The Impact Of The Niagara Movement

During the time known in America as the period of Jim Crow, after decades of slavery, free African Americans were still tormented with inequality and discrimination. African American people were held under laws and restrictions, unlike privileged white Americans. Jim Crow Laws enabled prejudice to proliferate, which made it difficult for African Americans to prosper. Through this perilous era, there were many campaigns and strategies formed to progress the Freedom Movement, such as the African American Colonization Society, who helped African Americans immigrate to Africa. Additionally, the Niagara Movement, an all black society working toward civil rights frequently came to the aid of African Americans through the Jim Crow period, as black

In 1909, a group of supporters who were white formed a different group that would be even more substantial than the Niagara Movement called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) that adopted the same goals. The NAACP also hired the Niagara Movement leader, W.E.B. DuBois, who became their editor for the "Crisis" Journal as well as the Director of research and publicity (History.com, 2009). The NAACPs membership grew very quickly during the next couple of decades due to its success with advocating the reversal of Plessey vs. Fergusson in 1954 with Brown vs. The Board of

Rosa Parks was a member of the NAACP, lived in Montgomery Alabama, and rode the public bus system. In the south, during this time the buses were segregated which meant that black people had to ride in the back of the bus behind a painted line. White people entered the front of the bus and were compelled to sit in front of the painted line. Most buses at the time had more room for white riders who used the service less than the black ridership. Yet, they could not cross the line even if the seats in the front were empty (Brown-Rose, 2008). Rosa Parks made a bold statement when she sat in the “white section” of a Montgomery bus. She was asked to surrender her seat to a white man, but she did not move and was soon arrested. Her brave action started the Montgomery bus Boycott, with the help of the NAACP, none other than Dr. Martin Luther King’s leadership as part of the Montgomery Improvement Association. As its President, he was able spread the word quickly which brought national attention to the small town of Montgomery’s bus Boycott. The boycott was televised and brought so much attention that the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional; a success spurring a more