In Search of Democracy The NAACP Writings of James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and Roy Wilkins (1920-1977)

by Wilson, Sondra Kathryn

• ISBN13: 9780195116335
• ISBN10: 019511633X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-08-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This collection of writings offers a glimpse into the minds of three N.A.A.C.P. leaders who occupied the center of black thought and action during some of the most troublesome and pivotal times of the civil rights movement. The volume delineates fifty-seven years of the N.A.A.C.P.'s program under the successive direction of James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and Roy Wilkins. These writings illustrate the vital roles of these three leaders in building a peoples liberation, underscoring not only their progressive influence throughout their time in power, but also a vision of the future as race relations enter the 21st Century. Much of the material, notably "The Secretary's Reports to the Board," is published here for the first time, offering an invaluable resource for those seeking a deeper knowledge of the history of race in America

Author Biography

Dr. Sandra Kathryn Wilson, literary executor and editor of the James Weldon Johnson's Papers, is an Associate of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	3	(6)
PART I The Selected Writings of James Weldon Johnson, 1920--1937	9	(124)
James Weldon Johnson
A Chronology
Selected Reports of the NAACP Secretary to the Board of Directors, 1920--1929	13	(5)
December 1920	18	(5)
Anti-Lynching
Haiti
Reduction of Southern Representation Arkansas Situation
Ku Klux Klan
Louisville Bond Issue Civil Rights
Publicity
Literature Sent Out
March 1921	23	(4)
Anti-Lynching
New Jersey Legislature
Arkansas Cases Delegation to Senator Harding
National Woman's Party Haitian Mission
Publications
Publicity
Literature Sent Out Spingarn Medal Award
June 1921	27	(7)
Anti-Lynching
Tulsa, Oklahoma, Riots
Relief Fund Arkansas Situation
Jasper County Peonage Cases
Other Peonage Cases
Anti-Lynching Measures
Dyer Bill Inter-racial Commission
Committee on the Census
Haiti Jim Crow
Washington Correspondent
Frank A. Linney
``Birth of a Nation''
Boston Publicity
Publications
Literature Sent Out
August 1921	34	(7)
Anti-Lynching
Tulsa Riot Case
Arkansas Situation
Ray Extradition Case
Maurice Mays Case
Colored Railway Trainmen
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
Inter-racial Commission Bill Colored Men in the Navy
Haiti
Pan African Congress
Case of Arthur K. Bird
Morrestown, N.J., Case
Harlem Hospital Publicity
Colored Press
Publicity
February 1922	41	(6)
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
Lynching
The Bullock Extradition Case School Histories
Publicity
October 1923	47	(6)
Annual Conference
Twenty-Fourth Infantry
Johnstown, Pa. McCoy Rendition Case
Spruce Pine, N.C., Deportation
Publicity
October 1924	53	(7)
Residential Segregation
Washington Segregation Case
Louisiana Segregation Law
School Segregation
Young Women's Christian Association
Rochester Dental Clinic
Case of Samuel A. Browne William Pickron Rape Case
Louise Thomas
Mamie Pratt Case The Elias Ridge Case
Ellis Island Case
Lonnie Hunter, et al. Oteen Veterans Hospital
Senator Capper and the Ku Klux Klan Race Riot, Bridgewater (Va.)
Publicity
July 1925	60	(5)
Annual Conference
The Seventeenth Annual conference
General Bullard's Slander
Military Training Camps
Twenty-fourth Infantry The Luther Collins Case
The Elmer Williams Case
``Birth of a Nation''
Publicity
February 1926	65	(5)
Washington Segregation Case
Defense Fund
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
Anti-Intermarriage Bill
Disfranchisement
Ku Klux Klan (New York)
Lynching
Detroit Mob Violence
Oswald Durant Case
Attack on Fourteen-Year-Old Colored Girl
Case of the Rev. W. A. Price
Publicity
May 1926	70	(6)
Anti-Lynching Legislation
Louisiana Segregation Case
Kansas City, Mo., Segregation Case
Reprint of Decision in Louisville Segregation Case
Ku Klux Klan (Imperial, Pa.)
