Talk:NAACP

The NAACP no longer refers to itself as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but simply as the NAACP. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People should redirect to NAACP, not vice-versa, as is now the case.

The NAACP is almost exclusively known only by its acronym and is widely known and used in that form.

see Naming_conventions#Prefer_spelled-out_phrases_to_acronyms

-LegCircus

I support LegCircus' request to rename this article "NAACP".

As LegCircus points out, the NAACP is indeed almost exclusively referred to using its acronym.

The NAACP and other African-American organizations dropped the use of the term "colored" many years ago, except for historical references. (See for example the NAACP mission statement: "The primary focus of the NAACP continues to be the protection and enhancement of the civil rights of African Americans and other minorities.")

The use of the word "colored" in the association's title is now an anachronism that is kept only to retain the identity of the association.

Therefore, I respectfully request that the Admins move the contents of this article onto the "NAACP" page, and then redirect the page, "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People" to the "NAACP" page.

I have cc'd these remarks (revised for context and formatting) onto the request for Collaboration of the Week.

DV 04:06, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

NAACP is now 'empty'. A move can be done now by any registered user. Please go ahead. -- PFHLai 05:11, 2004 Aug 30 (UTC)

Thank you PFHLai. --DV 05:19, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

It's my pleasure to help. :-) Please don't forget to fix those double re-directs and make them direct to the new page. Cheers ! -- PFHLai 05:25, 2004 Aug 30 (UTC)

Um, I searched on the term "double-redirect" and came up empty. Could you please explain what that is and how to fix them? Please provide a link or here on my talk page if something is already written up on "double-redirect". Thanks. --DV 05:27, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Please see your talk page. -- PFHLai 05:34, 2004 Aug 30 (UTC)

President Bush declines to address NAACP

"The President had a scheduling conflict with the NAACP convention's July 10-15 meeting dates, according to the White House."

This is does not "put Bush missing into context." This offers a rather flimsy excuse for the President's disrespect to the NAACP. I suggest this be removed from the article. The fact is that he choose not to address the NAACP. We should not present the White House spin as encyclopedic fact.

--LegCircus 18:20, Aug 28, 2004 (UTC)

I have since learned additional information which I have incorporated into the article. --H2O 19:10, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I think this mitigates my objection some, and makes the section more substantial. In order to make the page less about Bush and thereby more focused on the NAACP, I have removed "Bush had previously spoken to the group while running for President in 2000."

--LegCircus 19:55, Aug 28, 2004 (UTC)

After all the misunderstandings, mistrust, and hard feelings I have witnessed in my lifetime between Jewish and African-American leaders in the United States, I was especially surprised to learn that Jewish Americans were among the founders of this association.

Given the multi-racial makeup of the founders of the NAACP, I hope it's OK for non-African-Americans to help out with this particular article, although I would understand if anyone feels otherwise. My sense is that the state of race relations in America is such that any race-related topic must be approached with great care, so I hope I can do so without giving offense.

I was startled to find that a depressing story about President Bush was the sole highlighted section in this article. This is such a shame because there are so many important accomplishments that the NAACP has made over the years, that would better demonstrate the role that this association has played in shaping American society.

At the time of this writing, on the NAACP's own homepage, there is no mention of President Bush, or even the office of the President, anywhere on their own front page. I find it troubling that the politics of the day makes a controversy concerning the current President of the United States more important than highlighting the association itself and its rich history.

The unfortunate side effect of this article's current focus on the controversy concerning President Bush, is that any attempt to add more important content will now be viewed by partisans as a cynical attempt to bury an unflattering story about President Bush.

On a more positive note, this article inspired me to learn more about the NAACP and Martin Luther King.

After some research, I was able to contribute a small item, but I was careful to add a reference for my change. (I also proofread the article and made some minor corrections for spelling and punctuation.)

Hopefully this article will not jump off the rails given the impending election here in America.

--DV 13:31, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The reference to President Bush should not be a part of this article when there are so many more non-partisan things to say about the NAACP. This is a demonstration of clear bias by the authors. TimHar

Like it or now, one thing that put the NAACP into the news in a large way recently was Bush's refusal. See Google or Google News for NAACP, with and without Bush. If you think there are more important things that should be in the article, you're welcome to add them or even just point us in the right direction. Maurreen 11:41, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Removed reference to Holocaust denial group

Unfortunately, it turns out the external reference to a source for some of the history of the NAACP was actually a link to Institute for Historical Review, a highly controversial organization with a history of Holocaust denial, that has little to do with the NAACP. I am conducting some research to find more objective sources for the early history of the NAACP (in addition to the historical record provided on the NAACP's own web site).

