National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Ypsilanti-Willow Run Branch.

In 1909, sixty prominent black and white citizens, including Ida Wells-Barnett and W.E.B. DuBois, conferred on the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birthday and agreed to work toward the abolition of forced segregation, promotion of equal education and civil rights under the protection of law, and an end to racial violence. In 1911, the organization was incorporated as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1998, Ypsilanti-Willow Run was the fifth largest branch in Michigan and one of more than 2,200 branches governed by a national board of directors throughout the United States, the District of Columbia, Japan and Germany.

Just nine years after the national organization was launched, an Ypsilanti activist group applied for and received a chapter charter. Charles H. Mahoney, a Detroit attorney, and R.W. Bagnall, a writer, proposed the notion at a 1918 meeting organized to gather opposition to a proposed local bond issue. For forty years, black Ypsilanti children had attended an all black school until finishing the third grade. A proposed bond would raise $40,000 to include attendance at the school (which many considered severely inferior) for all the years of grammar school as well as ultimately those of high school, thereby solidifying segregated education in the community throughout the grades. Mahoney and Bagnall urged the group to organize a branch of the NAACP, fight the bond issue, and take the case of separate schools to court. Mahoney offered free legal services to the association and in time, successfully argued against the expansion of the building. Adams Street School was called both unsanitary and illegal by the court and ordered closed.

In the opinion of A. P. Marshall, a local historian, the Ypsilanti branch was only sporadically active over the next thirty years, although verification is difficult because records documenting the organization are "hard to come by." The branch was revived, however, in the late 1940s and early 1950s around racial problems in both local housing and employment. Herbert Francois started collecting dues for renewal, eventually turning over the memberships he collected to Marguerite Eaglin. Under her leadership a new charter was issued, and the organization thrived. Others active during this period included Philip Wells and Bernie Smigh.

It was also in the late forties that an NAACP branch was organized in the neighboring community of Willow Run. Discrimination in housing was the impetus that prompted leaders to purposefully gather together in the community center. Houses were being built in a region known as Washington Square, but blacks were experiencing overt bias - prospective buyers told that there were no such homes for sale or told that advertised properties had already sold. Clement Arnold and Jesse Rutherford, along with Vanzetti and Theophilus Hamilton were active in the Willow Run branch from the start, orchestrating grassroots protests and developing programs.

The NAACP in both Ypsilanti and Willow Run remained viable into the sixties, affecting change in the region into the seventies. Organizational strength was heightened however, when the two branches merged in 1982, a long-standing goal presided over by Raymond Mullins, a local attorney and chapter president, 1981 to 1982 and 1989 to 1998. Mullins, long active at the state level and on various committees (education, public relations, membership) befor assuming the presidential post, was determined to expand membership and services. He focused on bringing a cross-section of the community into the organization -- bankers, chamber of commerce members, entrepreneurs, business leaders, politicians. It was Mullins' belief that the branch needed biracial support and workable coalitions, and he looked for communitywide response. Membership more than doubled within a decade.

Mullin's energy and leadership molded a branch that became one of the most activei n the association, winning highest honors in both 1989 and 1993 at the national level (the Thalheimer Award) for outstanding service in programmatic activities. In 1995, a year in which political action was a focal activity, the branch won the Washtenaw County Bar Association's Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" Award. "They have been at the very forefront of setting an example of awareness of all race, ethnic and gender bias in our community," said public defender Lloyd Powell. A key activity that year was a lobbying effort to seat black judges for the first time on the bench in Washtenaw County. Three were appointed and all successfully sought reelection.

In the eighties and nineties, the organization also concentrated on economic development (including employment outreach for young people and support for small businesses); maintained a review and referral service for civil rights complaints; assisted in referrals to community service agencies such as housing, programs for senior citizens, rehabilitation programs, legal aid, child care, job retraining, etc.; and investigated environmental issues. The later was undertaken with a grant from the Kellogg Foundation to educate the community on environmental racism and to look at issues of pollution in areas highly populated by blacks.

Youth work was also high on the agenda. In 1990, the first year of participation in ACT-SO (Afro-American, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics), a national program that encourages excellence in academic and cultural pursuits, four local winners went on to compete at the annual convention. Participants sponsored by the branch won gold medals three years in a row. ACT-SO, which provides rich opportunities for students in grades nine through twelve to compete in the sciences, humanities, performing and visual arts, garnered vigorous and steadfast support from volunteers, initiated a distinctive mentoring program, and was funded by donors including General Motors, the Ford Motor Company, local financial institutions, and individuals.

During Mullins' tenure, the Ypsilanti-Willow Run NAACP participated enthusiastically and with equal success in numbers of annual programs celebrated across the nation under the national umbrella, including Jubilee Day, a commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation on the first day of January; Black Dollar Week, a demonstration of black economic buying power; Radiothon, a fundraising and membership drive; and the Freedom Fund Dinner, which honors the anniversary of the NAACP with an added goal of raising community consciousness through sponsorships from corporations and businesses. Yet, even with all this activity requiring significant volunteer support and complex coordination, immediate local issues weren't overshadowed. In 1994, the branch facilitated the attendance of more than four hundred in the Million Man March on Washington. In 1995, it questioned the conduct of the Ann Arbor police during the investigation of a serial rapist. In 1998, it played a major role in sustaining an Ypsilanti non-discrimination ordinance protecting civil rights, including a ban on sexual orientation discrimination.

A highlight of Mullins' presidency occurred in 1994 when the branch opened its first office since establishment in 1918, thereby creating a distinct identity for the organization in the community. It housed meetings for NAACP and other community groups, provided a location for press conferences, and became a magnet for community information gathering. In its first year, it was the location for a range of exchanges on education issues, political matters, the media, women's issues, and financial planning.

The Ypsilanti-Willow Run NAACP entered a new era when Raymond Mullins, after twelve years of service, decided in 1998 to devote more time and energy to his law practice. He was succeeded by Sharon Newton Glenn, a retired Juvenile Court caseworker as president of the branch.

From the guide to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Ypsilanti-Willow Run Branch Records, 1918 and 1977-1998, 1989-1998, (Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan)