The NAACP

Children's Literature

It is interesting to note that the movement to eliminate discrimination against African Americans in the United States started in Canada. The author takes us through the early steps carried out by W. E. B. DuBois, the leader of this Niagara Movement to the conflict that the group had with Booker T. Washington, who advocated a slower, gradual approach to equality. The Niagara group rejected this approach and decided to actively pursue equality immediately. Riots in Springfield, Illinois led a white activist, Mary White Ovington, to form a group in New York City, called the National Negro Committee, which evolved into the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). W. E. B. DuBois and other members of the group joined this newly formed group. Much of the early focus of the NAACP was on Ku Klux Klan (KKK) lynchings. Over the years, efforts were made to end discrimination through the United States courts and legislative action. The work of Thurgood Marshall, Chief Counsel for the NAACP, of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who led peaceful demonstrations and of the thousands of people, both white and black, who peacefully demonstrated for equal rights helped to bring about many of the civil rights that African American have today. As a former president of the New Haven Chapter of the NAACP during the 1960s, I can vouch for much of the activity related by the author during this period because I was there. Today the NAACP continues to work through the courts and legislative branch of the government to end discrimination and to change the U. S. into the democracy that the founding fathers intended. This book is part of the "Journey to Freedom, The African American Library"series. 2004, The Child's World, Ages 8 to 12.
— Leila Toledo