--DV 03:11, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Oh dear god. When I was looking at your changes, I saw the ihr link. Very embarrassing. Thanks very much for excising that. -- orthogonal 10:56, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Good article from the Library of Congress - public domain?

There's a good article "A Century of Racial Segregation, 1849-1950" [1] (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-segregation.html) at the Library of Congress. About half of it involves the NAACP's history. Is stuff at the LOC in the public domain? —Stormie 22:37, Sep 24, 2004 (UTC)

Gun control

The article now says the Supreme Court's position is "that the 2nd amendment is about the right of a State to maintain a militia, not unrestricted individual rights to bear arms."

If that is true, a reference needs to be cited. In the meantime, I'm going to delete the Supreme Court reference. Maurreen 12:24, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Indeed that is a blatant misrepresentation of the facts, and is on its face absurd and untrue. User:Abraxas

Book citation

The reference section includes:

St. James, Warren D. NAACP: Triumphs of a Pressure Group, Nineteen Hundred and Nine Thru Nineteen Hundred and Eighty. Exposition Press, 1980

It seems like it should be "1900 - 1980." I Googled the author's name and found it both ways. Maurreen 13:14, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

To do

The following tasks may already have been completed, but are stated because they may be a useful general tasks for the 'to do' lists of future collaborations.

- Check links in the article and eliminate redirects.
- Go to 'What links here' and eliminate redirects.
- Ensure that 'links to non-existent articles' are minimum.
- Ensure that 'multiple links to the same article' are minimum.
- Review the general balance of links on the basis of relevancy. The article should connect most to highly relevant articles (increase these) and least to less relevant articles (decrease these).
- Run the text through a spolling checker.
- Review article for special characters and things that can be made more generic.

"The Pink Franklin case in 1910." I deleted this incomplete sentence, but with some information, but maybe it could be put back in. Maurreen 11:58, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

A couple details in the references look dubious. Maurreen 11:58, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC) Let me know if you disagree with my change above. Maurreen 13:39, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

New section: "Purpose" or "Platform" with NAACP's current positions on issues such as affirmative action, welfare, racial profiling, etc. and reasoning behind these stances Sayeth 20:46, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)

New section: "Organisation" - how are leaders elected, are there local chapters or is it purely national, what other groups are directly supported by the NAACP. Sayeth 20:46, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)

"As of" redirect

My understanding is that "as of" puts items on a list to be checked and updated in the future. Maurreen 14:02, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Aha. Thanks. Perhaps it should be put back.Bobblewik (talk) 20:21, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Roots

I have some doubt about the following paragraph:

"Roots in abolitonism and Reconstruction

Many of the leaders and traditions that formed the basis of early NAACP philosophies started with American abolitionism and the Reconstruction after the Civil War."

I had changed "Reformation" to "Reconstruction," because the former refers to a historical religious movement in Europe.

But the I doubt any NAACP leaders were active in abolitonism and the Reconstruction. I have an encyclopedia that says the Reconstruction ended in 1877; the NAACP was founded more than 40 years later. Maurreen 22:12, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

1970s leaders

Do we need this paragraph:

"After Kivie Kaplan died in 1975, Benjamin Hooks (http://www.africanamericans.com/BenjaminHooks.htm), a lawyer and clergyman, was elected the NAACP's executive director in 1977."

Why single out those two?

Maurreen 23:07, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Timeline

Timelines often report each event in the present tense. In NAACP#Timeline, most items are in the past tense but some are present tense; compare 1913 and 1915. Is there any reason not to follow the most common format, which I think would be to put everything in the present tense? JamesMLane 22:37, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)

My initial reaction was that a timeline is somewhat misplaced in a encyclopedia article. Also, it duplicates some information from the rest of the text. I think it would be a huge improvement to simply work the most relevant events of the timeline into the general history text, possibly cutting some of the less relevant in the process. Alarm 23:45, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Recent history: More sources needed

Although the text on the NAACP history has certainly improved during the last few days, it still seems to draw heavily from the organisation's own webpage. The timeline is equal to the one available there. More disturbingly, there was an apparent lack of information on the problems facing the NAACP in the 1990s. Being no expert on the matter, I've nevertheless tried my best to contribute what I could here, my additions based on a web search on the subject. I would appreciate if anyone with more knowledge in the field could have a look at the new paragraph I've added, and possibly further expand the organisation's recent history. Alarm 23:46, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Cleanup needed

The newly added section on the 1990s needs some cleanup. In particular, the following paragraph borders on incomprehensible:

In 1993, Reverend Benjamin Chavis narrowly defeated Reverend Jesse Jackson in the election for the Executive Secretary position. A controversial figure, Chavis was ousted by the board that hired him eighteen months earlier, accused of using NAACP funds for an out of court settlement in a sexual harassment lawsuit.

