Leaders

• Ida B Wells:

  • parents were politically active in Reconstruction era and took care that she was educated
  • sued a railroad company for being thrown off a first class train for white people despite having a valid ticket
  • 1913 - founded Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago to encourage AA women to vote
  • excluded from being founder of NAACP by WEB du Bois
• Washington promoted opposition to Jim Crow in secret, but was too concerned about antagonising the white South and ending long term progress in education and economic opportunity.
• Washington was criticised by those who sought more radical aims.
• Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk was first published in 1903.
• Du Bois believed in an elite Talented Tenth who would lead AAs to social and political equality.
• Du Bois became director of research and publicity in the NAACP, the only AA to hold office. He published the influential journal The Crisis.
• Du Bois shifted the attention to the need to publicise civil rights and organise.
• Du Bois’s radicalism meant his interest shifted to international affairs and pan-Africanism.
• Marcus Garvey background:

  • born in Jamaica
  • politically radicalised by support for printer’s strike
  • travelled in central US and studied in London
• Garvey stressed the inherent strength and worth of Africans but was opposed by Du Bois who thought effort should be focused on equal rights within the US, the integration of AA and secure justice and equality.
• Randolph put considerable pressure on Truman to end segregation in the army in 1948.
• On 1 Dec 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, leading to her arrest.