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 blacks in order to make life as easy as possible within that framework. This movement tried to challenge and then dominate the accommodationist ideas of Washington. The group often used its Declaration of Principles, a list of their demands and goals, to lead the movement. Their demands included an end to segregation and discrimination in unions, courts and public places and equality of economic and educational opportunity (History.com). The goals of the movement included suffrage for African American men and women and legal change in issues of crime, economics and religion, along with education and health. Thus, the Niagara Movement strived to accomplish these goals and more, so that no African American was forced to face further