Mob Violence at Carteret (N.J.) Poteau (Okla.) Schools
Death of Dr. William A. Sinclair Lynching
Detroit Mob Violence Case
Indianapolis Segregation Ordinance
Cornelia Harris (Tennessee ``Incest'' Case)
Case of Mrs. Purnell
Case of Miss Espanola Holliday
Seventeenth Annual Conference
Publicity
November 1926	76	(5)
Washington Segregation Cases
LaBelle, Fla., Lynching Investigation Louisville Libel Case
Ray Vaughn and the United States Naval Academy Football Team
The Sweet Case
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill Samuel A. Browne Case
New York University Discrimination The Aiken (S.C.) Lynching
Publicity
September 1927	81	(3)
Maurice Mays Case
Los Angeles Bathing Beach Segregation Case Pan African Congress
San Diego Hospital Discrimination
Publicity
October 1927	84	(5)
Extradition Case
The Edward Glass Case
The Samuel Kennedy Case
James Blevins Case
Gary (Indiana) School Desegregation Coffeyville (Kansas) Riot Cases
The Anderson Case (Fort Huron, Mich.)
The Abe Washington Case (Jacksonville, Fla.)
Peonage Investigation
Segregation in Government Departments
Roswell Hamilton Case
Discrimination by Siasconsett (Mass.) Bus Line Publicity
March 1929	89	(5)
Richmond (Va.) Segregation Ordinance
District of Columbia Appropriations Bill
Charleston Public Library Discrimination Case Roy Freeman Case
Robert Bell and Grady Swain
Edward Glass Case
Mr. Francis Willis Rivers Admitted to New York Bar
Smoker for Clarence Darrow
Lynching
Publicity
October 1929	94	(7)
Expulsion of Negro Members of Brooklyn (N.Y.) Protestant Episcopal Church
Shooting of Lincoln University Student by Brooklyn (N.Y.) Policeman
Louisiana Murder Case
Florida White Primary Case Asbury Park (N.J.) Case
Gary (Indiana) School Case
Arkansas White Primary Case
Turley Wright Rape Case
Lynching
Death of Mr. Louis Marshall
Will of Mr. Alfred M. Heinsheimer
Publicity Emergency Fund
Institute of Pacific Relations
Speeches, Essays, and Articles, 1920--1937	101	(32)
``The N.A.A.C.P Fight Against Lynching''	102	(3)
``Is the Negro a Danger to White Culture?''	105	(4)
``Presiding at Annual Mass Meeting Speech''	109	(3)
``Haiti and Our Latin American Policy''	112	(2)
``Achievements and Aims of the N.A.A.C.P.''	114	(2)
``The Militant N.A.A.C.P.''	116	(5)
``Address Before the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the N.A.A.C.P.''	121	(3)
``Leadership and the Times''	124	(9)
PART II The Selected Writings of Walter White, 1929--1955	133	(334)
Walter White
Selected Reports of the NAACP Secretary to the Board of Directors, 1932--1954	137	(3)
February 1932	140	(9)
The Scottsboro Cases
The Texas Primary Case
The Case of Robert Bell and Grady Swain
The Gary (Indiana) School Case
``The Birth of a Nation''
Judge James Baldwin
Senator La Follette's Unemployment Bill
The Villa Lewaro
The Daniel H. Williams Will
The Cutter House, Princeville, Illinois
Annual Conference Committee on Negro Work
The Tom Carraway Case
United States Supreme Court
The Case of Ernest Herring
Lynching
Haiti Rosenwald Offer
Publicity
March 1933	149	(8)
The Wagner Resolution
The Harlem Hospital Inquiry
The Joseph Crawford Extradition Case
The Scottsboro Cases
The Beaver Country (Pa.) Deportation Cases
The Lebanon, Tennessee, Mob Violence Cases
The Doris Weaver Case
University of North Carolina Discrimination Case
The Theodore Jordan Case
The Will Sanders Case
The Jess Hollins Case
Flogging at Clearwater, Florida
``The Green Pastures''
``Run Little Chillun Benefit'' Committee to Call upon President Roosevelt
Mr. Harold Ickes, Secretary of Interior
Publicity
January 1934	157	(6)
Overview
Mississippi Flood Control Project
The N.R.A. Legal Defense
Education
Lynching
Costigan-Wagner Anti-Lynching Bill
The Writers' League against Lynching
Harlem Hospital Committee
Cooperation
February 1936	163	(9)
The Van Nuys Resolution
Senator Borah and Anti-Lynching Legislation
Conference with President Roosevelt
Governor Eugene Talmadge (Georgia)
American Federation of Labor
Scottsboro Defense Committee
Brown, Ellington, and Shields (Kemper County, Miss.)
