National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Providence Branch

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909. The founders of the organization included famed civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois, journalists Ida B. Wells and Charles Edward Russel, and lawyer-diplomat Archibald Grimké.

The catalyst for the creation of the NAACP came from the Race Riot of 1908 in Springfield, IL. What made the riot so egregious for the NAACP's founders was that it was in the hometown of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator of slaves. The riots demonstrated to many in the country that there was a great need for the voices of African-Americans to be heard at the national level. A concerned group, including the founders, met in January 1909 in New York City and set the first official meeting of the NAACP to be on February 12, 1909 to commemorate of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. By 1914, the NAACP had established 50 branches with approximately 6,000 members. Today there are over 300,000 members with 2,000 branches and units throughout the nation

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