The Niagara Movement was the grandfather organization of the NAACP, founded in 1905 near Niagara Falls by W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter.
The pair drafted the declaration of principles announcing what the group stood Justice for the black man, the right to vote thought he nation, and for equal opportunity in employment and education. Until racial justice becomes a reality the Niagara movement is committed to agitation
"persistent manly agitation is the way to liberty and toward this goal the Niagara movement has started and ask the cooperation of all men of all races."
The group was opposed to the conservative platform of Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Machine. They felt Washington encouraged training in obsolete crafts based in southern agriculture while ignoring the growing horror of racial violence against African Americans. it was in response to this they organized against of Washington. While the movement had grew to include to 170 members in 34 states by 1906, but the group also encountered some difficulties. W.E.B. Du Bois supported the inclusion of women in the Niagara Movement, William Monroe Trotter did not. Trotter left the movement in 1908 to start his own group, the Negro-American Political League. Although the Niagara movement attracted the attention of like-minded whites, it had very little impact on legislation or national popular opinion.
The Niagara Movement would meet annually until 1908. when a race riot broke out in Springfield, Illinois when a white woman falsely accused a black man of assaulting her to cover up the fact that she had been beaten by her boyfriend. Eight blacks were killed and over 2,000 African Americans fled the city. Black and White activists, including members of the Niagara Movement, felt a new more powerful, interracial organization was now needed to combat racism. Out of this concern, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed. The Niagara Movement adopted many of the goals of the Niagara movement and Du Bois hoped to simply fold the Niagara movement in to the NAACP but Trotter couldn't see a black progress being charted by a majority white organization.
Du Bois joined the central staff of the NAACP in November 1910. Having been instrumental in that group's formation, he became the only African American on its executive board, and, more importantly, director of publications and research. In that position, he assumed control of the Crisis, the official journal of the NAACP.
Check out the full new episode below called the “Souls of Black Folk” about the life of W.E.B Du Bois
Audio
https://link.chtbl.com/ruRHd22w