For many years blacks have faced obstacles such as discrimination and racism. Blacks struggled to receive equal rights for years. They also wanted to stop the lynching of black people. Countless activists lead marches to protest against those things. In 1908, a deadly riot took place in Springfield. There had been many deadly riots but this riot was the tipping point and thus created the National Association for the advancement of colored people.
During the Springfield riot, two black men were held in a Springfield jail for alleged crimes against white people. They were transferred to a jail in another city. This resulted in an angry white mob which burned down 40 homes in Springfield’s black residential district. Also, they ransack local businesses and murder two African Americans.
An interracial Group of Americans
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In 1910, W.E.B Bois founded the Crisis magazine. The magazine served as the voice for civil rights. This magazine was a way to express Black excellence. This magazine remains the official publication for the NAACP. The magazine continues to publish articles about the struggles of the black people. They are reporting news on a local and national level.
In 1910, the grandfather clause allowed illiterate whites to avoid taking a literacy test. Although their ancestors were allowed to vote in 1988, the government discriminated against illiterate blacks by requiring them to pass a test in order to vote. The NAACP protested against the law and won in 1915. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Guinn v. the United States that grandfather clauses were unconstitutional.
The Ku Klux Klan was big around this time. Racist films like D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation in 1915 fed prejudice with its celebration of the Klan and its demeaning depiction of blacks. The NAACP called for a boycott of Birth of a nation. The NAACP’s campaign was unsuccessful, but it helped raise the group build more