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1. The Beginning: In 1908, a White female social worker by the name of Mary Ovington claimed to have read an article written by William English Walling describing a recent race riot in Springfield, Ill.. Based on this article, according to Miss Ovington, she became inspired to create an organization that would help those of African descent in America achieve more political representation and economic security.

On Feb. 12, 1909, Miss Ovington (she was a lifelong spinster), along with Oswald Garrison Villard and William English Walling (both White males and Christians) sent out a "Call" letter to everyone they believed would be supportive of an organization that would provide Blacks a new direction: integration.

By May 1910, the future NAACP organizers had held two conferences in New York City. Without question, the purpose of the first conference, which was attended by many Blacks (a "committee of 40" - which likely included Ida Wells), was a desire on the part of the White organizers to see if Blacks would be receptive to the new integration agenda; and, perhaps more importantly, would not protest against the societal anomaly they were suggesting to create. After all, racial integration was a complete contradiction to what did exist in 1910; and Blacks, since 1865, had never protested against the current living arrangements. After the first conference, which did allay the worries of the White organizers of Black resistance, the next conference was used to choose the name of the new organization, develop an organizational strategy for racial integration and choose its executive board members.

(Mary W. Ovington's original name for the NAACP was 'The 'National Committee for the Advancement of the Negro People')

2. The Purpose: Thus was borne the concept of racial integration, something never before practiced or even conceived of in human history.

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14y ago

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