National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. New Orleans Branch

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States. The NAACP was formed in 1909 in New York City by a biracial group of citizens committed to social justice. On February 12, over the signatures of sixty persons, the call was issued for a meeting on the concept of creating an organization that would be an aggressive watchdog of Negro liberties. This event marks the founding of the NAACP. Today the NAACP is a network of more than 2,200 branches covering all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Japan and Germany. They are divided into seven regions and are managed and governed by a National Board of Directors. The NAACP is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. Total membership exceeds 500,000. This collection pertains to the New Orleans branch of the NAACP. The New Orleans Branch is the oldest continuously active branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People south of Washington D.C.; it was formally chartered on July 15, 1915.