This says that Chavis was elected but was hired (and fired) by a Board. Does this mean that the election was an election by the Board? If so we should make that clear. Also "was ousted [no date given] by the board that hired him eighteen months earlier" is really confusing. I think it means "was ousted eighteen months later by the same board that hired him" (which fits my memory of what occurred), but I could be misunderstanding. Anyway, will someone please do some cleanup on this section? -- Jmabel 00:54, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing that out. I've changed the the wording to "was ousted eighteen months later by the same board that hired him", which is indeed what I was trying to say. Regarding his "hiring" I must admit I remain a bit confused about how the NAACP actually handles these matters. It seems to me that the executive secretary, serving as chairman of the board, is in fact chosen by the board. I'm not sure about the appropriate English term here. Should something along the lines of "board vote" be used instead of "election"? If so, please feel free to adjust the wording.

The fact it was the board that ousted Chavis seems to be clear, though. This article in New York Amsterdam News, October 08, 1994 (http://static.highbeam.com/n/newyorkamsterdamnews/october081994/betrayalthecaseagainstbenchavis/), says that the board of directors "voted 53 out of 58 to remove Chavis" on August 20, 1994. Should these facts go into the section, or is that too much detail?

However, if someone wants to help expanding this section, it might be relevant to mention that several other board members was asked to leave the board in 1997 due to improprieties. For mentions of this, see [2] (http://www.cnn.com/US/9712/20/briefs.pm/naacp/index.html) and [3] (http://www.sptimes.com/News2/lyons/NAACP_asks.html) Alarm 08:43, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll follow up, at least on that paragraph. -- Jmabel 17:26, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)

This is not the Place for Jewish Conspiracy Theories

I have recently removed this bologna about the NAACP being "jewish". I'm sure it was put there to feed the endless Zionist Conspiracy Theories of nutcase far-right extremeists. Put trash like that on Stormfront not on a source of information used by millions of people. (unsigned)

What the above anon called material "put there to feed the endless Zionist Conspiracy Theories..." was the following:

In 1914, Professor Emeritus Joel Spingarn of Columbia University became chairman of the NAACP and recruited for its board such Jewish leaders as Jacob Schiff, Jacob Billikopf, and Rabbi Stephen Wise. ... And, in the climactic civil rights drives of the 1950s and 1960s, Jewish participation was all but overwhelming. [4] (http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history_community/Modern/Overview_The_Story_19481980/America/PWPolitics/CivilRights.htm)

While I don't like the phrase "often overlooked" (rather POV), I think this should otherwise be restored. It is entirely factual, the citation comes from the eminently phili-Semitic myjewishlearning.com, and it points, accurately, to the historic support of Jewish Americans for the rights of African Americans. As a Jewish American, I for one am proud of that part of my heritage. Let the fascists make of it what they will: if they want to hate us Jews for supporting Blacks (rather than their usual approach of just hating us for being Jews), well, it comes with the territory. I would hate to suppress the existence of links among historically oppressed minorities on the basis that the far right will view the oppressed as mutually "conspiring" to counter their oppression. -- Jmabel | Talk 00:57, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC)

Jews, generally, were extremely supportive of the Civil Rights Movement, and many actively participated in the Freedom Rides, marches, etc. And, yes, in the bad, old days when white boards (or at least nonblack leadership) meant more money coming in and more credibility, and when many whites still doubted blacks' innate ability to spearhead such endeavors, the NAACP -- just as were HBCU's -- was presided over by nonblacks, often Jews. Information about Jewish involvement in and support for the Movement absolutely should be presented -- and in such a context. Lots of white Christians also supported the struggle. IMO, however, the quotation is a rotten one: "... all but overwhelming"? What the hell does that mean? I don't know how such language got past the editors. deeceevoice 07:26, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I could do without the "all but overwhelming", too. But can we please restore:

