaration of Principles
The Niagara movement published their Declaration of Principles in 1905. The document was largely written by Du Bois In it the organization recognizes the progress made by NegroNegro
The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...
es and listed several concerns. First among these concerns were suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
for women, civil liberty, equal economic opportunities, decent housing and neighborhoods, and equal access to education. The movement also made demands for equal justice in the American court system including removing discrimination from jury selection, equal punishments and equal efforts at reformation. The group also called for facilities for dependent children and juvenile delinquents and the abolition of the convict lease
Convict lease
Convict leasing was a system of penal labor practiced in the Southern United States, beginning with the emancipation of slaves at the end of the American Civil War in 1865, peaking around 1880, and ending in the last state, Alabama, in 1928....
system. Employers were challenged to provide Negro-Americans with permanent employment. Labor unions were similarly challenged to stop boycotting Black laborers. The declaration also called for the nation to treat Black soldiers fairly by rewarding them for their service with promotions and to stop barring Blacks from military academies. The nation was also called upon to enforce the Thirteenth
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, passed by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On...
, Fourteenth
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
, and Fifteenth
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"...
Amendments
Constitutional amendment
A constitutional amendment is a formal change to the text of the written constitution of a nation or state.Most constitutions require that amendments cannot be enacted unless they have passed a special procedure that is more stringent than that required of ordinary legislation...
to the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
.
The Declaration of Principles also made clear that any practice of segregation and discrimination was intolerable whether it was from the government, businesses, or even the Christian church. The document condemns any impression of assent to inferiority and submissiveness and indicated an absolute refusal to apologize for complaining loudly and insistently stating that "Persistent manly agitation is the way to liberty". In closing the document thanks those who have provided support for equal opportunity and promised to continue to demand the rights listed and to carry out the following duties: voting, respecting the rights of others, working, obeying the laws, being clean and orderly, sending their children to school, and self respect.
See also
- W. E. B. Du Bois
- Nadir of American race relationsNadir of American race relationsThe "nadir of American race relations" is a term that refers to the period in United States history from the end of Reconstruction through the early 20th century, when racism in the country is deemed to have been worse than in any other period after the American Civil War. During this period,...
- Mary White OvingtonMary White OvingtonMary White Ovington was a suffragette, socialist, Unitarian, journalist, and co-founder of the NAACP.-Biography:...
- NAACP