Amendment to the Lindbergh Kidnapping Law
University of Maryland Case
University of Missouri
``Medical Opportunities for Negroes''
Christmas Seals
Governor Lehman's Offer
National Office Lease
N.A.A.C.P. Birthday Celebration
Monthly Mass Meetings
Publicity
August 1940	172	(7)
Annual Conference
Republican and Democratic Platforms on the Negro
Mob Violence and Lynching at Brownsville, Tennessee Lynching
The Anti-Lynching Bill
Chicago Exposition
Federal Housing Authority Discrimination
Negroes in the Armed Forces The Ku Klux Klan
Norfolk, Virginia, Teachers' Salary Case Wilmington, Ohio, School Segregation Case
Texas Primary Case
February 1942	179	(10)
National Defense
The American Red Cross
Proposal of Volunteer Negro--White Division
Distribution of Leaflets at Joe Louis Fight Negro Hero at Pearl Harbor
Army Death Penalty Withdrawn Posters, Murals, Etc., Re: Defense and Stamps
Proposed Cuts in Non-Defense Expenditures
Farm Security Administration Loans for Poll Taxes
Speakers Bureau
The Secretary's California Trip Lynching
University Cases---University of Missouri (Bluford vs. Canada)
University of Tennessee Cases
Teachers' Salary Cases Birmingham, Alabama
Atlanta, Georgia (William H. Reeves School Board)
Richmond, Virginia (Antoinette E. Bowler vs. School Board)
Newport News, Virginia (Dorothy Roles vs. School Board) Palm Beach County, Fla., Stebbins vs. Board of Public Instruction Hillsborough County, Fla., Hilda T. Turner vs. Board of Public Instruction
Duval Country, Fla., Mary White Blocker vs. Board of Public Instruction
Marion County, Fla., Stark vs. Board of Public Instruction
September 1945	189	(7)
The Full Employment Act
The Fair Employment Practice Commission
The Pan-African Congress
National Public Housing Conference
National Housing Agency
Delmo (Missouri) Farm Homes
Office of Defense Transportation
The Washington Bureau
School Lunch Bill: H.R. 3370
Senator Eastland's Attack on the Negro Soldier
Voting Records of Senators and Congressmen
Veterans' Discrimination
Congressman Rankin ``Stay Out of Harlem'' Order
Work of the Membership Secretary
November 1947	196	(3)
Report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights
Petition to the United Nations
Probe of Alleged Communists in Hollywood Voting Record of Congressmen Published in Bulletin
N.A.A.C.P. Sends Greetings to C.I.O. A.F.L. Conventions
Forrestal Asked to Abolish Jim Crow
President Urged to Consider Eight-Point Medical Program
Article by Secretary in Saturday Review of Literature Article by Secretary in Collier's
April 1951	199	(10)
Annual Convention
Washington Conference on Civil Rights Winstead Amendment
Eighth Orientation Conference
Conference with Finletter
F.E.P.C.
Conferences with Secretary of State Acheson and Mr. Charles Wilson
American Jewish Congress Award to N.A.A.C.P.
Kappa Alpha Psi Contribution
Levittown Contribution to Inc. Fund---Ike Williams
Charges against Miss Loretto Chappell
Ford Foundation
Segregated Hospitals
Electoral College Resolution
Apprentice Training Legislation
Florida and North Carolina Elections
Segregation in the Armed Services Atomic Energy Commission
Investigation of Baltimore Employment Service
Mob Action against Florida Residents
Important Specific Cases
June 1951	209	(7)
Annual Convention
Washington Conference
N.N.P.A.--N.A.A.C.P. Conference--Cocktail Party
Public Housing
Bill to Protect Servicemen
Secretary's Statement Re: MacArthur
Ford Foundation Application
Committee to Defend Dr. Du Bois
Violence against Negroes
Appointment of Negro to Military Court of Appeals
December 1951 and January 1952	216	(5)
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, 1952
Madison Square Garden Benefit
Death of Senator Capper
Bombing and Death of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Moore
Committee on Government Contract Compliance
Changes in Field Staff
Talmadge Demands Purge of Negroes on T.V.
