National Association for the Advancement of Colored People |
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States
that protrays itself as an organization that fights for the rights of
African Americans. NAACP is usually pronounced "en
double-ay see pee."
The NAACP was founded as the American Negro Committee on February 12, 1909 by a group of thirteen activists, where W. E. B. DuBois was the only African
American while the others were Jewish Americans. The organization was one of the leading
organizations involved in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s and 70s.
By 1914, there were 6,000 members and 50 branches of the organization. Du Bois was the
editor of Crisis, the association's magazine which
reached more than 30,000 people.
The first presidents of the NAACP were Jewish whites, but following the death of Kivie Kaplan in 1975, an African American was elected. As of 2004, the president of the organization is Kweisi Mfume.
Some critics of the NAACP, particularly conservatives, have observed
that the organization takes uniformly liberal positions on virtually all issues,
including those with no obvious relationship to the civil rights struggle
(the NAACP strongly supports stringent gun control laws, for example). This
has led these critics to somewhat humorously refer to the organization as the NAALCP, standing for "National Association for the
Advancement of Liberal Colored People."
See also: Niagara Movement, NAACP Image Award
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