One often overlooked aspect of the NAACP's history is that the Jewish community contributed hugely to the NAACP's founding and continued financing. The Jewish historian Howard Sachar writes in his book A History of Jews in America of how "In 1914, Professor Emeritus Joel Spingarn of Columbia University became chairman of the NAACP and recruited for its board such Jewish leaders as Jacob Schiff, Jacob Billikopf, and Rabbi Stephen Wise." [5] (http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history_community/Modern/Overview_The_Story_19481980/America/PWPolitics/CivilRights.htm)

Because the "contributor" who initiated this exchange was anonymous, I can't find the edit. If you'll point me to the context in which this quotation appeared, I can aswer your question regarding what I think about retoring the text. I must say, though, that if it is to be restored, I would start the quote at: "...the Jewish community...." deeceevoice 08:33, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

No problem with cutting it as you say, I really wasn't thinking too precisely about it. I didn't write it, I just think something about it should be restored.

This is the edit that removed it. [6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NAACP&diff=10340336&oldid=10335006) It was at the end of the "history" section; certainly that section is the correct place. -- Jmabel | Talk 19:55, Mar 9, 2005 (UTC)

I rewrote one sentence: A year later, two whites, journalist William E. Walling and Mary White Ovington, joined the group, as well as did Jewish social worker Henry Moscowitz. This suggests that Jews are outside the category of whites. Unintentional, no doubt. --Italo Svevo 08:29, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

No real problem with that, although at that time "whites" would not probably have included Jews. Just like "Anglos" now usually does not include English-speaking African Americans (except in New Mexico, where it usually does). "White" is a social construction, and has meant different things at different times. -- Jmabel | Talk 19:13, Mar 11, 2005 (UTC)

Actually, I still don't consider Jews white. I wrote it that way intentionally, but without much thought. I don't have a real problem with those who wish to categorize Jews as "white," but I did tweak the wording a bit. "Three" is hardly "several." deeceevoice 18:44, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I was watching CNN over the weeked. Walter Mosley, who, of course, is of black and Jewish parentage, made it a point to say that he is not "half white"; he is half Jewish, that there's a difference. He said not only does he know that Jews aren't white, his Jewish mother knows Jews aren't white. :) deeceevoice 11:27, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Contact details

Does anyone strongly object to removing the contact details, wikipedia is after all, not a phonebook--nixie 02:35, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

History and an update

I rewrote in great part the section dealing with the history of the organization. It simply was not factual. What became the NAACP started out as an all-black organization (see photo of some of the members of the Niagara Movement on the wiki page of the same name; perhaps this photo should appear alongside the "History" section), and became integrated largely as a result of the group wanting to make itself more viable and more effective. They needed money and powerful contacts in order to be effective, and, in the early 1900s, that meant white folks. In fact, the organization did not have its first black president until 1920, when author/statesman James Weldon Johnson took over the reins of leadership. I believe this version of the group's history is more accurate. deeceevoice 14:42, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I read through a couple of sections, and updated the info on the organization's leadership. Mfume announced his resignation late last year, which took effect January 1 (I think). deeceevoice

I updated the update with a reference to the IRS investigation. Also added more on Phillips County and Moore v, Dempsey and on political alliances and rivalries in the 1930s. Also took out the reference to the railroad litigation in the 1940s (which I had added a few months ago); as I understand it that was a freelance project of Houston's, not the organization's. Added some more Supreme Court cases and linked all to the text of the decision. Still haven't found a place to insert DuBois' departure in 1934; for that you have to go to his page. -- Italo Svevo 08:29, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Good additions. I was going to do the IRS investigation when I had time. I'm also thinking of mentioning the controversy/uproar over the 2004 "Image Awards," when R. Kelly (disgusting pervert) was nominated for one. Comments? deeceevoice 08:48, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Timeline Source

Many of the entries in the timeline are copied directly from the official NAACP site. [7] (http://www.naacp.org/about/about_history.html). Is this a copyright violation?-LtNOWIS 00:56, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I contacted them at the time I did this. I couldn't get formal approval (they are too much of a bureaucracy) but they said they view it pretty much like a press release, they welcome people re-publishing. We've made a few corrections on some dates they got wrong(!); I've emailed back to them on this, but I don't think they fixed their own site accordingly. -- Jmabel | Talk 06:59, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

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