Existing comment:
We Must Prevail: The Niagara Movement after Harpers Ferry:
Boston's Faneuil Hall was the site of the Niagara Movement's 1907 meeting.
The Niagara Movement's annual "Address to the Country" in 1907 proclaimed, "We are Americans. We believe in this land. We cannot silent see if false to its great ideals. We call for repentance, regeneration, reconsecration to the ideals of Washington, Jefferson..."
A group photo from the third Niagara Movement meeting, held in Boston in 1907. This gathering was the largest of all, about 800 people, and the first to admit women as equal members.
The 1908 Niagara Movement conference was held at Oberlin, Ohio.
WEB Du Bois' comments to the Niagara membership in 1908 summarized the struggle before them. "Today the avenues of advancement in the army, navy, and civil service, and even in business and professional life, are continually closed to black applicants of proven fitness, simply on the bald excuse of race and color."
Sea Isle City, New Jersey, hosted the fifth and final meeting of the Niagara Movement in 1909.
In 1909, the Niagara Movement produced its last annual "Address to the Country." The challenging and inspirational tone of the "Address" gave no clue that the members of Niagara had met for the last time. "On us rests to no little degree the burden of the cause of individual Freedom, Human Brotherhood, and Universal Peace in a day when America is forgetting her promise and destiny... The causes of God cannot be lost."
From 1905 to 1909, the Niagara Movement brought together some of the most educated and outspoken African Americans in the United States. This small group of individuals not only challenged the black and white leaders of their day, but also demanded progress in both the current state and future prospects of race relations.
But the Niagara Movement could not continue. "They are a fine set of fellows if we can only keep them together," wrote WEB Du Bois. Booker T Washington's organized opposition to Niagara diminished the Movement's effectiveness and discouraged the necessary support of white philanthropists. Niagara was also hampered by personality conflicts within the group's membership and Du Bois' admitted inexperience with leading such an organization.
In 1911, Du Bois sent a letter to his colleagues urging them to join the new multiracial National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The Niagara Movement cleared the path for the NAACP, and the new organization's founders considered the support of the Niagara members, and WEB Du Bois in particular, to be essential to their success.
Little had changed in the few short years that the Niagara Movement existed. The number of people lynched in 1910 reached 92. Most black people still found the freedom of speech restricted, the right to vote elusive, and a decent education denied. But the modern era of civil rights had begun, and there would be no turning back. The call to action from the 1907 Niagara Movement "Address" continued. "Help us, brothers, for the victory which lingers, must and shall prevail." |