Stuyvesant Town Evictions Withdrawn
N.A.A.C.P. Annual Meeting
Freedom of Choice Movement
Cost of Segregation
Stork Club
Death of Bishop Gordon
Death of Judge Patterson
Senate Rules Change Inadequate
Loyalty of Philleo Nash
Death of Harold Ickes
May 1954	221	(6)
Philip Murray Award
Virgin Island Bill
Supreme Court Decision in School Cases
Atlanta Conference
Loyalty Investigation of Dr. Bunche
Annual Convention
Speeches, Essays, and Articles, 1929--1955	227	(78)
``I Investigate Lynchings''	228	(9)
``The Negro and the Supreme Court''	237	(9)
``On Racist Textbooks''	246	(2)
``The Negro on the American Stage''	248	(6)
``Discrimination in Federal Control Construction''	254	(4)
``Negro Citizenship''	258	(2)
``Memorandum from Secretary'' Re: The Crisis, March 12, 1934	260	(5)
``Reds vs. the Freedom Train''	265	(1)
``White Hails Film on Anti-Semitism''	266	(2)
``Moral Advance Seen in Report by Committee on Civil Rights''	268	(1)
``Abolition of Racial Segregation at Truman's Inaugural Praised''	269	(2)
``Fate of Democrats in 1950 Seen Hinging on Stand on Civil Rights''	271	(1)
``A Sign of Political Change in the South''	272	(1)
``Fifty Years of Eighting''	273	(4)
``Report of Civil Rights''	277	(4)
``N.A.A.C.P. Forty-second Annual Meeting Speech''	281	(2)
``N.A.A.C.P. Annual Convention Speech''	283	(7)
``N.A.A.C.P. Forty-fourth Annual Meeting Speech''	290	(4)
``N.A.A.C.P. Forty-Fifth Annual Meeting Speech''	294	(7)
PART III The Selected Writings of Roy Wilkins, 1955--1977
Roy Wilkins, A Chronology	301	(4)
Selected Reports of the NAACP Secretary/Executive Director to the Board of Directors, 1955-1973	305	(3)
May 1955	308	(5)
Annual Conference
Annual Convention Board Meeting
Bandung Conference
Supreme Court Decision of May 21---Statement Celebration of May 17, 1954, Decision---Freedom Day
Killing of Rev. G. W. Lee of Belzoni, Miss.
Request Change in A.A.A.S. Convention Site
Humphrey--Daniel Resolution
Retention of Anti-Bias Ban in Army Bill
Death of Mrs. Bethune
Change in Convention Site by American Psychiatric Association
Eastland Resolution to Investigate Supreme Court
April 1963	313	(3)
Birmingham, Ala.
Reply to Congressman Powell
Clarksdale, Miss.
Firing of Dick Gregory
Freedom Walkers
Interview with U.S. News and World Report
Speaking Engagements
Death of Mrs. A. Philip Randolph
May 1963	316	(6)
Jackson, Miss.
Clarksdale, Miss.
Birmingham, Ala.
Supreme Court Anti-Segregation Ruling
Prince Edward County
Durham, N.C.
Discrimination in Federal Employment
Philadelphia Jim Crow Union
September 1963	322	(3)
Beating of N.A.A.C.P. Official---Shreveport, La.
Birmingham, Ala., Church Bombing
Challenge to Two Southern Governors Strengthened Version of Rights Bill
Inequitable Death Sentence Protested
Christmas-Buying Boycott
Speaking Engagements, Radio, T.V., Etc.
