Niagara Movement

More to Explore

People and Groups

Themes

Events

Related Topics

Recommended Articles

  • Booker T. Washington

    Washington was the foremost black educator, power broker, and institution builder of his time.

  • Congress of Racial Equality

    Congress of Racial Equality

    The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) played a pivotal role in the early years of the American Civil Rights Movement.

  • Harlem Renaissance

    Harlem Renaissance

    Spanning the 1920s to the mid-1930s, this literary, artistic and intellectual movement kindled a new black cultural identity.

  • The 1970s

    The 1970s

    Unlike the optimistic 1960s, the 1970s were defined by conflict and frustration.

This was a major step on the road to black militancy. Its beginnings may be traced to the publication in 1903 of The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, the first black American to earn a doctorate from Harvard. That book included an essay, 'Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,' which attacked Washington'sAtlanta Compromise speech and accused him of abandoning the fight for black political rights and accepting segregation in exchange for illusory economic gains.

In 1905, Du Bois and several other black supporters wishing to meet gathered at Niagara Falls, but on the Canadian side since no hotel on the American side would allow them to register. They drafted a list of demands that included an end to segregation and to discrimination in unions, the courts, and public accommodations, as well as equality of economic and educational opportunity.

Although the Niagara movement attracted the attention of like-minded whites, it had little impact on legislative or popular opinion. But after race riots in Springfield, Illinois, in 1909, a group of white progressives-including the social worker Jane Addams, the philosopher John Dewey, the novelist William Dean Howells, and the editor Oswald Garrison Villard, a grandson of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison-formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (naacp). They adopted many of the goals of the Niagara movement and hired its leader, Du Bois, as director of publicity and research, and editor of their journal, Crisis.

The Reader's Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

Advertisement

This Day in History

May 27

Lead Story

Bismarck sunk by Royal Navy, 1941

On May 27, 1941, the British navy sinks the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic near France. The German death toll was more than 2,000. On…

Shop HISTORY

See More