Effects Of The Niagara Movement

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There was once a time in the United States of America when no colored man could stand beside a white man. During this time, many African Americans faced discrimination and segregation. The Niagara Movement was an early movement which attempted to remove all injustices towards African Americans. On July 11, 1905, a group of twenty-nine men met on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls to form a group that would later become known as the Niagara Movement. W.E.B Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter initially formed this movement during a private meeting in February of the previous year (Encyclopedia.com). The purpose of this movement was in response to a program advocated by Booker T. Washington. His ideas acknowledged the current policies geared towards…show more content…
Moreover, many of the ideas and tactics used by the Niagara Movement were inherited into the framework of this organization. After the movement disbanded in 1910, Du Bois was hired as the Director of Publicity and Research of the NAACP. He was also the Editor of their popular journal, Crisis. The Niagara Movement not only marked “the start of a century-long civil rights movement,” (eds.b.ebscohost.com) “it had served as the foundation upon which later movements were built” (eds.b.ebscohost.com). Due to very little publicity surrounding the movement and its low popularity, the movement never had more than 173 members at any given time. In addition, the movement was also poorly funded. In 1907, Trotter was replaced as head of the press committee. Without Trotter, Du Bois was determined to keep the annual meetings running through 1908 and 1909. In 1908, the movement took a significant turn when it invited its first white member, Mary White, into the group. Lasting only a short five years, this movement was one of the earliest campaigns for Civil Rights. While this movement can be seen as both positive and negative in terms of reactions to Booker T. Washington’s…show more content…
Both Trotter and Du Bois had strong personalities and showed a great deal of intelligence. In fact, both men attended college at the prestigious Harvard University. Du Bois was very concerned about winning the most leaders, black and white, while Trotter did not seem to care. The differing ideas between Du Bois and Trotter, as well as other members of the movement, often led to numerous disagreements. In 1907, Trotter was replaced by the movement, meaning that Du Bois was forced to run two more annual meetings before the movement was disbanded. Although Du Bois and Trotter faced many difficulties, their determination and will helped them to overcome conflicts and remain strong leaders. The Niagara Movement was an early movement which attempted to remove all injustices towards African Americans. Through the movements’ annual meetings, it was able to protest the unfair society in which African Americans lived. While the movement was often faced with adversity, its profound determination to initiate change sparked the ideas of many future movements and organizations. Sometimes one movement can change the face of an entire
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