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How Did The Naacp Influence The Civil Rights Movement

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NAACP “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” These astounding words were spoken by civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois, who co-founded the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). One of the many goals of the organization was to improve the conditions of the twentieth century for African Americans. With the help of the NAACP Legal and Educational Fund, the group also helped represent African Americans in usually unfair court cases. The NAACP was very influential during the Civil Rights Movement and gave African-Americans a voice. According to Diane Telgen, the group was founded in 1909 by a multiracial group of people, they were dedicated to advancing the cause of black civil …show more content…

The same year the organization began, it scored a huge victory with the court case Guinn v. United States. This case ended the grandfather clause in Oklahoma, which was holding back many African Americans from voting (NAACP “Oldest and Boldest.” ). Dr. Raphael Cassimere, Jr. says in his article “Flashback: Eighty Years Ago The NAACP Goes To Court”, that the case was a very symbolic victory for the group (Cassimere 34). While the NAACP early court victories showed that they were a force to be reckoned with, many individuals, including the group itself, believe the greatest court victory took place in 1954 when Thurgood Marshall and a group of attorneys representing the NAACP won the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483. This case ruled that the policy of “separate but equal”, decided in the Plessy v Ferguson case was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and that school’s were to be desegregated immediately (NAACP NAACP Legal History). Although the law required schools to integrate, many schools decided to close down entirely. We witness this in Irv Goodman’s article “Public Schools Died Here” as we see a county school in Virginia shut down completely to stop the school from

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