December 1963	325	(2)
Assassination of President Kennedy
President's Message to Congress
The Conference with President Johnson
Civil Rights Legislation
Speaking Engagements
April 1964	327	(3)
Civil Rights Bill
Strategy Meeting of Leadership Conference Dirksen Amendments
New Field Worker
Russian Magazine Article by Executive Secretary
Wallace in Indiana Primary
May and June 1964	330	(6)
Civil Rights Bill
Conference with Former President Eisenhower May 17 Celebration
Tribute to Cardinal Spellman
Goldwater Rights Stand
N.A.A.C.P. Telecast
Medgar Evers Memorial Day New York City Subway Rampage
Death of Prime Minister Nehru
July and August 1964	336	(8)
Speaking Engagements
Republican and Democratic Conventions Hospital Aid to Mississippi Victims
Pre-Convention Rally, Atlantic City, N.J.
Voter Registration
Call to Major Civil Rights Organizations
Board Members Study Mississippi Conditions Signing of Civil Rights Bill
Thanks for Cloture
Death of Senator Clair Engle
October 1964	344	(3)
Speaking Engagements
``Moral Decay'' Film
Congratulations to Dr. King
Urge Clemency for Condemned South Africans
Keating--Kennedy Campaign
Support of Candidates Who Voted for Civil Rights Bill
March 1965	347	(5)
Speaking Engagements
Alabama Voting Drive---March 7 Brutality Selma-to-Montgomery, Ala.
Death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, Rev. James Reeb, and Mrs. Viola Liuzzo
Voting Rights Bill---President's Message to Congress
Wire to Sponsors of Bill
Testimony Before Sub-Committee of House Judiciary Committee
June, July, and August, 1965	352	(4)
Weekened Conference in Birmingham
Visit of British Parliamentary Delegation
Memorial Service for Ambassador Stevenson
Meeting with President Johnson
Personnel Changes
U.S. Policy in Vietnam
Death of Judge Watson
Convention Greetings
Los Angeles Riot
January--March 1971	356	(3)
Speaking and Other Engagements
Angela Davis
Dwight D. Folsom
White House Briefings on Revenue-Sharing
Radio Corporation of America
Death of Whitney M. Young, Jr.
All White Private Academies
Food Stamps and Lunch Programs
First Quarter 1973	359	(4)
Speaking Engagements
N.A.A.C.P. Urges Senate to Reject Nomination of Peter Brennan for Secretary of Labor
Death of Lyndon Johnson
Death of Elmer A. Carter
Atlanta, Ga., School Desegregation Cases
Speeches, Essays, and Articles, 1955--1977	363	(104)
``The War against the United States''	365	(5)
``Integration Crisis in the South''	370	(5)
``The Film Industry and the Negro''	375	(4)
``Address Given at the National Negro Publishers Association''	379	(5)
``Mr. Wilkins Replies''	384	(3)
``At Youth for Integrated Schools''	387	(3)
``Freedom, Franchise, and Segregation''	390	(9)
``The Meaning of Sit-ins''	399	(7)
``Medgar W. Evers: In Memoriam''	406	(2)
``We Want Freedom Now''	408	(2)
``At American Association of Advertising Agencies''	410	(5)
``At Conflict '66---Virginia Polytechnic Institute''	415	(3)
``At White House Conference `To Fulfill These Rights' ''	418	(2)
``Sail our N.A.A.C.P. Ship `Steady as She Goes' ''	420	(9)
``Voluntary Segregation---A Disaster''	429	(1)
``Toward a Single Society''	430	(7)
``Ego and Race''	437	(1)
``Ralph J. Bunche''	438	(1)
``Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.''	439	(2)
``In Back of the Busing Issue``	441	(1)
``A. Philip Randolph''	442	(2)
``Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles''	444	(1)
``The Task Ahead''	444	(7)
``Come over into Macedonia and Help Us!''	451	(5)
``Black Power or Black Pride''	456	(1)
``How Old the Civil Rights Movement''	457	(1)
``Black Mayors''	458	(2)
``Integration, the Only Way''	460	(1)
``Intelligence Tests''	461	(1)
``Black History Missing''	462	(2)
``Paul Robeson''	464	(1)
``Harassment of Dr. King''	465	(2)
Appendices	467	(40)
NAACP: A Chronology, 1909--1977	467	(31)
The Call: A Lincoln Emancipation Conference	498	(3)
The Committee of Forty	501	(2)
Resolutions	503	(2)
NAACP Officers, Executive Committee, and General Committee, 1910	505	(2)
Notes	507	(2)
Bibliography	509	(4)
Index	513